MS Research has launched a Fan Page on Facebook in the non-profit category. Choose the category carefully: first click on institution then non-profit. Charities in the UK cannot yet use the Causes application for secure donations but there is always a way around this and I am very happy to share this with you.

Once the moment of creating the page is done with you may start adding some useful apps. Creating the page took longer as the webmaster email of the charity which is redirected to my own was not accepted. Did Facebook find out I was disguising myself? I settled this by using our spare email at Google as I always think the job of webmaster is not mine for life. So webbie got accepted in the end. Rabbit was made admin with no hesitation.

Some tabs at the top of the wall page were not so useful so they could be placed in the back (the >> and + tabs). Click on Edit page, settings need to be edited first, decide if you want the whole world to know or just the UK…Wall settings decide if you want post by fans as well as the charity. Set where the post will go if the fan and others cannot post on the wall. Boxes is quite good for that.

Now the Page has some donation buttons for Justgiving and CAF on the right. These have been added using the Static FBML is what I used I recommend getting Learn FBML visiting Learn FBML might help use Static FBML. Once anything is created using Static FBML it will be visible in Boxes. From there you can make it go on the Wall on the left. So the size of the button is important. The wider buttons will stay in Boxes. Update the Fans about your new additions. I did it like this because the Justgiving apps on Facebook is not yet workin on Fan Pages. That was very frustrating.

 A button code as the CAF one will not show at all without placing the code in <div></div> , some useful html coding works in FBML so I used <b> and <i> to stress what I was saying. I think that colour can be added using <span></span> so whatch it! Creativity can be released. At the bottom of the Edit Page the is the More Applications facility, click on the right and browse for more applications: other than Static FLML and Learn FBML I think I added Notes and the blessed Drop.io which is brilliant and can be used for uploading pdf documents to share with your fans. Reviews and Discussions are also useful but can be coming into action later. Extended Info is very good as the info tab is limited. There is Poll too So there is always a reason to update your existing fans and welcome the new ones. On the right of the Edit page you can find some helping information, the examples are not always useful for the UK. This is why I thought of helping you with this. Then I tweet about it too, follow me?

The website of the charity has a new layout, a new design and some new volunteers. The need for help is as poignant as ever. Reports of dramatic falls in charitable giving are overblown; volunteering should not be depleted as time and commitment are two things that are needed. That is also giving. Volunteers are always needed for collections, information days and there are two posts in particular that are vacant: Development Officer, Southern Region and Training Officer.

We have found a Development Officer for the Northern region. She is going to be extremely busy with facilitating Phil and Ian’s Coast to Coast Fundraising. Have you got what it takes to help us with something like this? That is  run (on average) 7 marathons in 7 days!!! If not, you could become a Development Officer for the Southern Region. It needs the same level of commitment. Please contact us or use this form.

So, MS Researh has made it easy for single or regular donations to be made on the Charity Aid Foundation (CAF) and with Justgiving the possibilties are endless to donate or create some pages for fundraising all over the UK and Northern Ireland.

The website is now on an easy to maintain  Content Management System (CMS). The webmaster has not retired! She still needs to train the researchers to publish some more of their news. MS Researh charity decided to upgrade to CMS as it was not wise to expect one volunteer only to know how to update and publish.

An American volunteering website made Time Magazine’s Top 10 list (of websites, that is) for 2007. Link to Volunteer Match.

I saw some turn of year mentions of UK volunteer opportunities, but don’t think any sites got quite that level of recognition over here. Can anyone prove me wrong?

(Time top 10 courtesy of ephilanthropy.org)

VOLUNTEERS URGENTLY REQUIRED
FOR A COLLECTION in AID of the MS RESEARCH CHARITY
at THE MALL CRIBBS CAUSEWAY near Bristol
on FRIDAY 18^TH and SATURDAY 19^TH JANUARY 2008

The collections will take place all day on both of these days, and if you are able to help for a couple of hours, please contact:

BRIAN PAGINGTON
on Tel: Home 01454 320141
Tel: Mobile 07776 341 601
Please forward this request to anyone you know who might be able to help with these collections.
Thank You

The introduction of the Community Interest Companies (CIC) was intended to provide a way for people to get involved in social enterprise projects intended to benefit local communities. A CIC can be setup and grow safe in the knowledge that what is built for the benefit of the local community will remain in that community.

There is one other factor that distinguishes a CIC from most other organisations. That is the need for people within a community to get involved in the projects. Most people would not volunteer to help a company which has it’s shareholders as it’s primary focus!

But a CIC is different. Volunteers can get involved and help knowing that what they create is for the benefit of their community.

We need volunteers in our local communities. The charities have always needed people to help and the Community Interest Companies will not succeed without people from the community getting involved.

Explosion Entertainments is a CIC with a difference. We provide a way for volunteers from local communities throughout the UK to help their local charitable causes with their fundraising.

We have entertainers of all levels of skills and talents registering on our website making themselves available to help on a voluntary basis. Yes they get publicity for themselves, yes they get a chance to perform in public (all aspiring entertainers need that), but the primary purpose is to help the charitable cause so that it can benefit the local community.

I must add that Explosion Entertainments does not charge anyone for registering, or using entertainers from the website, or anything. We ourselves are volunteers and our primary purpose is to help charitable causes. What we are building is not for ourselves but for the community.

All local communities need volunteers! Find a cause that you are interested in or who need your particular skills and expertise. Offer to help, a few hours a month is better than nothing.

Be a volunteer. Your community needs you!

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 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?