Charity

Charities facing financial difficulty due to Covid-19 can make use of a free new decision-making tool created by a law firm in consultation with the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. The tool set up by the specialist law firm Bates Wells, aims to guide charities and social enterprises through a number of difficult decisions based

The MP in charge of reviewing the sector’s role in the UK’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic has said that business has a big role to play, and that more must be done to encourage giving among the super-rich who “give peanuts”. Danny Kruger, the Conservative MP for Devizes and former charity leader, was being

Charities are being invited to apply for a share of a £5m fund designed to help them improve their digital capabilities.  The funding, which is being provided by the National Lottery Community Fund in partnership with the technology charity Cast, will be provided in a mix of grants and support worth up to a maximum

The poverty relief charity Penny Appeal has raised a serious incident report with the Charity Commission after reports of a safeguarding issue at a local community-based organisation in Gambia. The charity was set up in 2009 to provide poverty relief in Asia, the Middle East and Africa by offering water solutions, organising mass feedings, supporting

Cancer Research UK is launching a socially distant version of its flagship Race for Life event that supporters can take part in next month.  The charity raised £35m in 2018/19 through Race for Life, which normally consists of 5km, 10km and mud obstacle course events that participants are sponsored to take part in. In April,

Charities are being urged to consider applying to take part in a body that advises the government on public health issues.  The Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Health and Wellbeing Alliance, which consists of about 20 voluntary sector and other partners, aims to ensure the lived experiences of the people they represent are reflected in

Sector leaders are calling for charities to move on from the demands of applying for emergency funding and back into more conventional cycles so they can begin to plan for the long term. A briefing produced by the Institute for Voluntary Action Research and called Between a Rock and a Hard Place, is informed by

A £1m fund that will support BAME charities and grassroots organisations through the coronavirus pandemic has opened for applications.  The Phoenix Fund will offer up to £20,000 in grant funding to BAME-led organisations with annual incomes of up to £100,000 in England.  The scheme will offer core funding to BAME groups and aims to raise

Breast Cancer Now has made 45 redundancies and will close its Edinburgh office after income dropped by an estimated £16m this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The charity, which employs 300 staff and funds a third of all breast cancer research in the UK, said it had no choice but to look at changes

Text donations through telethon events are expected to “reach saturation” over the next few years, an official report has predicted.  The Annual Market Review for Phone-Paid Services, written by the research firm Analysys Mason and published by the Phone-Paid Services Authority, predicts a bumpy future for charity donations by text over the next three years. 

In the three years since Third Sector last completed its diversity study, relatively little has changed at the top of the 50 featured fundraising charities. The proportion of chief executives who identify as black, Asian, minority ethnic or “other” (rather than white) has risen only slightly from 12 per cent in 2017 to 16 per

Arts charities in England are being invited to apply for loans of £3m or more to help them return to sustainable operations in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. The £270m repayable finance scheme is part of the government’s £1.6bn package to protect the UK’s culture and heritage sectors from the economic impacts of Covid-19.

One in five charities in Scotland are facing a critical threat to their finances and will be unable to operate at some point over the next 12 months as a result of the coronavirus crisis, a major new survey shows. A survey of almost 5,000 charities by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator https://www.oscr.org.uk/

The UK’s largest union has accused the RSPCA of an “uncaring and blinkered” approach and an “abject failure of leadership” in its handling of the charity’s redundancy consultation process. Earlier this week, the animal welfare charity confirmed it would be cutting 269 jobs as part of a restructure accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic following a

Sadler’s Wells theatre has opened a consultation with staff over proposals that put more than a quarter of its staff at risk of redundancy because of the coronavirus outbreak.  The world famous dance venue said the continued closure of its venues and uncertainty about when they could fully reopen meant it had been forced to

Blended grant funding worth £4m is being made available to be used alongside the Resilience and Recovery Loan Fund to support charities in England affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Resilience and Recovery Loan Fund was set up to provide emergency loans to affected social enterprises and charities without requiring personal guarantees and charging no fees

Non-commercial medical research spending has fallen by £310m during the coronavirus outbreak and could take over four years to return to pre-crisis levels, an umbrella body has warned. The Association of Medical Research Charities said that without any financial support its members were projecting a 41 per cent decrease in spend over the next year.

Social investment helps improve the financial performance of charities and social enterprises, an analysis of the £142n Futurebuilders England Fund has found.  The government-backed social investment fund provided loan finance to more than 400 social sector organisations in England between 2004 and 2010 to help them win and deliver public service contracts.  The Social Investment Business has

A third of charities believe they will need to make redundancies over the next year but the figure could be far higher, new research indicates.  Research carried out by the charity leaders body Acevo and the Centre for Mental Health shows 33 per cent of the 85 charities surveyed said they expected to have to

The cancer charity Penny Brohn UK has appointed Julie Worrall as its next chief executive.  Worrall, who 15 years ago was diagnosed with stage four cancer of the ovary, is director of fundraising and development at Above and Beyond, the charity of University Hospitals Bristol NHS Trust.  She will succeed Laura Kerby, who took up the

The immigration and asylum support charity Consonant will close this month following financial difficulties exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis – but says it will be able to save some of its services. In May the charity launched a crowdfunding campaign that aimed to raise £40,000 to keep its doors open, but has so far only

Around 10 per cent of grants by UK foundations are going to small, unregistered organisations, yet these crucial ‘below the radar’ organisations are often overlooked, according to a report by 360Giving. The new research produced by 360Giving, which campaigns for open data on grantmaking, in partnership with the Local Trust and the National Council for

Almost a third of UK adults believe charity shops will be more important to society than ever in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, providing job opportunities and much-needed funding, a survey from the British Heart Foundation has revealed. According to a June survey of more than 2,000 consumers aged 16 and above, carried out

St John Ambulance has announced plans to close 117 of its 352 buildings with immediate effect, as the charity grapples with a financial deficit of £20 million caused by the coronavirus pandemic.  The measure, announced on Wednesday, comes alongside additional measures including furloughing almost half of the charity’s employed workforce, stopping pay increases, pausing projects,

Bosses at two of the UK’s largest disability charities have denied claims they plan to merge as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Scope and Leonard Cheshire have rejected a report in The i newspaper that they had held “advanced merger talks” as repercussions from Covid-19 continue to impact the voluntary and not-for-profit sector. The i said

Mencap could miss out on £1.5m as a result of the decision to limit the 2020 Virgin London Marathon to elite runners only.  The learning disability charity was the official charity partner of this years’ event which was pushed back from its usual date in April until 4 October as a result of the pandemic.  But

Charities should take advantage of relaxed laws around board and general meetings, or enact compliance measures, as soon as possible to ensure there are no future governance issues when the provisions end next month, a legal expert has advised.  Speaking to Third Sector, Nicola Evans, charities counsel at law firm BDP Pitmans, warned organisations must not “bank

The London Marathon has confirmed that its 40th race, originally due to take place on Sunday 4 October 2020, will not go ahead in the traditional mass-participation format. In an announcement made on the Virgin Money London Marathon website, organisers said that elite athletes would be able to compete in the marathon on an enclosed

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations has today announced plans to appoint a subcommittee to its board of trustees that will focus on equity, diversity and inclusion, as part of a wider EDI action plan. According to a statement released by the umbrella body, the committee will meet at least four times a year and

The coronavirus pandemic is bringing change to the UK voluntary sector in a never-before-seen fashion, with research from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, the Institute of Fundraising and the Charity Finance Group warning UK charities are facing a shortfall of more than £12bn this year because of the outbreak. The pandemic has accelerated some