I came across an excellent article from The Observer recently. It looks at the risks of writing one’s own Will, using one of the easily bought DIY Will Packs for less than a fiver. Rather than go into the perils myself, why not read the original article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/mar/23/inheritancetax Read Full Story

Earlier this week I was speaking at the Institute of Fundraising’s annual National Convention. Our session (I shared it with Paul Farthing, Stephen George & Alan Freeman) was looking at the future of the legacy marketplace for charities. Instead of using Powerpoint and simply speaking at the audience for an hour, we played the session with 4 chairs, one in each corner of the room. No one sat down, there were no chairs for the audience. Each speaker made their “pitch” standing on one of the... Read Full Story

This isn’t really a fundraising piece for the blog, although I’ll end it with something that is fundraisng related. Today, 4 July 2008, my Grandmother, Cissie Richards, was 100 years old. Now I know that this isn’t so rare these days, with the number of centenarians growing year on year, but I’ve never known anyone 100 years old, let alone a member of my immediate family. To have got to this amazing age is an achievement in itself. Cissie lived through two world wars, (During the 2nd... Read Full Story

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology. All those new gadgets that make life easier, keep us in touch and are generally for the good of the whole. What bugs me is where new technology actually makes things harder or more difficult or costly for people. Take, for example, all the changes at Royal Mail. A couple of years ago they introduced new machines that could sort the mail, instead of using people. “Great!” You might think, “that’ll make life so much easier and speed up the service”. But... Read Full Story

What’s your image of a charity shop? Scruffy? Tatty? Musty? Full of old ladies? If this is your image, when did you last visit a charity shop? You might find things have changed generally… Charity shops provide a very valuable resource to local communities at several levels: They raise money for good causes. Whether this is a local hospice or a national charity for the old, homeless or starving, all charity shops raise much needed funds to enable charities to fulfil their work. They are... Read Full Story

My weekly copy of Third Sector magazine arrived as usual this week and with it came a fold out flyer from the Media Trust, a charity that claims it: “covers all aspects of media and communications training for charity and voluntary organisations across the UK.” It was a list of their forthcoming training events. I eagerly scanned it to see what they were putting on for all the charities in the north of the country, but out of 19 courses, only one on Podcasting was being held north of a line... Read Full Story

Following the Government’s decision to allow charities to continue benefiting from Gift Aid at the pre-tax cut rate of 22p in the £1, the Institute of Fundraising, after consultation with the HMRC, has come up with the following text to go on all Gift Aid declarations: “If you Gift-Aid your donation, ‘x charity’ will continue to receive an additional 28p. ‘X charity’ can claim Gift Aid tax relief of 25p on every pound you give. HM Revenue & Customs will also be operating transitional... Read Full Story

For years the Institute of Fundraising and major charities have been trying to get the cost down of making donations via TXT on your mobile. One of the last major hurdles is VAT, as the mobile phone companies say they can’t distinguish between the various premium-rate lines they operate. The HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs) stated 2 years ago that VAT was not chargeable on text donations, but the phone companies are charging charities an estimated £1m a year in VAT. Neither are they... Read Full Story

In the process of setting up my freelance fundraising business, I looked on the web for help, advice and support. I came across a couple of really useful links, one is Dr Alan Rae’s “Punch Above Your Weight” training workshops, which show small businesses or organisations how to create a bigger impression on the Internet (thereby dramatically increasing your chance of getting top results in Goggle Search Engine searches. As a result of attending one of these fascinating days, I was also made... Read Full Story

Please forgive me for straying off the fundraising theme slightly, into the world of mobile computing. This does relate to fundraising, as I, like many others, rely on mobile computing to do our work. Back in January I bought one of these incredible Asus Eee PCs for my daughter. This little miracle of technology came singing and dancing out of its box, ready for the user to start working on it, within 30 seconds of pressing the on button! What is so special about the Eee PC is that it is... Read Full Story