CERT Ltd

Shared experiences could spread best practice

A website where face-to-face fundraisers from different parts of the world could share best practice was one of the suggestions at a session at the International Fundraising Congress examining whether they should cooperate more.

The session, at the global fundraising conference held in the Netherlands, was convened by Mick Aldridge, chief executive of the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association.

About 40 fundraisers from countries including the UK, the Netherlands and Australia, attended the session.

They all showed enthusiasm for building a global face-to-face fundraising website where they could share information about best practice, mystery shopping methodology and codes of practice.

Some mentioned the idea of a password-protected forum where they could discuss the fundraising method.

Aldridge also told the session that the PFRA would like to make its annual attrition survey an international poll, saying he would eventually like at least 100 charities worldwide to take part.

After the debate, Aldridge told Third Sector that the PFRA would email fundraisers who attended the debate, asking them to fill out a survey about how they would like to unite.

He said everyone would benefit from different countries coming together like this.

"We’re a mature market in the UK, but we don’t know everything," he said. "If we share our experiences we can make the medium better for potential donors."

Neighbourhood Challenge wants expressions of interest by 22 November

A grant programme for community organisations in deprived areas worth a minimum of £1.5m was launched yesterday by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.

The Neighbourhood Challenge will award 10 organisations at least £150,000 over 18 months to trial different approaches to tackling local problems.

The programme aims to show how community organisations can support local people to tackle issues that matter to them.

Money will be spent on providing organisations with tools and training, and to provide small-scale finance for local projects.

Jonathan Kestenbaum, Nesta’s chief executive, said: "We know that there is huge untapped potential in all communities and now, more than ever, we need to find ways of unlocking the ingenuity of people in their local neighbourhoods.

"We now urgently need better evidence of which approaches work best and in what context."

The challenge will be evaluated to provide ideas to the government on how to make big society policy work across the UK.

Expressions of interest should be submitted by 22 November.

First stage of review that will bring changes from May next year

The Charity Commission has launched a consultation on how it should cut its spending by a third after the government’s announcement last week that its budget would be cut from £29.3m to £21.3m by 2014/15.

The consultation asks whether the commission should adopt a light-touch approach to registering charities, whether it should investigate charities only where large amounts of money are at risk and whether it should stop giving one-to-one advice to individual charities.

It also asks what risks the voluntary sector will face in the next five years, and which services respondents expect the commission to provide.

Dame Suzi Leather, the chair of the commission, said: "Business as usual is simply not an option for the commission, given the reduction in our resources. We have to draw up a whole new picture of what kind of a regulator the commission should be in five years’ time.

"We might have to withdraw services, change the way we interact with charities and refocus our regulatory approach."

In a statement, the commission said this was the first stage of a review process and the changes would be in place from May 2011.