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The National Coalition for Independent Action today released an open letter to the chief executives of the five national bodies which have endorsed the revised National Compact, launched on 16 December 2009. The full text of the letter reads:
The National Coalition for Independent Action has written an open letter to the chief executives of the sector’s major umbrella bodies who have all endorsed the revised Compact, complaining that the new document is wholly inadequate.
The Office of the Third has changed its mind and agreed to publish the assessment reports for its 11 most highly-funded strategic partners, as requested by Charity News Alert under the Freedom of Information Act. Initially the OTS refused to disclose the reports, saying the public benefit in keeping them secret outweighed the public benefit in making them available. But after Charity News Alert requested an internal review of this decision, it agreed last week to provide copies. No reason was given as to the change of heart.
CFDG paid a Liberal Democrat researcher to write a report on Conservative Party policy for its members, but denies that the move infringes rules on political campaigning. Antonis Papasolomontos, a senior parliamentary researcher for LibDem MP and CFDG trustee Mark Oaten (pictured), was hired by the CFDG for two months this summer while parliament was in recess. He was tasked with producing a briefing for the finance directors’ body looking at ‘the Conservative Party’s approach to the sector’.
Robin Bogg, chief executive of the British Umbrella Backing Body (BUBB), has hit out at the NCVO and Acevo for “jumping on the umbrella bandwagon”, after the two organisations both used brollies in promotional pictures. NCVO started the trend when it sent a 90th anniversary brolly to Bogg himself, with the grateful recipient uploading to his blog a picture of himself with said gift.
The chief executives of NAVCA, Charity Finance Directors' Group and the Institute of Fundraising have now joined the NCVO's Stuart Etherington in providing their total expenses amounts, leaving Acevo as the only major sector umbrella body yet to do so. In 2008-9, NAVCA chief Kevin Curley claimed £9,088, split between £7,403 for travel and £1,685 subsistence, including accommodation, and misc. In 2007-8, he claimed £9351, split between £6,813 for travel and £2538 for subsistence and miscellaneous.
At least two umbrella body chief executives have declined to disclose any more detail of their expense claims beyond what they have already published, preferring to wait and see whether the new independent working group on expenses recommends that they should. This week, RNID chief executive Jackie Ballard (pictured) waded into the debate on publication of charity expenses by saying that simply providing totals without any indication of what the claims were for, was virtually meaningless.
The NCVO has secured a £750,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund to help it demonstrate how it and other infrastructure bodies benefit the sector. The umbrella body will share the grant with Triangle Consulting and the Third Sector Research Centre, who all bid jointly to BIG’s Basis programme for the funding. The money will be used to devise the Value of Infrastructure programme – a three-year, England-wide project that will, according to the NCVO, “identify the most effective ways for infrastructure agencies to communicate the value of infrastructure to sector organisations and improve the planning and monitoring of their work”.
The Treasury has agreed to look at developing an ‘opt-out’ scheme for gift aid before the 2010 Budget following a meeting last week with the voluntary sector’s major umbrella bodies. The agreement is a coup for the sector groups, who had urged the government to introduce the scheme in a consultation on ways of improving gift aid take-up in 2007. At the time, government suggested this idea was too complex to introduce without more consideration.
Umbrella organisation Fair Play for Children has criticised the government for a lack of consultation on the new Safeguarding Unit for the Third Sector, to be run by the NSPCC.
NIVCA, the umbrella body for voluntary and community organisations in Northern Ireland has produced a guide to the Northern Ireland Charities Act which gained royal assent last September. The Act details the statutory definitions of charity and charitable purpose; establishes a Charity Commission for Northern Ireland and a Charity Tribunal; creates a Register of Charities for Northern Ireland; introduces the Charitable Incorporated Organisation (a new form of charitable body); and sets out new rules with regard to fundraising and collections.
The Small Charities Coalition has teamed up with Google UK to offer free basic websites to all small charities.
Last night's meeting between sector umbrella bodies and third sector minister Kevin Brennan to discuss what the government plans to do to protect charities affected by the Iceland banking collapse was "inconclusive", according to acevo chief executive Stephen Bubb.
Local authorities that have lost up to £1bn in failed Icelandic banks should not be allowed to claw back their losses by cutting payments to charities, sector umbrella bodies warned this week.
NCVO has invited the sector's main umbrella bodes to an emergency summit in November to try to reach consensus on a way forward for voluntary groups in light of contrasting reports on the effects the downturn has had upon the sector.
A new national voluntary sector umbrella body that claims it will be the biggest representative of users of health and social care services across the UK held its inaugural conference this week in a bid to sign up members and decide which issues to address.
Acevo is to explore the possibility of setting up a sector pension scheme after this was one of the recommendations to emerge from a report it commissioned into relationships between charities and trade unions.
The Charity Commission has launched an online list of newly-registered charities in a bid to help umbrella, membership and support organisations introduce their services to the new arrivals.
Chris Stalker has quit as head of the NCVO's campaigning effectiveness unit amid reports he was frustrated at the umbrella body's refusal to float it off as an independent entity. Stalker declined to comment on the circumstances of his departure, insisting only that it was “amicable” and that he felt that after five and a half years at the NCVO it was time to try something new. He left the NCVO two weeks ago and is now freelancing as a consultant.
The ChangeUp hubs were not given enough time to prove their worth before Capacitybuilders started evaluating them, NCVO chief executive Stuart Etherington said this week as his organisation prepared to cut 21 jobs. The umbrella body is set to lose at least £2m a year in the transition from hubs to national support services, because the total funding available for the national element of ChangeUp has been significantly reduced but the number of services has increased from six to nine.
Sector leaders are being invited to give their views on the health and prospects of their organisations in a new confidence and trends survey run by the NCVO. The umbrella body says Charity Forecast: a quarterly survey of sector leaders has been designed to provide voluntary organisations with valuable information they can use in their planning processes.
Charities minister Phil Hope has held a meeting with sector umbrella groups and the Commission for the Compact to clarify what the role of the Commission should be in the future. Representatives from Compact Voice, a network of umbrella groups with interest in the Compact, including people from acevo, NCVO, NAVCA and Community Matters, attended the meeting, along with interim chief executive of the Commission for the Compact, Richard Corden, and new interim commissioner Helen Baker.
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