This is where we’ll post third sector news and important updates that are useful for your organisation.
Businesses in Maldon, Essex have been reassured by the council that those eligible for government grants will receive them, but that there may be delays.
The Leader of Maldon District Council, Councillor Wendy Stamp, apologised for any delays in an open letter to businesses in the district, saying the council could “never have anticipated” the level of demand at the beginning of the year.
Read more here.
The amount donated to charities on Giving Tuesday was up by almost half this year, despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on in-person events, new figures indicate.
The payments company Visa said that £20.2m was donated using its platform on 1 December this year, a 42 per cent increase on the equivalent figures last year.
This year’s figure equates to £14,000 a minute being raised for UK good causes. This is a significant rise on the £6,250 raised per minute on the same day in 2015.
Covid-19 restrictions across the UK meant it was much harder for participants to conduct in-person fundraising activities this year.
Read the full article, here.
Consultation on Thurrock’s new Economic Development Strategy, Backing Thurrock. Strategy attached. Read and have a say on this document, parts of which are relevant to the community/ social enterprise sector, as well as the wider economic picture.
If you would like to respond to the consultation then you can find the strategy and the consultation response survey on the Council’s portal here: https://consult.thurrock.gov.uk/ .
The consultation questions are a follows:
1) Do you have any comments on the immediate actions identified in the strategy?
2) Do you have any comments on the vision and approach?
3) Do you have any comments on the themes identified in the strategy?
4) Any other thoughts or comments you may have.
5) What do you think the top three actions to be included in the action plan should be?
The consultation is open until early January. To read the Consultation – Backing Thurrock please click here.
One in eight UK adults have been supported by charities since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, research has revealed.
Of those who have received support, nearly four million said they never expected to need help and three quarters of those helped have been dependent on regular support since the health crisis began in March 2020.
The findings have emerged in research commissioned by the insurance and savings industry’s Covid-19 Support Fund.
As many as two in five (39%) of people believe they expect to need charity support for at least another six months.
Young adults and those in London are among the most likely to use charity services. In London almost all (95%) those in receipt of charity support say they are dependent on the help they receive.
The largest areas of support are mental health, food and employment. Two in five 35-54-year-olds have needed mental health support from a charity.
“This research paints a worrying picture of how dependent people across the UK have been on charity support since the beginning of this crisis,” said
Yvonne Braun, executive lead at the Association of British Insurers for the Covid-19 Support Fund.
“The support people have needed hasn’t been a one-off, instead many have required regular help from these organisations. And many people would have suffered more without the help that many charities have provided them with this year. It is also clear that without charities, the emotional impact of not having any support could have worsened this crisis even more.”
Earlier this month the Covid-19 Support fund announced £7.8m in funding for Action for Children and Carers Trust to boost support for young carers.
This article has been sourced from Charity Times.
The Charity Governance Code has been updated to give a greater emphasis to charities’ responsibility to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).
The revised code includes a specific EDI principle and has been written following consultation with the charity sector and advice from independent EDI consultant Pari Dhillon.
Four stages of practice are recommended for charities on their “EDI journey”.
Read more here.
The NCVO has updated its guidance for charities around the recruitment and management of volunteers under local restrictions in England that came into force this month.
On December 2, an England wide Covid-19 lockdown was replaced with tiered local restrictions.
Tier one is the least restrictive, and currently applies to Cornwall and the Isle of Wight. Meanwhile, tier three is the most restrictive and applies to areas in the Midlands and North West among others.
To help charities to engage and support their volunteers under the new restrictions the NCVO’s free to view Knowhow page on Involving Volunteers has been updated.
“Under the local tiered restrictions, in all tiers people can volunteer outside their home and meet in groups of any size – indoors and outdoors whilst volunteering,” it states.
However, in all tiers charities are encouraged to ask volunteers to volunteer from home if they can. Volunteering outside of their home is permitted in all tiers if they cannot volunteer from home or do not need to self isolate.
But in tier 3 areas “if your workplace has been told to close, you will be unable to volunteer there”.
The guidance also references latest social distancing guidelines in all areas, including washing hands and wearing a face covering indoors.
“As part of your duty of care to your volunteers, volunteer involving organisations should undertake a covid-19 risk assessment about the volunteer activities and share the results with the people who are volunteering with them,” the guidance adds.
Article sourced from Charity Times.
A raft of charities have teamed up for a digital fundraising campaign urging the public to donate “digital pennies” when they spend online.
National Emergencies Trust, CLIC Sargent and Blue Cross are among charities to partner with the Roundups app, to launch the #RoundupsPennyAppeal campaign ahead of Christmas.
The app works by linking up to payment cards and rounding up payments to make donations to a chosen charity. This can be for as little as 10p and a weekly cap can be set. The app also allows donors the chance to track how their donations are being spent.
To promote the appeal representatives from more than 20 charities have taken part in a video to encourage people to use the app.
Read more about the app collaboration here.
Third Sector speaks to organisations about their Christmas campaigns. How can collaborative fundraising help your organisation this Christmas. Read more here.
The Third Sector Digital Fundraising Forum, powered by Third Sector, is a free-to-attend, two, half-day exclusive event taking place on 15 & 16 December.
A group of influential Conservative parliamentarians has called for the minister for civil society to be “upgraded” to a new minister for volunteering, according to a new report on the lessons learned from the first national lockdown.
The report, called Connecting Communities, was undertaken by the One Nation Conservatives parliamentary group of about 100 current and former Tory MPs and peers, including Amber Rudd, the former home secretary, and Nicky Morgan, the former education secretary.
The report drew on evidence from constituency surveys, national data, and case studies to highlight what could be learned from the first Covid-19 restrictions between March and July this year.
Key findings included that 97 per cent of first-time volunteers would do so again, and the experience had a positive impact that made respondents feel more connected to their communities.
Read more here.