Who We Are
Our History
In March 2020, due to COVID-19 offices were shut down and we began a journey of working from different locations removed from day to day physically being together. The impact on the development sector was critical - funding streams ceased and many funders asked charities to cut their overheads.
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In June 2020, a working group of 8 people from different international charities formed to raise the voices of small charities working across borders as many felt they were forgotten. In our first survey, 51% of participants expressed they did not feel supported and, although their funding had dropped dramatically, the need for support had increased. This was the beginning of a new era for SIDCN as local media picked up on the numbers and survey results which led to SIDCN being featured in many news articles and evening newscasts.
In September 2020 another survey was conducted in the network to gain a better insight into the financial implications of COVID-19 and the decrease in funding. 85% of participants reported COVID had a negative impact on their organisations with an average loss of 33% income per charity.
There are 10,000+ registered small charities in the UK working internationally. We believe small charities have the biggest impact at a grassroots level - changing dynamics of development and delivering on the vision for empowered people and communities.
Moving forward our role is to connect members, enable peer to peer engagement building impact, amplification of member influence through showing their impactful work to stakeholders whilst supporting our members to empower individuals around the globe and champion locally-led development.
