Recently, the government has been veritably pelted with questions, largely from its own back benches, asking it about the VAT burden it is placing on charities. In both the Lords and the Commons, on both sides of the aisle, our political representatives clearly don’t think much of charities’ current tax bill. It’s also pretty clear… Read more »
Monthly Archives: January 2011
They’ve all got it in for Dame Suzi
‘Axe hovers over quango queen,’ squeals the Daily Mail, in response to a Sunday Times piece headlined ‘Quango queen faces sack for attack on private schools.’ It’s unusual for the Telegraph not to be in there too. It’s not the first time the right wing press have had a go at Dame Suzi Leather, chair… Read more »
Is advertising for charities really necessary?
Last week a number of MPs and Thomas Hughes-Hallet, chief executive of Marie Curie Cancer Care, criticised some charities for spending too much on advertising. The comments created quite a backlash on the Third Sector site and a question has been hanging in the air over whether some charities do indeed pump too much of… Read more »
The big society backlash
It’s surely not a coincidence that the Times, a Murdoch paper, has run a negative lead story on the big society a few days after Andy Coulson, former editor of another Murdoch paper, resigned from his job as the government’s communications director. After all, political commentators have noted that Coulson was never big on big… Read more »
Apple needs to get moving on a donation app before the brand gets tarnished
I’ve decided it’s time to add my two cents worth on the ongoing battle to convince Apple to allow people to donate to charity directly through apps on the iPhone. The saga has been rumbling on for a while now and if it’s ever going to have a happy ending it’s going to be critical… Read more »
Chuggers should steer clear of the other salespeople
Grabbing a quick break in a busy day yesterday, I nipped to the less-than-glamorous destination that is Hammersmith Broadway, a small shopping arcade built around the entrance to the tube station. During my roughly 100-metre walk through the centre, I was stopped three times. The first was by a heavily made-up woman trying… Read more »
Hiding your commercial credentials under a bushel
Many in the sector have a sceptical eye, and it wasn’t long before Frank Buckley applied his to the new online shopping app Give As You Live. He is the chief executive of Down Syndrome Education International, and he noticed that it wasn’t easy to find out how Everyclick, which runs the app, is making… Read more »
Hazel Blears risks stepping on Roberta Blackman-Woods’ toes
Hazel Blears is back, and she’s set her sights on the voluntary sector. The fiery readhead (now with a toned-down auburn hairdo) has been keeping a close eye on the government’s big society agenda, which she says it has stolen from Labour. And now she’s trying to improve it. Blears has tabled a private members’… Read more »
Is Quora the next Twitter? And should charities have it in their sights?
Twitter has been alight this past week with talk of the online craze Quora. While the website isn’t new (it was actually founded in 2009), momentum has been growing over the last few months, with opinion seemingly split on the network’s merits. For those who aren’t already familiar with it, Quora claims to be ‘a… Read more »
Can people be nudged into giving more?
Tucked away on page 19 of the government’s green paper on giving are two short sentences that speak volumes. “We know that tax reliefs for charitable giving provide incentives for donors and support to charities more generally”, it says. “We will review the relationship between financial incentives and giving.” End of discussion. Yes, we do… Read more »