Charity

As hostilities continue to escalate in northwest Syria, eight aid agencies are today making an urgent call for an immediate ceasefire as they warn that hundreds of thousands of people – the majority of them women and children – fleeing the unrelenting violence are caught in a humanitarian catastrophe. At least 150,000 people have been

The British Asian Trust has defended its decision to appoint the singer Katy Perry as an ambassador, after the move was criticised online. At the charity’s royal annual reception and dinner, which was held yesterday and attended by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, BAT announced that the American pop star had

Staff at the homelessness charity St Mungo’s have voted to go on strike in a row over terms and conditions.  The union Unite said that almost 84 per cent of members at the charity who voted gave their backing to industrial action. It said it had more than 500 members at the charity.  St Mungo’s

The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland has written to more than 100 charity trustees demanding that they file their charities’ overdue accounts “or face consequences”.  The Northern Irish regulator has named the 28 charities, whose annual accounts are all more than 500 days overdue.  The tardy charities have until 17 February to submit the missing

Trustees at a Bristol housing charity have been found guilty of mismanagement and misconduct, with a suggestion that they exploited their charitable status for financial gain, a recently published investigation by the Charity Commission has concluded. Alternative Housing, whose charitable objects were to provide accomodation support and care to those in need within Bristol, has

Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support have defended their “meat-free” fundraising campaigns after receiving criticism from the National Farmers Union Scotland. The union wrote to both charities, raising concerns about CRUK’s Veg Pledge, which takes place in November, and Macmillan’s Meat Free March. In a statement, the union described both campaigns as “regrettable” and said they

A charitable housing association has lost almost £1m after falling victim to cyber criminals. Red Kite Community Housing, a community benefit society that provides social housing in Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, said in a statement that criminals had stolen £932,691 in August. The organisation said it was unable to give precise details of what happened because of

Two pancreatic cancer charities have said they will merge in a bid to reduce duplication and to enable them to have a bigger impact. Pancreatic Cancer Action and Pancreatic Cancer Scotland have announced plans to form a new charity as they both celebrate their tenth anniversaries. The organisations will initially continue under separate branding but

More than 30 grant-makers have now committed to tackling climate change in their work.  In November, 14 funders announced they had signed up to the Funder Commitment on Climate Change, which commits them to examining how they can use their investments, operations and funding programmes to contribute to a post-carbon economy. A statement released this

Youth-led social action groups are set to receive £9m of further funding from the government and National Lottery Community Fund-backed #iwill Fund. The #iwill Fund is a £50m project backed by the NLCF and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport to support youth social action programmes. The fund currently works with 25 funders,

The building society Nationwide has begun trialling a contactless donations window that will raise funds for a local homelessness charity.  If the trial is successful, Nationwide will consider expanding the initiative to more of its 650 branches in the UK.  The trial is being run at the society’s branch in Bath, Somerset, with a contactless

The Campaign to Protect Rural England has changed its name to CPRE, the countryside charity.  The name has been launched this week to coincide with the conservation charity’s new strategy, which it hopes will enable more people to connect with the countryside.  The charity said it hoped the new name and logo would help it

Two charities have said they will stand by their patron Alastair Stewart after the veteran newsreader stepped down from ITV News for what the company described as “errors of judgement” on social media. The animal and development charity Brooke and the children’s hospice Naomi House & Jacksplace both said they would not be asking Stewart

The head of Shelter Scotland is to step down after almost 12 years in the role. Graeme Brown said he would stand down in May to “have a rest, refresh and then pick up on some other projects”. Brown, who was director of communications, policy and campaigns at Shelter UK before becoming director of Shelter

The number of charity mergers fell to the lowest level for three years in 2018/19, with a fall of almost £1bn in the combined income of the charities involved, new figures show. The latest Good Merger Index, which is released annually by the management consultancy Eastside Primetimers, says 58 mergers involving 116 organisations took place

Addaction is to change its name to We Are With You in bid to become more accessible to people who want to use its services. The drug, alcohol and mental health charity, which was founded in 1967 as the Association for Parents of Addicts, said research showed that its staff and services were viewed as

The veterans charity Help for Heroes will receive more than a quarter of a million pounds from the failed attempt to sound Big Ben when Britain leaves the European Union. The campaign group StandUp4Brexit and the Conservative MP Mark Francois had been running a crowdfunding campaign on the GoFundMe platform in a bid to raise

GENEVA (Jan. 28, 2020) — Madagascar’s chronic food crisis ranks #1 in CARE’s report “Suffering In Silence” which was launched globally today. The international aid organization’s analysis of global online media coverage is now in its fourth year and shows a concerning trend of certain countries annually recurring on the list. The African continent hosts nine

A company that has been selling clothing using the name of the defunct charity the Presidents Club has been accused by a Labour MP of trying to profit from controversy and misogyny. The Presidents Club charity was shut down after two undercover reporters from the Financial Times newspaper attended the charity’s annual men-only fundraising dinner in January

Jan Tregelles, the former chief executive of Mencap, has taken the top job at Revitalise, which provides holidays for disabled people and their carers. Tregelles announced in May last year that she would leave Mencap in the autumn after 22 years with the charity, the past six as chief executive. She succeeds Chris Simmonds, who

Job losses appear likely at the veterans charity Combat Stress as it attempts to deal with a projected £6m fall in annual income. Sue Freeth, the charity’s chief executive, said in a statement that Combat Stress, which employs 271 staff, had reached a “critical turning point” because its income was expected to fall from £16m

The volunteering charity Volunteering Matters is to make 12 people redundant as it changes the way it works and tries to tackle recent financial shortfalls. The charity, which changed its name from Community Service Volunteers in 2015, has reported deficits in 2017/18 and 2018/19 that add up to about £2.4m combined. The charity has completed

Charities and community groups can apply for a share of £250,000 each quarter over the next year from the Aviva Community Fund 2020. Aviva said innovative projects that promote community resilience or improve financial capability and inclusion could apply for grants of up to £50,000 from the insurance company in the fund’s first funding round,

Charity sector figures have clashed over whether there should be more people with charity sector experience on the Charity Commission’s board. The debate on Twitter came after the appointment earlier this week of two new board members for the commission: Joanne Prowse, chief executive of the Phone-paid Services Authority, and Imran Gulamhuseinwala, chief executive and

An MP has urged the RSPCA to get back around the negotiating table with union representatives in bid to bring an end to an increasingly bitter dispute about changes to terms and conditions. The animal charity has been in a long-running disagreement with the union Unite over a controversial new performance-related pay scheme for its

The sight-loss charity RNIB has teamed up with Amazon to provide information through the tech giant’s voice assistant Alexa about living with sight loss. The charity today announced that users would be able to access this information by asking Alexa voice commands such as: “Alexa, what should I do if I think I’m losing my

DAVOS (January 22, 2020) – SDG500 is a pioneering multimillion-dollar investment platform dedicated to helping achieve the SDGs. The investment platform will use debt and equity to bridge the financing gap between seed and growth stage for hundreds of businesses in emerging and frontier markets. The coalition partners include: United Nations Capital Development Fund, International Trade

The arguments for introducing a second London Marathon are stronger than ever, according to Joe Saxton, co-founder of the charity think tank nfpSynergy. Last year’s marathon raised a record £66.4m for charities. In a blog on the think tank’s website, Saxton argues that adding a second annual marathon would provide a vital new fundraising opportunity.

The Charity Commission has appointed Paul Latham as its next director of communications and policy. Latham, who has been director of communications and strategy at the Competitions and Markets Authority since 2014, will succeed Sarah Atkinson, who became chief executive of the Social Mobility Foundation earlier this month. Latham was previously director of communications at

Staff at Oxfam GB are facing further job cuts as the charity attempts to address a £16m black hole in its accounts, according to a leaked memo to staff. In the memo, featured in The Times newspaper today, Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of Oxfam, said core costs would have to be reduced to meet expected