Charity

The government is preparing to pilot a multimillion-pound grants application portal intended to simplify the process of applying for funding for charities and voluntary sector organisations. The £7.9m project was announced as part of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s 2021 Autumn Budget statement, which promised funding and reliefs worth billions of pounds to the sector. The development

A charity that failed to report that armed groups had seized a warehouse and three of its trucks in Syria has been found guilty of misconduct and mismanagement by the regulator. The Charity Commission opened a compliance case into Human Appeal, a charity set up for the prevention or relief of poverty or financial hardship

Scottish charities with an income of more than £500,000 account for 92 per cent of the total income of all charities in the country, according to new research.  The findings of Scottish Charities 2021, published by the Scottish Charity Regulator, sets out the current state of the country’s charity sector, which has a total income

More than nine in 10 charities in England and Wales do not plan to make any staff redundant in the next 12 months, according to new research. The Covid-19 Survey 2021, published by the Charity Commission, found that nearly all charities (91 per cent) have experienced some negative impact from Covid-19. Most charities made limited

The Charity Commission’s budget will increase by £1.5m next year as part of a new funding settlement announced in Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s 2021 Autumn Budget statement yesterday. The regulator’s operational funding will rise from £28.3m this year to £29.8m in 2022. It will then dip to £29m in 2023, but increase slightly in 2024 to £29.3m.

The Good Law Project has launched legal proceedings against the culture secretary Nadine Dorries, arguing there has been ministerial interference in hiring the new chair of the Charity Commission. The campaign group is seeking a court order to re-run the recruitment process “without political direction from government”, adding: “It’s not the Charity Commission’s job to

More than 30 young climate activists occupied the Science Museum overnight in protest against the charity’s fossil fuel sponsors. The group of activists, scientists and campaigners from the London branch of the UK Student Climate Network were still in the building as the doors opened to the public this morning. The protest followed increased pressure

Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, unveiled his Autumn Budget in the House of Commons today. Sunak has been under pressure to help people with the cost of living as he announced plans that he hopes will transition the economy beyond the pandemic.  Here are some of the main points of his statement that

Just one in 10 people living in areas prioritised for levelling up funding trust central government to make decisions on spending in their communities, according to a new study. YouGov polling for the The Law Family Commission on Civil Society revealed that nearly two-thirds of people in the priority areas want decisions on how to

A preferred candidate for the role of permanent chair of the Charity Commission has been chosen, the government has revealed. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has confirmed that interviews for the role, which had been delayed, have now taken place and said it will announce the identity of the person it wants to take up the position

The national poverty charity Turn2Us has revealed a new brand and strapline chosen to better reflect its purpose. The charity said its new look and refreshed strapline – “Tackling financial insecurity together” – would help it offer support to greater numbers of people affected by financial insecurity, while tackling the symptoms and causes of poverty.

Amnesty International will close two offices in Hong Kong by the end of 2021, after warning that a national security law is putting the charity’s employees at risk. An office focused on human rights education in Hong Kong will cease operations at the end of October, while a regional office that forms part of the

Rachael Maskell, the shadow charities minister, has questioned why there has been a delay in the government appointing a new permanent chair of the Charity Commission. The Labour and Co-operative MP for York Central asked culture secretary Nadine Dorries about the delay in a written parliamentary question at the end of last week. Baroness Stowell,

The Alzheimer’s Society’s overall income broadly held up last year thanks to an almost 25 per cent rise in individual giving and £4.5m from the government’s furlough scheme.  The charity’s latest annual accounts, for the year to the end of March, show it had a total income of £111.1m, a fall of £2.7m on the

Charity leaders have backed a call for a cross-sector strategy to plug a “data chasm” that is leaving some in the sector “operating in the dark”. A new report for the Law Family Commission on Civil Society, a two-year initiative that was launched in December to examine how the potential of civil society can be unlocked across

HIV Scotland has been fined £10,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office after sending an email that could have revealed the HIV status of dozens of people.  The ICO said it had issued the fine after the charity sent an email in February last year with all recipients’ addresses visible to 105 people, including patient advocates

A number of temporary provisions put in place to help charities navigate the coronavirus pandemic have come to an end. As the pandemic hit in March last year the regulator issued new guidance acknowledging that the nature of Covid-19 meant it might be necessary to cancel or postpone critical meetings, events and annual general meetings on

Amanda Khozi Mukwashi is to step down as chief executive of Christian Aid to take up a new role at the United Nations. Khozi Mukwashi, who joined Christian Aid in April 2018, said she would leave the charity at the end of the year to take up her new position in early 2022. Further details

A youth volunteering charity that closed in 2018 is set to merge with the education charity Speakers for Schools. The charity said it could not disclose the cost of the merger for commercial reasons, but confirmed that it intended to invest in vInspired’s services and brands, alongside its portfolio of programmes. This will include the

A youth volunteering charity that closed in 2018 is set to merge with the education charity Speakers for Schools. The charity said it could not disclose the cost of the merger for commercial reasons, but confirmed that it intended to invest in vInspired’s services and brands, alongside its portfolio of programmes. This will include the

Cats Protection has appointed Charles Darley as interim chief executive for the next year. Darley, who took up the role on 6 October, succeeds James Yeates, who left the animal welfare charity in September to take up the top job at the World Federation for Animals, an international membership body for animal protection organisations. Cats

The Fundraising Regulator plans to review the Code of Fundraising Practice next year with a focus on digital and including raising money on platforms that are not charitable.  Gerald Oppenheim, chief executive of the Fundraising Regulator, discussed the organisation’s ongoing priorities for regulation earlier today at an online conference run by Westminster Policy Forum. Oppenheim

The government has abandoned plans to make the British Council an exempt charity.  The Conservative peer Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts had tabled a motion that would have expressed his opposition to the move, but said the motion had been shelved because the proposal it referred to had been withdrawn. Third Sector was subsequently told

The former boss of the charity UK Youth has accepted the chief executive job at London’s biggest food redistribution charity. Charlotte Hill, who will join The Felix Project in January, succeeds Mark Curtin, who left the charity in August to become head of the youth cricket and disability sports charity The Lord’s Taverners. Hill was

The police are investigating an allegation of financial fraud at a charity that runs a large Birmingham mosque. West Midlands Police said they were looking at a report made last week relating to the financial arrangements of Dar UI Uloom Islamia Rizvia charity, which runs the Central Jamia Mosque Ghamkol Sharif in Small Heath.  The

David Knott, interim chief executive of the National Lottery Community Fund, has been appointed to the role on a permanent basis. Knott, who has been interim chief executive at the grant-maker since June, joined the NLCF as a senior adviser in October 2020 on secondment from his substantive role as director of the Office for

Save the Children is not about to start changing its name, the aid charity’s chief executive has said.   Gemma Sherrington, the charity’s director of fundraising and marketing, told delegates at Third Sector’s annual Fundraising Conference in June that Save was having “a very live conversation” about its name at a time when the aid sector was

The government is being urged to appoint a philanthropy commissioner and create a funding pot to run civil society infrastructure pilots in levelling up priority areas. The Law Family Commission on Civil Society, a two-year initiative launched by Pro Bono Economics in December last year to examine how the potential of civil society can be

The British Heart Foundation’s London to Brighton bike ride will return next year for the first time since 2019, the charity has announced.  The event, which usually raises millions of pounds for the charity, has been cancelled for the past two years because of the coronavirus pandemic.  In January, the charity decided to call off

Civil society should harness data to emulate the success of platform economies to help tackle the challenges facing post-pandemic society, delegates at the think tank NPC’s annual conference have heard.  Julia Unwin, chair of the Independent Inquiry on the Future of Civil Society, closed the last day of NPC’s online conference yesterday with a keynote presentation