Charity

The disability charity Leonard Cheshire has appointed Ruth Owen as its next chief executive.  She has been chief executive of Whizz-Kidz, which provides equipment such as powered wheelchairs for disabled children and young people, since 2004.  Owen, who has been a wheelchair user since she was seven, will succeed Neil Heslop, who has become chief

The chair of the Small Charities Coalition has stepped down for personal reasons after 18 months in the role, it has emerged.  Bushra Ahmed stepped down on 16 September, according to Companies House, having taken up the role in January last year. The charity said Steven Kirkpatrick, who has been an SCC trustee since October

More than 20 per cent of charities have less than a month’s worth of expenditure in reserve, new research has found.  A paper by David Clifford of the University of Southampton and John Mohan of the Third Sector Research Centre at the University of Birmingham says that of the approximately 12,700 charities in England and

An emergency appeal by the National Trust for Scotland has raised more than £7m, the charity has revealed. Launched in June, the Save our Scotland Appeal raised £3.4m as more than 10,000 donations flooded in from all over the world before the campaign closed at the end of September. When a £3.8m support package from the

The Strengthening Charities’ Resilience with Legacies report, which was co-authored by four major charity legacy organisations, predicts an escalation in the value of gifts from wills over the next decade, and that charities’ legacy income will double in real terms over the next 30 years.  The report – produced by Remember A Charity, Legacy Foresight, the

The Geneva office of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung is today publishing the Atlas of the Stateless (French, English). It will be presented in an online conference, in which the authors of the atlas and members of the UN refugee agency will participate. The Atlas of the Stateless, which is now published in three languages (French, English and

While the majority of people agree philanthropy makes society better, almost a third of them do not believe philanthropists themselves are good for society, according to a study published today.  The report, Philanthropy Paradox: Public Attitudes and Future Prospects for Planned Giving, produced by Beth Breeze, director of the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of

The youth charity Sea Cadets has apologised to the victims of any abuse amid reports it paid half a million pounds to the targets of a former instructor alleged to have sexually abused children over four decades.  The Guardian newspaper reported that eight survivors of abuse by Peter Sherwin, who died in 2014, had received payments

A former trustee of Versus Arthritis was “surprised and disappointed” to read statements made by the charity about his resignation and said he wanted to clarify his reasons for stepping down.  The charity last week filed a serious incident report to the Charity Commission over multiple allegations of systemic racism and bullying.  According to an

The Charity Commission has defended its decision to display a remembrance poppy online after its impartiality was questioned on social media. Users noticed a poppy had appeared in the regulator’s Twitter avatar and some in the sector questioned whether it was appropriate to display a symbol so closely associated with the Royal British Legion and its

A coalition of more than 30 charity leaders has written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer calling for a sector-specific job retention scheme. The letter calls on Rishi Sunak to work closely with civil society to ensure that vital work to serve communities can continue unhindered, and the millions of citizens who depend on the

The Charities Aid Foundation has defended its latest piece of research after it was accused of producing “counterintuitive” results. Last week, CAF released a report that concluded £800m more than usual had been given to charity during the UK’s spring lockdown. But in a blog post Joe Saxton, co-founder of the consultancy nfpSynergy, criticises CAF’s

The hearing loss charity the RNID has unveiled its new branding after reverting to its old name.  The charity announced last month that it would be abandoning the name Action on Hearing Loss, which it had adopted in 2011, after research showed its former title was better recognised and trusted.  Founded in 1911, the charity

The Scouts has announced plans to sell two major assets and make about 100 people redundant as it looks to plug a more than £2m hole in its finances. The coronavirus-related cuts will result in the loss of more than 30 per cent of the association’s 380-strong workforce. The savings are in addition to 50 redundancies

The Business Charity Awards, which recognise the work of people and teams behind corporate and charity partnerships, have opened to entries for 2021.  The awards will feature 25 categories, spanning sector partnerships and teams.  Two new categories will aim to reward outstanding CSR work completed during the coronavirus pandemic.  The Best Covid-19 Support Project award

The record-breaking fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore has launched an initiative intended to encourage people to be active and potentially raise charitable funds during the latest lockdown. The Captain Tom Foundation, which was established after he raised almost £39m, including Gift Aid, for NHS charities by walking laps of his garden, said it wanted people

Membership charity organisation for homelessness services in England uses Conga to award more than £6 million of funding to frontline homelessness charities affected during the pandemic London, UK – Conga, a leader in revenue operations management, today announced that Homeless Link, a national membership charity for organisations working directly with people who become homeless in

Versus Arthritis has apologised after allegations surfaced on social media that described an independent investigation into claims of bullying and racism at the charity as intimidating and “victim-blaming”. Screenshots from an internal message board, shared on Twitter, also questioned whether the sharing of confidential and personal information with a third-party company was compliant with data

A group of major charity umbrella bodies have called on MPs to put pressure on the government to ensure the appointment of the next chair of the Charity Commission is politically neutral. In a letter sent to Julian Knight, the Conservative chair of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, the 10

Charities working in developing countries are being encouraged to apply to take part in a £2m government aid initiative that will match-fund public donations. The UK Aid Match scheme aims to help developing countries combat Covid-19, end preventable deaths through tackling malnutrition or malaria, and help girls access quality education. Run by the Foreign, Commonwealth

The second national lockdown in England will cost the sector at least £28m in lost shop revenue, the Charity Retail Association has warned.  From Thursday, all non-essential shops, including charity shops, in England will be required to close until 2 December in an attempt to slow the spread of coronavirus.  In September, the CRA estimated that

The Prime Minister has promised to do “much more to support the voluntary sector” over the winter as it grapples with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.  Boris Johnson was responding to a question in the House of Commons today from Rachael Maskell, the shadow charities minister, as part of an announcement that England will

It goes without saying that this year has been incredibly difficult for people who are used to working in an office environment, and the imminent return to lockdown over winter will feel even harder than it did the first time around (for the reasons, see my article from last month). It’s no surprise, then, that

Claire Horton, the chief executive of the dogs and cats rescue and rehoming charity Battersea, will step down at the end of January, the charity has announced. Horton, who has led the charity since 2010, is leaving to take up the role of director-general of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. In a statement, Battersea said

Last week, tier 3 restrictions came into force in Greater Manchester. In all 10 boroughs of the city and its surrounding areas, residents were forbidden from meeting with people outside of their households indoors or outdoors, and bars and pubs that do not serve substantial meals were forced to close. As negotiations between central and

The presentation of the Official Receiver’s investigation into the former charity Kids Company was dismissed as “thoroughly unfair” at the High Court yesterday. The court was hearing evidence from William Tatham, who had examined client expenditure, and whether it had followed the charity’s policies, on behalf of the OR. Under cross-examination by Andrew Westwood of

The latest episode of the Third Sector Podcast looks at Facebook. The social media giant has become even more important as a fundraising tool since the coronavirus pandemic struck, but a growing number of charities are asking whether giving money to an organisation that has been criticised for allowing fake news and hate speech to

Mental health charities Time to Change and Mind have each mooted the prospect of redundancies in the past week, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to take a financial toll on the voluntary and not-for-profit sector.  On Monday it was announced that Time to Change, a campaign set up 15 years ago by Mind and Rethink

Versus Arthritis has filed a serious incident report with the Charity Commission following multiple employee accounts of systemic racism, racially motivated microaggressions and bullying, Third Sector can reveal. The report was filed with the Charity Commission earlier this week, according to an email seen by Third Sector.  Trustees took the decision following consideration of accounts

Donors gave £800m more than usual to charity during the UK’s spring lockdown, but some charities have still lost out on hundreds of millions of pounds, according to new research from the Charities Aid Foundation. Between January and June 2020, members of the public donated a total of £5.4bn to charity, according to CAF’s UK Giving: