Summer 2010 Newsletter

On 1st October 2010 the Government brought in a new legislative framework to protect individuals’ rights and promote equality of opportunity. For an overview of the new legislation and for links to the actual Equality Act 2010 documentation visit the following page of the Government Equalities Office website.

The Act clarifies existing legislation and also covers a number of changes to the law in certain areas such as; direct and indirect discrimination, Harassment definitions, pay secrecy and the gap between male and female earnings, positive discrimination and employment tribunals.

Many organisations, including charities, will need to re-visit their equal opportunity and recruitment policies to make sure that they are compliant with the new framework. All organisations, big and small are also advised to ensure they have anti-discrimination and harassment policies and that these take into account up to date legislation.

A recent study by the Charity Finance Directors’ Group and accountancy firm PKF has revealed the economic instability hitting the sector as a result of the recession.

Many charities are having to access their reserves as their income streams are failing. Insecurity over funding is in many cases impacting on service delivery and many of the organisations questioned said that they had had to cut services, while almost half had been forced to make cost savings.

The results of this study and the general instability of the economic climate point to a shaky future for many organisations in the voluntary sector. The need for charities to plan their route through these hazardous waters and to diversify their income streams has never been more paramount.

Our consultants are always willing to discuss how we can help charities to access funding and to plan how they can continue to sustainably deliver services.

Welcome to the Summer edition of our newsletter. Much has happened since our last edition; The Government has changed, an emergency budget has been announced, we have all become part of a “Big Society” and the England football team have had a disastrous World Cup.

With many changes afoot influencing the voluntary sector we have been as busy as ever, supporting our clients to navigate the changeable waters of the sector as well as welcoming a number of new clients on board. While we have often seen the charitable sector slow down a pace or two over the summer months, this year our offices in Suffolk and York remain hives of activity.

This edition of our newsletter contains information on some funding deadlines coming up over the next couple of months, as well as a number of articles covering new developments that will affect the sector.

We hope you will find this edition useful and we wish you all a sunny Summer and enjoyable holidays for any of you lucky enough to be going on a much needed break.

Best wishes from the team at Charity Fundraising Ltd

If your charity works in the wide fields of health and social welfare (or indeed many others) in the UK, then it is likely that you have already, or will very soon feel the impact of public sector budget cuts. No doubt you are all too aware of this already though. So, rather than continue with the doom mongering, let’s look at some useful resources that can help you anticipate, plan for and manage the impact on your organisation.

Read more: Managing Budget Cuts

In our winter 2009 newsletter we wrote about some of the myriad range of legal structures that exist for voluntary sector organisations. One of the newer structures available is the Community Interest Company (CIC), which was established a few years ago to give businesses operating for the benefit of the community an independent confirmation of their not-for-profit status, whilst allowing for Board members to be paid and for limited returns to be paid to investors.

Read more: Converting a Community Interest Company to a Registered Charity