Get Involved!
BCP is a Social Enterprise and membership organisation. To support the work we do we need your involvement.
Through our membership offer, our challenge is to ensure we provide a structure that:
A) Meets all organisations' needs regardless of sector and size
B) Is cost effective for BCP to administer
C) Has clearly defined benefits.
Membership runs annually from January 1st to December 31st, with pro rata arrangements for those joining during the year.
Membership Fees for all organisations with:
- No paid staff £25.
- 1-10 employees: £85.
- 11-50 employees: £125.
- 51-100 employees: £150.
- Over 100 employees: £200.
- Funders: Membership included in grant provided.
- Sponsors: Larger organisations will be encouraged to become sponsors, in exchange for a package of benefits, including their own named award and full access to services.
A one-off administration fee of £25 for all new members will be charged.
All members will receive the following:
- Monthly e-bulletins which include: the latest news on ethical and corporate responsibility issues; our diary of events; networking opportunities; space for you to promote your organisation's events and achievements
- Electronic Directory of Members where you can promote your organisation and can make links with other like minded organisations
- Online resources—our new website will be launched in the next few months and will have a members only area with a range of resources to support your organisation develop corporate responsibility policies and practice; ethical guides; social enterprise support; and general advice and information
- Skills Exchange — all members have access to two 1 hour professional advice and support surgeries per year
- Access to our AGM with Vote
- Cases studies on our website
- BCP logo – You can display the BCP logo on your organisations publicity
- 15% Discount for all other BCP services and activities (except Skills Exchange)
BCP Events, Services and Activities
These events will be open to members and non-members:
Networking and Workshops
Cross Sector Networking events – you have told us how much you enjoy and get out of networking, and that the real difference and value of BCP events is the chance to mix with other sectors, public, private, social enterprise and community and voluntary. We will continue to provide a range of themed cross sector networking events throughout the year. These will be advertised in our monthly e-bulletin and through a diary of events available on our website.
Workshops/training events – an annual programme of workshops and events promoting social enterprise, corporate responsibility, social accounting, ethical practices and other topics you tell us you want are planned throughout the year. We engage specialists from all sectors to lead our events which are also another great way to get involved in cross sector networking.
Social Enterprise support, advice and information – we will continue to provide our range of specialist support to emerging and existing social enterprises. We will expand our activities as part of the Social Enterprise Hive at Brighton Junction in conjunction with the Ethical Property Company and will over the coming months be developing a range of other areas of support including social impact assessment, social accounting and development support. We will continue to provide our specialist e-bulletin and support the More than Profit Network.
Employee Volunteering:
Team building challenges – our core activity of brokering team building challenges will continue. We will provide a programme of off-the-shelf challenges your business can get involved in, as well as bespoke challenges tailor-made to meet an individual organisation's objectives. Participants in challenges gain a range of skills, including team leading, project management, risk assessment, presentation and working with people skills as well as an opportunity to put learning into practice in different environments.
We are working over the summer to expand the training provided to support individuals and groups to gain skills to support their personal development plans. This provides a fantastic, fun and worthwhile opportunity to put in to practice new learning whilst at the same time meeting your company's corporate responsibility targets. Please note that third sector and other community organisations benefitting from challenges are not charged for any part of the challenge activity, although materials maybe charged for or sourced by the community organisation.
Networking challenges – these are the same as the team building challenges but involve individuals from different companies rather than a team from one company. They provide an ideal opportunity for individuals from smaller businesses to get involved in a challenge in the community whilst networking with other employee volunteers and businesses.
Mentoring - Volunteer to be a mentor – employee mentoring to support individuals facing barriers from the labour market is a fantastic way to develop staff, learn new skills and support an individual back into work. Our current mentoring programme is being reviewed to provide more in-depth training for both mentors and mentees. We will be developing a new area of mentoring targeted at employees planning and approaching retirement as part of our extension to our Lifelines project.
Skills Exchange
BCP Skills Exchange (formerly known as ProHelp) – we will continue to broker specific pro-bono support between organisations however the current funding that subsidises this work runs out soon. You have told us how much you value this service and in order to continue delivering it we will need to charge a small administration fee. The professional advice and support you receive will still be free at the point of delivery. You will also have access to 2 free surgeries as part of your membership. We will be expanding the skills exchange to be truly cross sector utilising valuable skills from the third sector and social enterprises to support businesses and vice-versa. We will continue to run our programme of surgeries on specialist topics you tell us you need eg employment issues, strategic planning, marketing and PR etc.
Become a BCP Sponsor and BCP Annual Awards
We already work closely with a number of businesses who provide in-kind and other support to BCP. We will be developing with them and new companies a sponsorship package. A key part of this development is to have an annual awards event where we can celebrate the fantastic achievements of our members. We envisage that the sponsorship package will include, in addition to all the usual member benefits above:
- Specific company named award at annual event.
- A page dedicated to each sponsor in the members' directory.
- Information and logos published on our website.
- Sponsors details included in all publicity materials.
- Receive a tailor-made package of services and activities agreed annually and account managed by a member of BCP staff.
If you have any questions about our new membership scheme, our services and activities, or are interested in joining, please contact membership@bhbcp.org.uk, or call 01273 770075.
