Summer 2011 Newsletter

Welcome to the Summer 2011 edition of our fundraising newsletter. The suns finally shining, the rain clouds have dispersed and if that wasn’t enough, a recent stream of funding successes for our clients is keeping us smiling!

Whatever your involvement in fundraising, from professional, to part time volunteer or Charity Trustee, I hope you will find some inspiration from our summer medley of fundraising articles and grant funding deadlines. So make yourself a nice cup of tea, sit back and read on….

We are delighted to welcome a new member to our Team, Senior Fundraising Consultant Stephanie Prentis. Steph has worked in community regeneration since 2006, with experience in tendering, fundraising as well as design and delivery for a range of projects.

Read more: Staff News

Many organisations fear the terms ‘monitoring’ and ‘evaluation’, arguing that experience of working with service-users on the ground cannot be summarised with sweeping statements, percentages and generalising one-liners. Of course, this is true to some extent but it is important to remember that an evaluation can be carried-out to collect qualitative and/or quantitative data.

Read more: Monitoring and Evaluation

As of October 2012 all UK employers will have to start offering employees a pension contribution scheme. These will be phased in, depending upon the size of the organisation, between 2012 and 2016.

Read more: Pensions Legislation and Planning

Charity Fundraising Ltd is delighted to announce that we will soon be offering our popular finding funding course Online. As part of creating the e-learning course we ask if you could fill in this short survey about how to implement the course. It will only take a maximum of 5 minutes and you could win the opportunity for some free fundraising training. A winner will be selected randomly from all those who complete the survey.

Fill in our Online Fundraising Survey.

Many in the sector have been worried about the impact of the financial crisis on charity income, but only recently has the data become available to provide any evidence of this. The Charity Market Monitor 2010 shows the impact of the economic downturn provoking a slight reduction in charity income in 2008-2009, the height of the financial crisis. Voluntary income of 500 of the UK’s largest charities dropped by 1.1% during this period. Many income streams suffered, including legacy income which fell by 3.9%, though this is likely due in large part to decreases in property and equity values.

Read more: UK’s top 500 charities show only slight decrease in voluntary income

The UK Government has pledged to open up the delivery of public services to private sector outsourcers and voluntary groups, in the long delayed Open Public Service white paper which they unveiled earlier this month. Outsourcing to the private sector and voluntary sector is not new, organisations in both these sectors have been delivering public sector contracts for the Department of Work and Pensions, the Department of Health, Local Authorities and others for years. However, when few voluntary groups were awarded contracts in the recent tendering round for The Work Programme, the question now is how can voluntary groups take advantage of new opportunities, when their competition is large private sector companies, able to use economies of scale and run 'loss-leaders' in order to secure a government contract.

Read more: Social Return on Investment (SROI) for Contract Tendering

Fundraising Consultants at Charity Fundraising Ltd are pleased to advise that we are now providing comprehensive legacy management and administration services together with legacy marketing advice, in addition to our fundraising provision. Our experienced team of fundraisers has expanded to include an ex city lawyer of many years qualification specialising in estate administration, Wills, Trusts, Probate and legacy management who is available to help you with your legacy issues ranging from the straightforward to the more complex.

Read more: Charity Fundraising Ltd to offer legacy management and administration services

Here’s a summary of some upcoming grant funding deadlines:

• 7th August 11 - Heritage Lottery Fund
• 12th August 11 - The Triangle Trust
• 14th September 11 - Nominet Trust
• 15th August 11 - SITA Trust: Young Persons Volunteering Fund
• 26th August 2011 - People’s Postcode Trust
• 31st August 11 - The London Marathon Charitable Trust
• 16th September 11 - Big Lottery Fund – Improving Financial Confidence
• Sport England - Places, People, Play
• The Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust
• Land Aid – Training, Education and Support Fund
• Land Aid – Capital Projects Fund

Read more: Upcoming grant funding deadlines