Support us

Past Projects

MEL England

Mali Enterprising Leaders (MEL) England Programme is a capacity support and development programme targeted to the needs of micro and small Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic led voluntary and community organisations who have been impacted on negatively by the pandemic.

Mali is from Swahili which means ‘of Value’ or ‘Precious’. 

The programme’s name, Mali Enterprising Leaders, denotes ‘someone or something of value to our community.' It also tries to capture the enterprising nature of community-based leadership which encourages us to develop our ideas and put them into action, with the main resource being ourselves and other people in our communities.

The aim of MEL England is to enhance and raise the voice of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic led community and voluntary organisations through the building of confidence, knowledge, capacity and capabilities, including networking opportunities. We will implement programmes of intensive support offered to 62 organisations, nationally and regionally focused.

MEL England is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, Civil Society Roots Fund and Charities Aid Foundation.

Capacity support and development webinars

Resources from the webinars we provided:

Fundraising 25 November 2020 Download slides Set 1 & Download slides Set 2

Strategic Planning with Yvonne Witter 27 January 2021 Download slides

Cashflow and Financial Management with Ade Sawyerr 20 January 2021 Download slides | Watch it

Social Impact with Ade Sawyerr 3 February 2021 Download slides

Governance and leadership: Board members, roles and responsibilities with Deborah Robinson and Karl Murray 24 February 2021 Download slides

Alternative to grant making with Gina Osbourne 3 March 2021 Download slides

Using an asset to safely drive your income with Steve Conway 4 March 2021 Download slides

Achieving stakeholders involvement with Ade Swayerr 11 March 2021 Download slides

Does your organisation need to be online? with William Welch 17 March 2021 Download slides

Setting up a community business with Yvonne Witter 20 March 2021 Download slides

Governance and Leadership with Deborah Robinson 24 March 2021 Download slides

1:1 support – Applications are closed

Apply for 1:1 support and development sessions for micro and small Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic led organisations, including individual organisational capacity assessment and the equivalent of 1 day specific organisational support to meet identified needs.

Eligibility Criteria: 

a) Organisations that meets the micro and small organisational size definition by income as follows:

  • Micro organisation: <£10k; and

  • Small organisation: £10 - £50k

b) Organisations that have a leadership board of 51% or more identifying from BAME communities;

c) Organisations must be any of the below organisation types: • Social enterprise (other than CIC);

  • Recognised charity status (CIO or company limited by guarantee)

  • Community Interest Company (CIC)

d) Priority given to organisations that had responded to either Wave 1 or Wave 2 of Ubele’s survey research.

e) Micro and small organisations who were not successful with the CCLORS and Phoenix Fund programmes.

News & Blog

See all

Sign up to receive our news, updates, resources and opportunities.