Blog

Looking back over the last month, it is clear that the doom-and-gloom merchants have not been proved right after all – at least as far as the Third Sector is concerned.

In the same way that an apparent majority of those who have sadly died from coronavirus were suffering from pre-existing conditions, so many of the […]

Last month I wrote about the challenges facing charities during the coronavirus crisis, in particular the small charities that form the majority of Minerva’s clients.

Harold Wilson once said, “A week is a long time in politics” – to which we might now add “A month is a long time in a virus epidemic”.

One of the […]

Looking back at my March blog, I realise how much has changed in just one month.

Brexit, which seemed so important then, has now virtually disappeared from the news – along with much else. Coronavirus is the issue – for page after page in all the main national dailies and on news websites.

Understandably we’re all concerned […]

Charities that are hit financially by coronavirus will only be able to apply for government loans if more than half their income comes from trading activity.

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, delivered by the British Business Bank, was announced in last week’s Budget as one of the measures to support SMEs that experience financial difficulties […]

Most small charities are facing funding challenges, if not crises, these days.

Is this the result of Brexit ? Or are people individually giving less to charity? Or is the corporate sector tightening its belt?

Martyn Drake, writing in Third Sector earlier this month, offers 3-4 options for charities suffering an income loss owing to the reduction […]

Most charities today rely on volunteers to deliver at least part of the services they provide. Some small charities are run entirely by volunteers.

Most of us would agree that recruiting volunteers is one of today’s charity key tasks. But how many of us who are paid take time off to consider what motivates […]

Ask many small charity CEOs what one of their New Year wishes would be – and a significant proportion would answer: “Make sure all our grants are unrestricted.”

Last year research indicated that at 5 selected charities, restricted funding made up 90% of their earned income. This trend seems to be the norm, although there have […]

One of the questions I’m most frequently asked is: should Trustees become involved in fundraising?

Many Trustees have said that they exist to give wise advice to their charity’s executive team, attend meetings and events – but they consider doing anything active like fundraising, or in some cases even giving to their charity (“I give my […]

Research carried out by both the University of Bath and Brevio – a group founded by Marcelle Speller OBE – has found that 63% of grant applications by charities result in failure.

On average a charity applies for 22 grants a year, spending 18 hours completing each application.

Grant applications forms contain between 21 and 193 […]

This month sees the long-awaited new Code of Fundraising Practice, which has been produced by the Fundraising Regulator after much discussion and debate, finally becoming effective.

Incidents in recent years involving governance and other shortcomings by a number of medium size and large charities including Kids’ Company, 4U and Oxfam have confirmed in everybody’s minds the […]