Two weeks ago, at a round table hosted by the European Association of Philanthropy and Giving, I listened to a group of people working in the charity sector talking about the difficulties they faced using professional volunteers. You would think this would be easy – get in an accountant, an IT expert, a designer, and… Read more »
Posts By: David Ainsworth
Should we be putting financial value on volunteering?
On Monday, the front page of the Guardian carried a story about a scheme being proposed in Windsor & Maidenhead where new volunteers get Nectar Points in exchange for carrying out good works: hold a tea party for pensioners, get money off at Argos. There seems some potential problems with this idea. First of all,… Read more »
Pensions: the dormant volcano?
George Osborne indicated during the comprehensive spending review that he expects to take up most of the recommendations in Lord Hutton’s interim report on pensions, published earlier this month. Hutton’s review, commissioned by Osborne earlier this year, admitted in effect that the government could not afford its pension debts, and recommended steps to reduce costs…. Read more »
Was the £100m Transition Fund due to be allocated to the sector anyway?
The dust has settled a little following the comprehensive spending review, and it may be time to take a look at whether the Office of Civil Society did well or badly out of it. At first glance, it looks like it suffered worse than average. Three years ago, when it was the Office of the… Read more »
Why aren’t there more social entrepreneurs?
At a social investment conference last week, a number of lenders and intermediaries stood up to say there aren’t enough good businesses in the sector to accommodate all the people wanting to lend them money. They accepted there were good reasons for this: most social businesses are relatively new, and will take longer to grow… Read more »
Could lifetime legacies fit the bill if Gift Aid reform fails to satisfy?
In the very near future, a group of third sector bodies will put forward a series of recommendations to the Treasury for Gift Aid reform. Sadly, these look likely to be relatively modest, compared with what sector figures once hoped to achieve. And as a result, some sector figures are looking around for other models… Read more »
Gift Aid reform proposals are expected. What will the outcome be?
Later this week, we’ll see the results of the sector’s two year efforts at Gift Aid reform – a set of proposals which will be given careful consideration by Justine Greening, economic secretary to the Treasury. I suspect that when the final document is published, campaigners will feel like a group of fire fighters who… Read more »
Local authorities still failing to serve effectively as charity trustees
This week has brought another example of just how bad local authorities are at serving as trustees of charities. In Shetland, island councillors have buried their heads firmly in the sand and refused to reform the board of a £200m charitable trust where they make up 21 of 23 trustees, despite being told to do… Read more »
Charities should make it clearer that chuggers are getting paid
The Newsnight programme about chugging last week found nothing whatsoever to surprise anyone in the charity sector. All of it was pretty common knowledge, easy to turn up, much as we might expect. But it did raise a valid point: the general public don’t like chuggers much. Mick Aldridge, chief executive of the Public Fundraising… Read more »
We need to clearly define the meaning of social enterprise
On Friday, I read a short piece by Laurence Demarco, founder of Senscot, the network for social entrepreneurs in Scotland. Demarco – a popular figure in Scottish social enterprise who should probably be better known south of the border – is worried that the government seems determined to widen the definition of social enterprise to… Read more »