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There have been complaints over many years that too many charity trustees are white, 60+ males.

In my experience, that’s true. Most of the trustee boards Minerva works with fall into that category, though truthfully the majority are making a major effort to recruit more women, and younger people generally. Equally importantly, the small charities we […]

At Minerva we work almost exclusively with small charities, many of which UK-wide are suffering from the reduction in statutory funding in recent years. Nowhere is this more noticeable than our Northamptonshire base, where we live in the only (as yet!) bankrupt county council in England.

Small charities have long found it difficult to raise corporate […]

Following on February’s blog about Trustee Boards, this month’s blog continues the governance theme and looks at charities’ annual accounts.

Some of the small charities Minerva works have an annual income of £25,000 or less. These charities do not have to have their accounts independently scrutinised.

But the majority do have to do so, and it’s worth […]

I am often asked for advice about the organisation and recruitment of Trustee Boards by the charities where I’m working.

Getting this wrong can have serious consequences, as anyone reading the Charity Commission’s feature on the weekly Gov.uk e-mails will know. This week alone, 2 charities are being investigated owing to alleged shortcomings or mismanagement by […]

In 2008, the Data Partnership carried out a survey of UK donors where responders were asked the question: “Which of the following causes would you consider donating to ?”

The answers were revealing.

280,000 people said that they would consider giving to Cancer (no surprise there !).

262,000 people said they would give to Children and 233,000 to […]

Few people want much regulation – it’s not the British way!

However, events in the last 2 years leading to the setting-up of the Fundraising Regulator have fundamentally changed the fundraising scene in the UK.

The Fundraising Regulator is now seeking all of our views on a range of issues to do with the Code of Fundraising […]

There’s an old Chinese curse which says: “May you live in interesting times!”

This is certainly true for the charity sector as 2017 unfolds – although not all the interest is as bad as the curse suggests.

What is clear, however, is that charities big and small need to embrace new technology and new methods of fundraising.

A […]

Some years ago I attended a seminar on the National Lottery.

The helpful team from different Lottery funds genuinely wanted to know how their audience felt about the application processes. They clearly weren’t expecting the minor tsunami which greeted their enquiry !

Speaker after speaker complained about the length and complexity of the application processes; the difficulty […]

New from Parliament
The Small Charitable Donations Bill has provided a welcome boost for charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs).

Key changes to the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme mean that the administrative burden for charities and CASCs will be reduced, and they will also provide additional benefits for charities connected with community buildings.

Charities operating from […]

Last month I attended the National Council for Voluntary Organisation’s (NCVO’s) national conference in London. As usual, it was a well-worthwhile day with first rate speakers and good networking opportunities.

Other delegates I spoke to confirmed the results of NCVO’s research, published earlier in the month, that although the total income for the voluntary sector rose […]