Four out of five charities believe they are not fully prepared for a Gift Aid audit, according to new research from fundraising database provider Blackbaud.

The government will look to the National Lottery to help fund the £900m additional cost of staging the 2012 Olympics, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell told MPs today.

Gail Scott-Spicer, deputy chief executive of acevo, is to join young people's charity Rainer as director of marketing and communications ahead of its push for greater involvement in delivering probation services.

Charity mergers and acquisitions will become much more commonplace in future as small and medium-sized charities are edged out by the larger household names, according to some of the UK's top fundraisers.