Third sector organisations should be given grants for up to 25 years to encourage long-term thinking, innovation and independence, according to the chief executive of the Wales Council for Voluntary Action. Graham Benfield will tell a WCVA conference in Llandudno tomorrow that three-year funding is not long-term funding. “It means one year to set up, one year to implement and one year to close down and search for more money,” he will say.

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6 October 2008
© Paul Jump, Third Sector Online

Supporting families post-separation is becoming increasingly important in today’s society. Families endure after separation and the family law system has to be redesigned to deal with the ongoing problems of parents who remain connected through their children and continue to have conflicts, long after separation. Equally important is preventing family breakdown in the first place and moving from a position of treating it as inevitable to a position of actively supporting families through difficult times. Relationships between couples cannot be airbrushed out of the policy picture. The focus over the last ten years has been on parenting, but the new focus needs to be on how we can support stable relationships and how helping couples is an integral part of an early-years strategy. Presentation from this workshop, which took place early in the year are available on the website.

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6 October 2008
© CARE

The Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation (VVF) has launched a guide that promotes healthy eating as a way to help prevent cancer. A campaign by the charity called One In Nine has led to the production of A Fighting Chance, the guide which provides practical advice on what to eat. The booklet explains how certain foods such as meat and dairy could trigger the disease and offers recipes to try that may help prevent cancer. VVF’s senior health campaigner and author of A Fighting Chance said it should be read by all women and it is important to get the information in the public domain. “Women diagnosed with breast cancer receive very little, if any, guidance on what can help them fight this disease,” she said. The One In Nine campaign focuses on the fact that one in nine women will be affected by breast cancer at some point in their lives and the VVF believes healthy eating can reduce this. Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women in Britain and since 1971 the number of people with the disease has risen by 80 per cent.

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1 October 2008
© CLA

A new web site from NCVO aims to give a friendly introduction to strategic thinking and planning, and how to know where you are going and how well you are doing. Fairly basic but some useful stuff tucked away (although one or two missing links and it’s slightly messy when browsing using our standard font size). http://www.strategy-impact.org.uk

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6 October 2008
© VoluntaryNews

With the threshold for submitting annual accounts to the Charity Commission changing shortly to £25,000, the online database GuideStar UK has announced that it will continue to capture and display information from all Trustee Annual Reports and Financial Statements it receives, regardless of size. A simple method will be provided to voluntarily submit accounts electronically. Plaza Publishing news alert item http://www.charityfinance.co.uk/home/content.php?id=2221.

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26 September 2008
© VoluntaryNews

The Scottish Government will meet voluntary sector representatives in November and January to measure progress in forging a closer relationship. Earlier in the month, a task group including senior figures from the SCVO and local and central government was set up to achieve targets on issues such as better partnerships and funding relationships, and improving the capacity of the third sector.

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26 September 2008
© David Ainsworth, Third Sector Online

Charity shops offer great value and quality goods which appeal to loyal customers, according to an expert. The Association of Charity Shops said the stores allow people to purchase “quality” second-hand products and not break the bank. David Moir, head of policy and public affairs at the association, said: “Quite simply, cash-strapped consumers are looking for value and charity shops combine quality in their second-hand goods with affordability.” He added that celebrities’ interest in the shops has a “short-term influence” on buyers, but the shops rely on loyal customers. Mr Moir stated: “There is a good mix to the customer base,” adding that impulse buyers also play a big part. According to figures from the association, profits in the sector have risen by 7.4 percent compared to last year’s increase of 3.6 percent. Total profits for charities taking part in the survey were £106.7 million, marking the largest rise in five years.

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22 September 2008
© CAF

Charity Finance Directors Group and accountancy specialists Sayer Vincent have produced ‘Gift Aid made simple’, a downloadable leaflet aimed at charity finance professionals. In pdf format, 69KB, http://www.sayervincent.co.uk/Asp/uploadedFiles/File/Gift%20aid%20made%20simple.pdf.

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22 September 2008
© VoluntaryNews

The Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 received Royal Assent on 9th September after its protracted passage through the legislative process. It is expected that the establishment of a Charity Commission will start next month with the appointment of Charity Commissioners. To lift wholesale from NICVA’s news item: The first main business of the Commission will be to consult on public benefit guidance and this will probably take place in the early part of 2009. It is envisaged that charities will not need to register with the Charity Commission until the spring of 2010, with the first reporting requirements the following year. The new rules for fundraising and public collections are not likely to take effect until 2011. Some provisions of the Act, such as the Charitable Incorporated Organisation legal model, require secondary legislation but it is expected that all parts should become fully operational by early 2011. The Charities Implementation Team in the Department or Social Development has set up a Charity Regulation Stakeholder Forum to consider the implications of the new Charities Act.

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19 September 2008
© VoluntaryNews

Charities should focus their efforts on preventing starvation rather than treating it once it has already happened, Care International has said. The aid agency believes targeting the causes of starvation rather than treating the situation when it has already arisen would save billions of pounds. It would also help the 220 million people living “on the edge of emergency” to live more stable lives, Care International stated. Geoffrey Dennis, chief executive of Care International UK, said a failure to solve underlying issues had left millions of people in food poverty. In a report, Living on the edge of emergency: Paying the price of inaction, Care International described aid as being “too late and too short term”.

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19 September 2008
© CAF