Thank you to our sponsors

Our workshop sponsor: FundingConnect

‍ ‍

FundingConnect is an all-in-one grant management platform, built specifically for Local Authorities, charities, and housing associations, that helps organisations receive, assess and distribute funding to those who need it most. 

The all-in-one platform brings together automated eligibility checks, integrated workflows, AI assistance and advanced impact reporting to make it easier for organisations to streamline the delivery of swift and secure community support. Our first-line customer support team is on hand to guide applicants through the process, answer questions, and ensure opportunities for everyone to access support that is available to them. FundingConnect is your end-to-end solution that makes it easier for you to manage, assess and provide the support your community needs.

Find us here :Fundingconnect.com  LinkedIn

Charis has been managing the distribution of financial support, products and services to vulnerable households and community projects for over 20 years.
Efficient and effective delivery of your support The Charis Shop saves you time and maximises the use of your funding, letting you focus on what really matters – providing your support.
The one stop e-commerce platform enables hundreds of partners to streamline the delivery of their support to households struggling with financial challenges, ill-health, disabilities or life-affecting circumstances.
From energy vouchers to energy-efficient appliances, soft furnishings to furniture, retail vouchers to digital devices our product range reflects the disparate and changing needs of individuals and families. And CharisPay is now live - you can make real-time cash payments directly into people’s bank accounts. The Charis Shop is simple to use, secure and there are no management fees.
Scheme management

Charis has been managing support schemes, foundations and charitable trusts for not-for-profit organisations and utility companies since 2003. We have been running our own Ofgem regulated Industry Initiatives since 2015. Each scheme is white-labelled and tailored to reflect the target audience, support avenues, eligibility criteria and available funding, and delivered with a combination of sophisticated software, vulnerability-led human intervention and process efficiency.

Outsourcing scheme management to Charis enables you to focus on your strategic intent, rather than the operational detail. This saves time and costs and helps you optimise the distribution of your support. Schemes we currently deliver include the Park Homes Warm Home Discount scheme, Let’s Talk Energy Fund, GroceryAid School Essentials Grant and more.

The Money Advice Trust is a national charity working to prevent financial difficulty and remove problem debt from people’s lives. 

The Money Advice Trust offers engaging and accredited training for debt advisers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland through Wiseradviser. Wiseradviser training courses cover a wide range, from flexible e-learning that you can complete at your own pace, to virtual courses and webinars which provide engaging experience from leading experts.

For more information, visit moneyadvicetrust.org

PayPlan is a free debt advice service that supports 4500 clients every week with free and confidential advice and access to a full range of debt solutions.  PayPlan has partnered with Citizens Advice for over two decades, collaborating on referral pathways, training and trusted solutions to enhance each organisations offering. 

Octopus Legacy, part of the Octopus Group, helps people plan for death and find support after loss. We've supported over 700,000 people with wills, estate planning and bereavement care.

Every year, around a quarter of working-age people in the UK are bereaved — and for many, the first person they speak to about it isn't a funeral director, it's an advisor, because there's no money yet to pay for one. Frontline and service-facing teams are often the ones helping someone through a debt, benefits or housing problem in the days after a death, at exactly the moment they're least able to navigate it.

We run CPD-accredited training that gives those teams the tools and confidence to support bereaved clients with care — alongside training for HR, L&D and people leaders on supporting colleagues through their own bereavement, including what the law will require from 2027, when unpaid bereavement leave becomes a day-one right. Training is designed and built around each organisation's own teams after a scoping conversation. We'd welcome the chance to talk to organisations at the event about what would be most useful for their teams.

Trinity College London, established in 1872, is a leading international awarding organisation, publisher and independent education charity. We specialise in the assessment of communicative and performance skills covering Music, Drama, Art, English language and TESOL.  Trinity is approved by UKVI to administer Secure English Language Tests (SELTs) for visa purposes, and is recognised for the high level of service and commitment to candidates requiring a SELT.

Unity Trust Bank is an award-winning, independent commercial bank that businesses can be proud to bank with. For over 40 years we have been helping organisations to prosper and contribute to positive economic, social, and environmental change. Put simply, our purpose is to create a better society. We provide exceptional sustainable banking services for organisations that share our principles of acting with integrity and only lend to creditworthy organisations that share our values and have had a quantifiable impact on their local communities. Our loyal customer base continues to grow, and our ambition is to become the bank of choice for all socially minded organisations in the UK.

WorkNest is a leading provider of employment law, HR and health & safety support, helping organisations navigate workplace challenges with expert advice and practical solutions. With a team of experienced advisers and legal professionals, WorkNest supports employers to manage risk, stay compliant and build better workplaces.

Our Awards Sponsor: Charis

Our External Exhibitors..

Charity Exhibitors

‍ ‍

The Institute of Money Advisers is the only professional membership body for debt advisers in the free-to-client sector.  Established as a charity in 2006, our mission is to promote the interests of debt advisers and their clients by raising standards, supporting free quality advice, and championing consumer protection.

Since 2019, we have been publishing research into issues affecting debt advice services, including this year’s Understanding workforce diversity and EDI in the debt advice sector and our third longitudinal report into debt adviser workloads and wellbeing. 

 To mark our 20th anniversary, we launched the IMA Mentoring Programme, which connects less experienced advisers with experienced Accredited IMA members, providing confidential support, guidance and encouragement to help advisers develop professionally and achieve their career goals.

Our mission: Ending UK Fuel Crisis

Our vision is of a UK where it’s possible for everyone who prepays for energy to have uninterrupted access to the heat, light, and power they need to live healthily and happily, and to fulfil their potential. While we’re influencing that system change, we take action today. We provide emergency fuel top‑ups when people run out of money and are at risk of losing access to energy altogether. And we offer advice and support that helps them build stability and avoid reaching crisis point again. 

How we help: When a customer runs out of money to top up their prepayment meter or fuel store, they face living without access to heat, light, and power. We help them escape fuel crisis today and avoid it in the future. 

The SDAS team provides second tier specialist debt advice to free to client services across England and Wales. Money and Pensions Service fund the service. You can access the service for advice by webchat, telephone or email. The team support front line advisers nationally, on complex debt issues, in order to upskill and improve the confidence of advisers. This is so they may be able to answer the question/s themselves next time they come across a similar client issue.

The team also produce online resources, including a monthly bulletin which is free to subscribe to and a debt section on the Shelter Legal website. We provide a Question-and-Answer section in the Quarterly Account journal as well as a legal update in the LAG publication. SDAS have recently launched their first podcast with more to follow. We can also be found at conferences delivering workshops and Money Advice Groups providing legal updates to the debt sector. The team have access to Lexis Nexis which provides excellent resources to provide advice to our users. The team of 12 advisers and 2 team leaders have a wealth of debt knowledge, and many have worked in an advice setting before joining the SDAS team.

Our internal exhibitors

• Branding and Marketing team

• Research and Campaign team

• Governance team

• The Women’s Equity group

• TNB and LGBTQ+ Equity group

• REACH Equity group

• Digital Advice team

• Energy Team

• Network Finance team

• Service oversight & compliance team

• Frontline Referrals, Citizens Advice Uttlesford

• Strategy team

• Volunteering team

Cath Wohlers has been Operations Manager at the England Illegal Money Lending Team (IMLT) since 2008. She oversees the section of the team that work with people who have borrowed from Loan Sharks, works on prevention and reporting projects and researches why people borrow from Loan Sharks. The IMLT have a 98% success rate in prosecuting Loan Sharks and have supported over 32,000 people who were victims of this crime.