There must be mixed emotions at Samaritans today – the day of the funeral of Claire Squires. Had she lived, her contribution to the charity from her London Marathon run would probably have been a few thousand pounds. Since her death, it has received a windfall of more than a million pounds in the… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Uncategorized
Problem about measuring charity efficiency won’t be easily solved
Several people in the charity sector have taken the opportunity afforded by the cap on charity tax reliefs recently to have a go at the sector, and whether all charities really deserve the reliefs they have. The first complaint is about the use that charities put their money to. Should you really get tax relief… Read more »
Keeping social finance on the straight and narrow
Last week I interviewed Nick O’Donohoe, chief executive of Big Society Capital, about his targets for the new £600m social lender. What was really interesting was his view of the sector – one that was predicated on the idea that social enterprises and charities should be delivering more services. O’Donohoe’s starting point is one that… Read more »
Clarity at last on tax relief cap, but it’s not good news for charities
I think we have now nailed down the way HM Revenue & Customs thinks its new cap on tax reliefs will work. Firstly, the relief is based on the level of your gift, not the level of tax you paid on that gift. So as soon as your gift hits £50,000, or a quarter of… Read more »
Er hello? Does anyone actually understand how the tax relief cap works?
Last week, I got in touch with HM Revenue & Customs and asked them how their new tax relief cap would work. This new idea – George Osborne’s only mention of charity in the Budget – means that you can’t claim tax relief on more than a quarter of your income, or £50,000, whichever is… Read more »
Scotland’s social enterprises seem to have it made
This year brought a new name for the annual Social Enterprise UK conference – the Social Enterprise Exchange – and a new venue – Glasgow. The conference was hosted in partnership with Social Enterprise Scotland, and it appeared as if around half the delegates were from north of the border. As a result, the whole… Read more »
New legislation could discourage extremely large one-off gifts to charity
So the chancellor has said that he’ll cap the amount you can claim back in tax each year at a quarter of your gross income, or £50,000, whichever is higher. How will this affect charities? The first thing to say is that it only applies in a limited number of cases, but those will be… Read more »
The first steps needed to raise your charity’s profile
Last week, along with my colleague Gemma Quainton, I went along to a “speedmatching” event for charities that wanted volunteer support for their media strategy. It was soon obvious that it was surprisingly hard to find a good match between my skills and the needs of small charities.
My night speedmatching. You know – speed dating for volunteers
After my recent blogs on my problems getting started with my new year’s resolution to volunteer, I was asked by the Media Trust to one of its ‘Speedmatching’ events – you know, speed dating, but for would-be volunteers. The aim of the event is to put charities that need advice in touch with eager volunteers… Read more »
The rise of the amergermation
The past year has seen a lot of stories about charity mergers. A lot more are coming across our desks at Third Sector, and it’s obvious that the financial climate is driving people to think very hard about their independence. Nonetheless, when you read these stories, it’s clear from the common themes that at least… Read more »