I do my best to avoid spending time on sites focused on fundraising, as VolResource generally leaves that area to Fundraising UK. But with Intelligent Giving launching soon, a quick glance at their blog - The Charity Sleuths -was in order. I was a little alarmed to read that of the 22 responses they’d had from charities previewing entries (emphasis added):

Barring one addled response from someone who seems incapable of navigating the site, people seem to have grasped that the purpose of Intelligent Giving is positive, and that we are not some evil force intent on destroying the charity world. November 3rd is the official launch date but you’ll be able to see the site on the 1st.

Hardly inspiring confidence that they really have the user and charities in mind in producing a usable site on judging which are best charities to support. And as an ex charity finance director myself, some of their blog commentary on figures they find in annual accounts also makes me wonder if they have any expertise in that area. Well, hopefully we’ll find out in a few days.

UPDATE, 1st November - site looks OK with only a minor layout issue (if viewing at 800×600 or smaller). Maybe there are just a few too many menu and other options on the front page ….. On the comments front, checking the charity I used to be FD for a few years ago, Plantlife, saying that “the website’s still there so it is obviously still a going concern” (after a slight drop in income shown in the annual report they looked at) is rather trite and insulting. But early days.

Finally blog posts covering issues relevant to the voluntary sector in Britain seem to be appearing quite regularly. Here’s some which appeared in our Technorati lists today:
» Blog Archive » London Region ICT Champion: Why London’s voluntary sector needs (and has just got) an ICT Champion.

Paul-Robinson-Howdenshire: Appointment of Gilberdyke Parish Council Funding Officer: Parish Council has employed Charlotte Hursey as a dedicated part time ‘Development and Funding Officer’ working within the Parish (in East Riding of Yorkshire). The role is to establish and provide a funding advice service for local voluntary and community groups.

Socializing: “Social enterprise” in a rut, says: “The Financial Times can’t even tell us how to define social enterprise. Last week’s article, When the good struggle to be great just recycles what seems like the edge of the discussion - Interesting idea, hard to define and isn’t is good people are being entrepreneurial. I personally think this confusion between social enterprise and social entrepreneur, re-told in the article, is unhelpful.”

And a press cutting via Google News:
Funding Concerns Taint Charitys Celebrations (from Watford Observer): A CHARITY’S landmark celebration this week was tainted by funding concerns. Daniel Sturrock became the 1,000th volunteer to register with Three Rivers Volunteer Centre since the national volunteering database was launched.

Plus recently added to the blogroll here: A Cambridge Co-operator Co-operation locally and wider. Over on OpenCharityBlog (blogs BY charities FOR wider public): Mumbles Matters Online community newspaper and forum of the Mumbles Development Trust.

Clare Mulvany, from Dublin, is travelling around the globe for 10 months interviewing ‘people who change the world’ as social entrepreneurs. See her blog at Exceptional Lives.

Welcome to my first ever blog posting! With a partner who loves computers almost as much as he loves me, I have been exposed to the techie bloggers for some time now. At the moment I volunteer for a local (Worcester) community centre, but it wasn’t actually that easy to find voluntary work as I work full time at a university. I absolutely love volunteering - for me it is all about gaining a sense of belonging to a community, for which I must thank Bath Place in Leamington. I increasingly think that I could do so much more, and there seems to be a real shift towards generating income, through the creation of a social enterprise, as a means to become more independent. I’d like to know how anyone else out there took the first plunge into this complex world.

Hi, I started a charity fundraiser almost 14 weeks ago which I called Money For Old Rope.

I got my inspiration from Kyle MacDonald, the guy who traded a paperclip for a house and I am doing well, I am onto my fourth trade now so please pop in and have a look and support me.

After 18 months I will auction whatever I have got and give all the money to GUCH (Grown-Ups with congenital heart disease).

Money For Old Rope

Cheers,

Paul.

Hi, I am a student currently working for the Mercosur Network in Uruguay, an organization that strives toward the economic integration of the Mercosur region (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil). It is an incredible organization, but there is not too much money to be found in South America for causes such as these. I am attempting to start to fundraise in order to fund more research, conferences, etc… but am completely lost on how to start fundraising internationally. Any ideas/suggestions?

UshopUgive, seemingly the biggest and most successful site offering charity commissions via online shops, which included some big names, has announced its closure.

While VolResource doesn’t generally ‘do’ fundraising, this does raise a question mark over the viability of this way of raising income. See The Charity Blogger: Stop being so diligent.

This is a significant health resource for the Irish voluntary sector and community not just in Brent, but across England and the United Kingdom. It draws together available health data on excessive Irish morbidity. Irish people are the only migrant population to suffer significant deterioration to health in England.

Authored by Dr. Patricia Walls, the report indicates very high suicide, cancer and respiratory and heart disease rates, high levels of socio-economic and housing disadvantage, high mental health admissions, disproportionate use of drug and alcohol services and excessive smoking rates among the local and national Irish populations.

Given the absence of major collated research studies of the Irish population for some years, the report is timely and should prove useful to any Irish agency or any professional requiring knowledge and statistics of the health status of the Irish population in London Borough of Brent and across England.

The 2006 Irish in Brent Health Profile Report.

So, there’s to be a new unit set up by the Treasury to coordinate across departments on voluntary sector and social enterprise financial matters.

That’s the Government’s Office of Charity And Third Sector Finance - GOCATS? (OK so there’s a spare F, no rude suggestions please.)

See VoluntaryNews for the real news.

Hello

I am new to blogs and for that matter charity work.

My wife and I moved to France in 2001 after loosing much of our retirement capital in UK farming. We took to riding bikes to keep fit and as a low cost hobby. We decided to do something useful in pursuing our new interest and guess what, I am going to cycle solo the 2,261 miles of this years Tour de France route for cancer charities.

We chose a charity in France, the UK and the USA because our immediate family is located in all three countries. We had strong reasons for choosing each charity in the respective countries.

We have set up a website (www.cancercharitytour.com), and most of my time is now spent on the administrative side of organising the event, that is, when I am not training on the bike.

We have set up and run several businesses in the past and undertaken voluntary posts in various national societies and clubs. However, this project is something quite new and challenging, particularly with three countries involved.

We would welcome any advice or comments on our venture in order to make it successful in raising as much as possible. The more we progress, it becomes clear how professional and vast the world of charity work has become.