Bubb floats merger of Capacitybuilders and Futurebuilders

Finance | Gareth Jones | 1 Apr 2008

Acevo chief executive Stephen Bubb has proposed that funding organisations Futurebuilders and Capacitybuilders should discuss a merger or alliance in order to help cut the number of bodies in the sector.

Bubb (pictured) today began his new role as chairman of Futurebuilders, by virtue of his existing chairmanship of the Adventure Capital Fund, the organisation which recently won the bid to run the Futurebuilders fund.

He explains in his latest blog post how a note from outgoing Capacitybuilders chief executive Simon Hebditch prompted him to consider the relationship between the two organisations.

He adds that while in Manchester last week a Capacitybuilders trustee and acevo member had suggested a joint board meeting to discuss working together.

Stating his belief that there is “at the very least” scope for more joint working as both organisations “are in the business of capacity building”, Bubb declares that he will pursue the idea, but only after emailing Chris Pond, chair of Capacitybuilders, for his view.

'Just an idea'

Speaking to Charity News Alert, Bubb was keen to emphasise that at this stage he was only making a suggestion.

“This was just an idea that I wanted to float on my blog, I’ve no idea whether it’s sensible or not.

“However, both organisations are about building capacity in the sector, so it makes a lot of sense to have one organisation, or the two organisations working much closer together.”

He added that acevo had always believed in a concentration of funding bodies.

“We never thought the hubs were the best way to deliver funding, indeed we thought there was a case for a third sector equivalent of the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) in local government.

“Indeed there may be other organisations who might want to think of merging into a really strong body working for the sector.”

Directory: Capacitybuilders | Futurebuilders England
Who's Who: Gareth Jones

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