CAF survey has worrying results

The results of a Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) poll released this week have painted a worrying picture of the Third Sector as it struggles to beat the current economic crisis.

 

The survey questioned 322 voluntary organisations and charities about how they were coping with the biting recession:

 

·        41% have received less funding in the last three months than usual.

·        60% had looked to their savings to meet this shortfall.

·        Corporate income was flagged up as the worst hit source of funding and donations.

·        50% of organisations are expecting a continuing decline over the next twelve months.

 

As might be expected, over half (51%) of all charities and voluntary groups whose services help people to deal with the effects of the recession have seen a demand for their input increase over the last three months.  Such statistics serve to confirm the centrality and importance of the Third Sector in helping the country weather the current economic storm, unmistakably marking them as a “last safety net” for those in need.

 

For further information visit:

 

http://www.cafonline.org/

 

Source: Charities Aid Foundation

Third Sector to stick together to beat the crunch…

Acevo chief executive, Stephen Bubb, has this week urged Third Sector organisations to stick together during the current economic crisis and warned they need to be prepared to try out new approaches.

 

According to Bubb, speaking at the Charities Aid Foundation’s Funding the Future Conference, Third Sector groups should be looking to form alliances with other similar charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises if they want to survive the next few years.

 

Bubb flagged up the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella group comprising 13 UK charities who work in humanitarian and emergency aid, as a model of best practice, claiming whenever an international crisis occurs they work together effectively.

 

With the recession undeniably shaping up to be an international crisis – it’s time for the Third Sector to work together too…

 

Source: Acevo

Charity losses revealed…

Third sector umbrella bodies NCVO, Acevo, the Charities Aid Foundation, the Charity Finance Directors’ Group and the Charity Commission, have this week released figures they gathered in their September survey detailing charity losses in the Icelandic bank collapse.

 

The survey results, released following a consultation with government ministers, suggest that charities have lost between £86.6 and £200 million in the recent Icelandic banking troubles.

 

Sector representatives present at the consultation urged the government to act quickly and suggested the implementation of a loan guarantee scheme for charities that have lost money.

 

Source: Acevo

Third Sector bodies keep losses secret

Following their meeting with third sector minister Kevin Brennan this week, chief executives from umbrella bodies NCVO, Acevo, the Charity Finance Director’s Group and the Charities Aid Foundation have announced they will not make public the figures they have gathered in relation to the amount of charity money lost in the Icelandic bank collapse.

 

Ralph Michell, Acevo’s policy advocate, yesterday commented that the meeting with Government had been “constructive” and revealed it is hoped that the third sector minister will, “come back with an answer in the near future”.

 

Source: Third Sector

Third sector representatives present survey findings

This week will see a number of third sector representatives present survey findings to the third sector minister, Kevin Brennan and the Treasury minister, Paul Myners.

 

Leaders from the NCVO, Acevo, the Charity Finance Director’s Group and the Charities Aid Foundation will present figures outlining how much charities have lost, and still stand to loose, in the Icelandic bank collapse.

 

It is hoped the results, gathered from an anonymous survey carried out throughout October to assess the scale of the sector’s losses, will ensure that charities are afforded the same protection as local authorities and individuals and won’t lose out as a result of the struggling economy.

 

Source: Acevo

15.10.08 (2)

Government blanks Third Sector as credit crunch escalates…

 

Third sector groups have reacted with anger and disappointment this week after Chancellor Alistair Darling failed to respond to pleas to ensure the charity and voluntary sectors receive the same protection as local authorities and individuals during the current economic crisis.

 

In particular, the charity sector is calling for all deposits of charity money to be fully guaranteed in the wake of the Icelandic bank collapse – currently around £230 million belonging to nearly a hundred UK charities is at risk of being lost.  According to Charities Aid Foundation chief executive, John Low, refusing to do this could have “catastrophic” effects.

 

Source: Charities Aid Foundation

02.10.08 (1)

More affordable homes for communities

 

A new £2 million fund unveiled this week should guarantee a brighter future for Community Land Trusts (CLTs) across the country.

 

The fund, financed by a number of social investment organisations including the Tudor Trust and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, will see CLTs pocket cash in order to buy available land.  This land will be owned by the local community and will be used to provide affordable homes in order to ensure local families are not priced out of living in their local area.

 

Managed by Venturesome, the social lending division of the high profile Charities Aid Foundation, it is hoped the fund will support the creation of up to 30 new CLTs over the next four years and promote new opportunities for financing rural housing.

 

Find out more about Venturesome at:

 

http://www.cafonline.org/default.aspx?Page=6903

 

Source: Venturesome