Charity

The Supreme Court has ruled that the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) must give $360m to Big Win Philanthropy (BWP), following the divorce of CIFF’s founders. Jamie Cooper and Sir Chris Hohn set up CIFF in 2002, but the couple’s divorce in 2014 led to protracted legal action over the charitable company. A High Court

Comic Relief is undergoing a consultation process to make 25 per cent of its staff body redundant as the charity seeks to manage the financial fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, Third Sector can reveal.  The fundraising charity is looking to save more than £5m in running costs following the impact of the Covid-19 crisis, which

The MP tasked with reviewing the sector’s role in the UK’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic has said future sector models must be “more ambitious” than the Big Society, and warned against the government implementing major reforms at the same time as cutting spending.  Danny Kruger, the MP for Devizes and former charity leader, participated

Small charities supporting people with complex social issues will be able to apply for two-year grants of £50,000 from the Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales’s new Covid Recovery Fund from next week. The £7.4m fund will open for applications on 3 August, for charities across England and Wales with an annual income of between £25,000 and

In the latest episode of the Third Sector Podcast, editor Emily Burt and features and analysis writer Rebecca Cooney discuss the reader manifesto for the future. The reader manifesto featured in the most recent edition of Third Sector. As the world and the sector begins to think about recovery from the coronavirus crisis, we asked

Oxfam GB has appointed the chair of Channel 4 to lead its board of trustees.  The charity said Charles Gurassa, who has been chair of Channel 4 since 2016, would succeed Caroline Thomson, who announced last year she would be stepping down because she had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.  In addition to chairing Channel

The Small Charities Coalition has warned a review into the role of the voluntary sector in the coronavirus pandemic response is in danger of being rushed and becoming an attempt to “bring back big society through the back door”. Last month, the Prime Minister asked Danny Kruger MP to lead a review examining how the government

The Refugee Council has appointed Enver Solomon as its next chief executive.  Solomon, who is chief executive at the youth charity Just for Kids Law, will succeed Maurice Wren, who is retiring after eight years in the role.  Solomon has previously held senior positions at the National Children’s Bureau, The Children’s Society and Barnardo’s, and

Blood Cancer UK has proposed cutting more than a quarter of its workforce in a bid to deal with the anticipated loss of about 40 per cent of its income.  Gemma Peters, chief executive of the blood cancer charity, said the organisation, which had an income of £15.3m in the year to the end of

The Charity Commission has opened a compliance case into Islamic Relief Worldwide after claims a senior figure at the charity made anti-semitic comments on social media.  The charity said in a statement this week that trustee and former staff member Heshmat Khalifa had stepped down from its board after anti-semitic social media posts made five

The Directory of Social Change has suggested the government has “muzzled” the National Lottery Community Fund over the allocation of emergency coronavirus funding.  In a blog on the DSC website, Jay Kennedy, director of policy and research at the training and publishing charity, said he believed the NLCF had been prevented from giving out basic

More than 200 UK charities have joined a coalition calling for the government to temporarily increase the level of Gift Aid in order to help keep their services running during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond. Last month, a group led by the Charities Aid Foundation, the Institute of Fundraising, the Charity Finance Group and the Charity

The Disasters Emergency Committee’s coronavirus appeal has raised more than £15m in just over a week.  The DEC, which is a collaboration of 14 major aid charities that coordinates appeals for humanitarian crises, opened the appeal last week with a focus on people living in refugee camps.  It said today that member charities had begun using

22nd July 2020 – RIVIAM Digital Care has been awarded £48,450 funding by Innovate UK to enhance its new social prescribing platform. RIVIAM transforms care delivery during Covid-19 RIVIAM’s Wellbeing platform is currently used in Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES) by Virgin Care, BaNES Council and many third sector organisations, including Age UK BaNES,

The Alzheimer’s Society is expecting to have to make up to 300 redundancies because of an estimated £45m loss of income over the next financial year.  The charity said it was expecting to have to cut the jobs, which represent 20 per cent of its workforce, because of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the

The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland has apologised to a former trustee of a lifeboat charity following a landmark ruling which could have profound consequences for charity regulation in Northern Ireland.  Trevor McKee was removed from the board of Lough Neagh Rescue in 2013, after the CCNI opened a statutory investigation into the charity over

Almost two thirds of charities believe social distancing measures will lead to an overall decrease in events and challenge donations, according to a survey. The Status of UK Fundraising 2020 Report, produced by the software provider Blackbaud in partnership with the Institute of Fundraising, also found that more than half (56 per cent) of respondents

The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust launched its first open applications window earlier this month, offering a total of £10m to help smaller charities survive the coronavirus crisis.  It is the first time in its 25-year history that the charity has run an open call for applications, and grant manager Simon Fourmy says it is

Sue Freeth, chief executive of the veterans mental health charity Combat Stress, has announced she is to step down after five years in the role.  Freeth said in a statement that there was never a perfect time to leave the charity but she felt she must move on. The charity said Freeth would help trustees

The number of serious incidents reported to the Charity Commission grew by almost 50 per cent in the past year to more than 5,700, latest figures show.  The regulator’s annual report, published today, includes a rise of almost 1,000 in the number of safeguarding incidents reported to the regulator over the course of the year, to

Community organisations in England that are facing financial difficulties due to Covid-19 are being invited to apply for a share of £9.5m of funding. Organisations can apply for grants of up to £100,000 from the Community-Led Organisations Recovery Scheme. The scheme is aimed at organisations delivering community services to people who are at high risk

Cancer Research UK is set to reduce the size of its workforce by almost a quarter as a result of a predicted £300m drop in income over the next three years.  The charity’s three-year strategy, unveiled today, also revealed it would have to reduce its spending on research by £150m over the next four to

Royal patronages provide no discernable benefits to charities that seek to obtain and retain them, according to new research. A report by the charity consultancy Giving Evidence – funded by the Belgian Red Cross – found that 74 per cent of charities with royal patrons did not receive any public engagements over the last year,

The winners of this year’s Third Sector Awards, which recognise the achievements of charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises, will be announced over a three-day virtual event in October. Despite the coronavirus pandemic continuing to disrupt live events across the UK, Third Sector has committed to celebrating the work of voluntary and not-for-profit organisations across

Charities of all sizes must find ways to collaborate more and potentially consider consolidating, the chief executive of the British Red Cross has said.  In a blog about what the future holds for the charities after the Covid-19 pandemic, Mike Adamson says the voluntary sector must demonstrate to government that it has practical solutions to

This year’s cancelled Prudential RideLondon cycling event has been resurrected as a free virtual event “to help save the UK’s charities”, event organisers have announced.  RideLondon, which has raised £77.5m for charity since it was launched in 2013, was cancelled in May due to coronavirus restrictions, but today organisers announced that a virtual event would take

Reserves held by the UK’s largest charities were already in decline before the coronavirus outbreak hit, new figures show. Analysis of the latest accounts of the top 50 charities by annual income conducted by the accountancy and advisory firm BDO found the organisations held on average two months of reserves going into the pandemic, down

Income at ActionAid stabilised last year after a near 10 per cent fall in 2018, latest figures show.  The charity’s accounts for the year to 31 December 2019, which were filed with Companies House this week, show overall income fell 1 per cent from £49.6m to £49.1m, driven by a reduction in unrestricted donations and

The Disasters Emergency Committee’s coronavirus appeal raised more than £5m during its first day, organisers have announced.  The DEC, which is a collaboration of 14 major aid charities that coordinates appeals for humanitarian crises, opened the appeal on Tuesday with a focus on people living in refugee camps.  The DEC warned that 24 million internally

Staff at the charity that runs historic William Shakespeare sites face possible redundancy amid an expected £8.5m loss of income this year.  A statement from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which looks after heritage sites relating to the author in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, said the charity faced losing 90 per cent of its income in 2020 because