Our Events

Black Mountain – Financial Resilience for Small Charities

Training Session

04/11/2026

Register here

Black Mountain – Financial Resilience for Small Charities

This practical half-day session is one of 10 Financial Resilience training sessions for small charities taking place across Northern Ireland.

Designed specifically for organisations with an annual income under £500,000, the session will provide practical tools and guidance to help you strengthen your organisation’s financial resilience and build greater sustainability for the future.

This session will take place in BLACK MOUNTAIN and includes lunch, with plenty of opportunity for discussion and shared learning with other small charity leaders.

Thanks to the support of Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland, these workshops are free for both CO3 members and non-members.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT OR REGISTER TO OTHER LOCATIONS

Who is it for?

CEO, Senior Leaders, Trustees, Interim Executive

Date: 04/11/2026

Time: 11:30 - 2:30pm

Venue: Black Mountain Shared Space, 280 Ballygomartin Road, Belfast BT13 3NG

Register here

For small charities, financial resilience isn’t just about managing a budget. It’s about having the confidence, knowledge and practical tools to make better financial decisions, strengthen your funding position and build an organisation that can sustain its work for the long term.

In partnership with Halifax Foundation for Northern Ireland, CO3 is bringing a series of 10 practical Financial Resilience workshops to communities across Northern Ireland between November 2026 and March 2027.

Designed specifically for small charities and organisations with an annual income under £500,000, each half-day session will bring together a small group of local leaders for practical learning, funding guidance and peer support.

Register here
By the end of the session, you will:
  • Have a clearer understanding of what financial resilience looks like for a small charity
  • Be able to identify your organisation’s key financial strengths, risks and vulnerabilities
  • Understand practical ways to strengthen your financial sustainability
  • Have tools and approaches you can apply directly within your organisation
  • Feel more confident making financial decisions and planning for the future
  • Leave with clear next steps to improve your organisation’s financial resilience
Who will benefit most?

This session is designed for leaders and senior team members of small charities with an annual income under £500,000, particularly those who:

  • Have responsibility for their organisation’s finances, sustainability or strategic planning
  • Want to build greater financial resilience and confidence
  • Are navigating limited resources or financial uncertainty
  • Want practical approaches they can apply within a small organisation
  • Would value learning and sharing experiences with other small charity leaders
Register here
This session is great for you if...
  • You lead or work for a small charity with an annual income under £500,000
  • You want to strengthen your organisation’s financial resilience
  • You’re looking for practical ways to build a more sustainable financial future
  • You want to feel more confident making financial decisions for your organisation
  • You’d benefit from practical tools and guidance you can take back and apply
  • You want to connect and learn alongside other leaders from small charities facing similar challenges

This session will be facilitated by…

Helen Surgenor

Consultant

With a background in marketing, communications and event management, Helen Surgenor’s career in fundraising spans more than 30 years from starting as a schools’ fundraiser for NSPCC in Belfast to working for Cancer Research UK and Queen’s University Belfast, where she established the health fundraising team within the Development & Alumni Relations office. Helen has led high performing fundraising teams in three Universities across the UK and has experience of major gifts/philanthropy, community fundraising, regular giving, legacies and Trusts & Foundations. Helen has been working as a consultant since 2021, helping local charities to develop new income streams.

Cancer Fund for Children

Siobhan Hanley

Cancer Fund for Children

Siobhán is Director of Development and Communications, responsible for leading Cancer Fund for Children’s fundraising and communications team to strategically deliver on our ambition to ensure no child faces cancer alone. Siobhán has over 23 years’ experience in the not-for-profit sector, primarily in income generation, marketing & communications, strategy, team development and in the recent past has held wider senior leadership positions. Siobhán has led successful and award-winning teams in health and international development charities and is an experienced fundraiser and communications professional. Siobhán is focused on optimising sustainable income across a diverse range of sources and in continuing to expand our reach, visibility, impact, and awareness to ensure that Cancer Fund for Children has the resources it needs to support, children, young people and families impacted by cancer across the island of Ireland.

Social Enterprise NI

James Laverty

Social Enterprise NI

An experienced funding and third sector professional with over 25 years’ experience across heritage, education, community and voluntary organisations. Currently a Project Officer with Social Enterprise NI on the PEACEPLUS-funded RiSE (Rural Innovation in Social Enterprise) project, supporting rural innovation and social enterprise across Northern Ireland and the Border Counties. Alongside this role, James provides consultancy in grant-making, funding assessment, capacity building, stakeholder engagement and fundraising strategy. Previous roles include Grants Manager for Belfast Charitable Society and the James Kane Foundation and Engagement Manager at the National Lottery Heritage Fund. James holds an Advanced Diploma in Social Enterprise and bring extensive experience across Trusts, Foundations, EU, Lottery, international and council funding, as well as more than 20 years’ involvement with the Chartered Institute of Fundraising NI.

What Members Say About CO3

We’re delighted to get behind the financial resilience programme who, which will support a range of charity leaders from the small right through to the large, will really help give them the skills to be strong and be there for their communities for as long as they’re needed.

As a chief executive it is a very lonely job at times, particularly in small charities and Northern Ireland has got many small charities. So when you feel that loneliness or isolation, the one thing that CO3 brought was the ability to go and chat to somebody, whether it be a mentor or whether it be just another chief exec to bounce off.

Kate Fleck
Member of the Board, OCN NI

CO3 offer a wide range of courses for middle, middle managers, senior managers and chief executives within the third sector. Some of the programmes include the Leading Edge programme, there’s other leadership programmes available and then they also offer some micro learning sessions around how to present things like finances to your board of directors, reviewing your governance structure within the organisation and they would bring in some expert facilitators to deliver those sessions as well.

Martin Flynn
CEO, OCN NI

We’re delighted to get behind the financial resilience programme who, which will support a range of charity leaders from the small right through to the large, will really help give them the skills to be strong and be there for their communities for as long as they’re needed.

As a chief executive it is a very lonely job at times, particularly in small charities and Northern Ireland has got many small charities. So when you feel that loneliness or isolation, the one thing that Co Three brought was the ability to go and chat to somebody, whether it be a mentor or whether it be just another chief exec to bounce off.

Kate Fleck
Member of the Board, OCN NI

“CO3 is always a great network for support, for encouragement, for advice, answers to tricky questions when you're really, really stuck. Overall, it's been a fantastic network of colleagues who are always there for guidance and encouragement whenever things are really tough.”

Karen Collins
Chief Executive, Aware NI

“It is so valuable having other people who are in a similar position that you can network with, you can share problems with, you can ask advice. And so my whole career, CO3 has been really, really important to me in providing those things.”

Roger Courtney
Founder & Director, Roger Courtney Consulting

“I think for me the CO3 is a safe space just to have a chat, to make connections and also to learn from other people who are in a similar position in their career as you are.”

Lisa Keys
Chief Executive, Northern Ireland Boys’ Brigade

View more testimonials
Find Us on Find my Business. | Powered by N.I Technology Ltd. | Design by Techdesk C.I.C | SEO by The SEO Doctor.