Report calls for payroll giving to be replaced

A new report has called for payroll giving to be scrapped and replaced with direct debit solicitation.

The report, Growing Philanthropy in the UK, is based on the issues raised at the Growing Philanthropy Summit held in July. The report is jointly published by Bristol Business School and the Institute of Fundraising.

Although its authors state that the final report does not represent the views of all participants, the document says that the general feeling among those who attended the event, including fundraising academics and representatives from charities such as the British Red Cross, Cancer Research UK and the RNLI, was that payroll giving should be replaced by direct debits.

Acknowledging that the subject was one of the more contentious issues discussed at the summit, the report says: “Payroll giving was developed in a pre-direct debit era and may no longer be fit for purpose.”

The report also calls for the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) to be given similar powers to the Advertising Standards Agency, enabling it to refer organisations which break good practice rules to the Office of Fair Trading. Its authors suggest that 0.05 per cent of all Gift Aid should be used to fund the FRSB.

Charity battle victory for independent schools

Independent schools have won their legal battle with the Charity Commission over the way they have to justify their charitable status.

Under the current rules, which came into effect in 2006, private schools must prove their benefit to the wider public in order to keep their charitable status and the associated tax breaks. Most independent schools operate as charities.

The challenge came from the Independent Schools Council (ISC), which represents 1,260 schools nationally. It argued at a tribunal in London that the current guidance from the Charity Commission was too narrow and placed too much emphasis on the bursaries that independent schools offer to poorer children while failing to take into account all the charitable work that they did.

The tribunal ruled that "certain parts of the Charity Commission's guidance were erroneous", although the Commission insisted its guidelines were clear, adding that it had only provided “supportive assistance” to help trustees of charities retain their charitable status.

The Charity Commission may decide to take the case to the Court of Appeal.

Charities praise change on building VAT

Charities have praised HM Revenue & Customs for cancelling a proposed rule change that would see them pay VAT on big building projects.

A new interpretation of VAT rules would have seen charities liable for significant extra costs in many building schemes.

HMRC wanted to change the rules for Design and Build contracts, which would mean charities having to pay VAT on fees for architects and other design professionals even where they formed part of a wider ‘composite’ supply of services in the course of construction on which VAT would not normally be paid.

See link for further information - and if you would like any further advice on this, or any subject pertinet to Charities or Academy status schools please contact me on 0845 27 66 555 or email me at emma.murray@nicholsonsca.co.uk

http://www.accountancymagazine.com/croner/jsp/Editorial.do?channelId=-305535&contentId=1927823&ito=newswire&Failed_Reason=No+BVCookie+present+to+retrieve+the+session.&Failed_Page=%2fjsp%2fEditorial.do&BV_UseBVCookie=No

Charity Golf Day in air of Lincoln & Lindsey Blind Society

HOT OFF THE PRESS!!

We have just had word from Julie at Lincoln and Lindsey Blind Society.

They are holding a Charity Golf Tournament at Kenwick Park Golf Club, Louth, on Friday 24 September 2010.

It costs only £160 to enter a team of 4 and goodies include:-

Breakfast, Sweepstake, Prize Giving, 2 course evening meal, and 18 holes of golf (Stableford rules apply).

For further details, please call Julie on 01507 605 604 or email her on julie@llbs.co.uk

Don't forget to tell her where you heard about it!

Lincoln & Lindsey Blind Society Est. 1921 Reg. Charity No. 1132353

Opportunity to nominate your charity for cash support

A couple of money raising opportunities have come to my attention today, and I thought you might be interested in hearing about them.

Opportunity 1

Natwest have set up a Community Fund which aims to support hundreds of local charities and projects across the country and they allocate £5000 for the local area.

To nominate your charity for a slice of the £5000 all you need to do is let them have the details of your organisation, what you do and why you should receive the money, or nominate via the following link, nominations close on 27 August 2010 - so hurry!

https://communityfund.natwest.com/Nominate

Note: You do not need to be a Natwest customer to nominate.

Opportunity 2

‘The Works’ is a local independent business directory which is delivered free to 7000 households and businesses.

Each year they nominate a charity to support, and in September’s edition on page 28 they are asking for nominations for their charity to support throughout 2011.

Simply contact them on 01522 823546 or email sales@theworkslincoln.co.uk and give full details, including the charity number.

Please let me know how you get on!

Charities need to be aware of scams

Useful guidance has been included on the Charity Commission website to help charities and trustees to protect themselves and their charity against fraud – this link is well worth a look

www.charitycommission.gov.uk/RSS/News/pr_scams.aspx

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths that people will go to and the schemes that are dreamt up – I think this is therefore a must so you can try and keep one step ahead!

Vetting and Barring Scheme

This was launched in October 2009 working to prevent unsuitable people from taking certain work (on a paid or voluntary basis) with children and some adults – therefore clearly impacting on the charity sector along with many others.  The registration with ISA (Independent Safeguard Authority) was due to come into force in July 2010, with compulsory registration coming into force in November 2010 for people in new roles. 

This introduction of the registration for new roles has been “halted” currently whilst the whole programme is reviewed, however, the points introduced in October 2009 are still in play thus making it an offence to try to work with these groups if you have been barred from doing so and also to knowingly employ someone who has been barred, any dismissals relating to the harm of a vulnerable child or adult should still be reported to ISAS – it is therefore essential that the “halt” isn’t taken too much to heart as many of the policies introduced do still stand.

Reporting Serious Incidents

Recent guidance has been issued on the Charity Commission website to help trustees to deal correctly with the “Reporting of Serious Incidents” which came into force along with the Companies Act 2006 changes, the guidance can be found at the following link:-

www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Our_regulatory_activity/Reporting_issues/rsinotes.aspx

This gives examples of the types of incidents and events that should be reported and also reminds trustees that by signing the annual declaration you confirm that there are no incidents that should have been reported – an update as to the types of incidents is therefore very useful - they do also state that if an incident is not reported and they become aware of this at a later date they may take action.  This part aside though, the guidance and the charity commission are quite clearly issuing this guidance and asking for reports in order that they can provide help at the earliest opportunity – not from the angle of wanting to take action if you don’t report.

Gift Aid

Gift aid is set to be a continuing source of intrigue and change over the coming months with options into how this system can be amended being researched and results being released by the Treasury.

There is a suggestion that a simpler system may be to just allow charities to reclaim the full tax paid by the donor rather than some higher rate tax payers entering donations on Income Tax Returns, thus improving the position for charities and in reality, will there be much of an impact on individuals as I would suspect only a minority of donors include this information on returns?

The other suggestion I have seen is to just have a standard “hybrid” rate for gift aid to be reclaimed on all donations – this being somewhere between the lower rate currently claimed and the potential higher rates noted before – 30 and 37% have been floated as ideas.  Again, simplicity seems to be the name of the game and a clear system would result.  As to any negative points; none other than the necessity for the hybrid rate to be automatically revised if tax rates are increased, if not, charities may lose out.  However, looking at the high profile responders to this I would like to think that the case for charities is being well and truly fought so surely the outcome should be positive?

Surviving the downturn as a charity

The downturn in the economy has affected everyone - not least the charities within our society, who are being encouraged by the Charity Commission to follow the lead of many businesses and review their operations. To this end the appropriately labelled “Economic Downturn” checklist has been born, this is recommended to all charities and can be used at the very least as an aide memoire for trustees to review their charity in terms of their Strategy, Financial Health, Governance and Resource utilisation.

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