Jobs:[Full-time] Head of Campaign, Research and Stewardship at King's College London See more on our Job Board.
Consultation on Small Donations
Friday, May 11th, 2012
The Small Donations Bill was the main piece of charitably-focussed legislation in the Queen’s Speech and is currently out for consultation. The aim is to help small cash donors to small charities get tax relief, because Gift Aid is an administrative burden. In practice, it looks like a roundabout way of giving £1,250 to every rugby club and church hall in the country. Encouraging take-up whilst avoiding fraud will be a difficult line to walk. READ MORE
On selling a charity
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
The College of Law was established as a charity in 1962 to improve legal education. It has a Royal Charter and the power to award degrees. Last week, it sold its main activity to a private equity firm, using the £200m proceeds to endow a new foundation that will award scholarships to legal students. The Charity Commission and HE authorities have said they are happy. This is an important precedent and a very real example of how the distinction between public, private and civil society are increasingly unclear. READ MORE
What is the tax relief cap?
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
The government claims to be keen to change the culture of giving in this country, especially among major philanthropists. So it’s strange to see a major tax change that makes it less attractive for people to give big gifts. It’s also strange how little coverage this has received. This may be because no-one can accurately price the impact of the change (or even understand it, as the article suggests). Nor is anybody effectively making the case for the sector. Maybe everyone should club together and hire the PR team working on the pasty tax? READ MORE
Where there’s money, there’s influence
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
The BIG Lottery fund have distributed £3.4bn to the third sector over the last 15 years. They have just published a piece of research assessing their impact on the sector beyond the money. It looks at factors such as engagement, transparency, intelligence and independence. More funders should think about these issues. READ MORE
Best to borrow?
Monday, November 28th, 2011
Lots of comments this week were triggered by the new report into social investment by NPC. On one hand, there’s definitely room for more innovative thinking about how causes get funded. The lines between donation and innovation will blur and that’s probably a good thing. On the other hand, ‘social investment’ could be expensive debt that is pushed onto recipients who don’t understand it, don’t have the capacity to absorb it or the capability to repay it. Last time that happened we called it sub-prime. An important read. READ MORE
An open letter from the Minister
Monday, October 17th, 2011
Nick Hurd, the Minister for Civil Society, has written an ‘open letter’ to civil society outlining the ‘strategic framework’ in which recent decisions sit. Is there anything new in it? Not really. It’s a progress report on the original Cabinet Office strategy document. So why write it now? You get a strong sense that the government wants to remind you about their positive strategy for civil society and that it is about more than just cuts. In places, it is an interesting agenda. Unfortunately, it’s getting drowned out by all the cuts. READ MORE
Funding for mergers
Friday, September 30th, 2011
At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, there are not enough mergers in the UK charity sector and certainly too few taken for good strategic reasons. This week saw the merger of the No Smoking Day charity with the BHF, driven mostly by the fact that they had run out of money. So it’s good to see a US fund offer real grants (of up to $250k) offering to cover the “unavoidable but uninspiring” costs of mergers. This is progressive thinking – it would be great to see a UK funder do this. READ MORE
False Economy
Friday, August 5th, 2011
The group “False Economy” managed to generate a lot of press this week with their research into the aggregated cuts being faced by the charity sector in the UK. It’s a model of a modern campaign: lots of open data, released transparently; smart use of FoI requests; and some big headline grabbing analysis. Read more.
The Big Squeeze
Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Research from LVSC shows that over half of those London organisations surveyed have closed services in the last year and 54% expect to cut further next year. There’s a sense that lots of the smaller organisations out there, especially those providing preventative and advice services, are in an increasingly precarious position. Read more.
Confidence low among CEOs
Friday, April 1st, 2011
The new NCVO Charity Forecast paints a fairly bleak picture of the sector. 55% of CEOs surveyed plan to reduce staff numbers in the next quarter and 35% of charities expect to decrease the level of services they provide. The cuts that were promised are starting to bite. In business, the common view is that your chances of long-term success are better if you cut early and deep rather than too little, too late. In our experience, charities often don’t make tough choices until the last minute. In practice, that can mean no choice at all. Read more.