It is so great to see John’s blog about the sea-kayaks and how much fun and development they are bringing to VT’s 3-week programme. Funding was raised for the sea-kayaks last year, but they took a while to be delivered and then when they arrived it was not sea-kayaking season! So it’s fantastic to see them being used and enjoyed by all!

The fundraising team have been busy putting out applications for funding - we have a lot of exciting targets like kit and equipment for both Chance for Change programmes, our new Community Mobile Unit projects and Phil’s (the new Community Mobile Manager) conservation education equipment he plans to intergrate into the Mobile programmes - obviously amoungst other things!

In June, VT met with Evaluation Support Scotland (ESS) to receive advice on developing an evaluation policy that supports both what we as an organisation hope to achieve, but also what the funders want evaluated as outcomes of projects funded. ESS have been incredibly helpful and have directed us to developing the draft of a policy which I believe, will be of enormous benefit to Venture Trust as a whole.

The Edinburgh office is buzzing and it seems to be growing constantly. Originally it was just Greg, Mags, Louise and I, but since June, Phil has come on board, and just last week, Lorna (Greg’s new PA) started work with us. In additional we’ve had two “beautiful” (debatable by the level of love you have for IT on whether that is the appropriate word) servers installed by Brian (our IT consultant) which allows us to back-up securely and enjoy the use of a shared network drive. Honestly, this is all really exciting stuff!

I think that is really all the news from Fundraising and the Edinburgh office so cheerio for now!