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Should charities refuse donations from individuals and/or organisations with whose views, policies or actions they disagree? Or should they accept what is sometimes described as “dirty” money?

This has been a continuing subject of debate, from the general long-term issues including environmental charities accepting donations from oil companies on the one

When NCVO published its UK Civil Society Almanac towards the end of last year, it highlighted a number of pressures and challenges facing the Sector.

At Minerva, there was no surprise that NCVO had pointed to the particular problems facing small charities. It is perhaps worth noting that NCVO considers a

If a random sample of members of the public were asked to list the public sector areas they thought the Government should be particularly funding, it’s unlikely that defence would be high up on their list.

Despite what has been going on in Israel, Syria and the Ukraine, many people do

The recent Budget is dominating much of the Charity Sector media, with commentators listing the benefits the Budget has provided for charities, as well as the problems it has created.

However, the long term is often more critical than the short term – and the long term in this instance is

Is small beautiful?

Minerva has for many years worked almost exclusively with small charities. The most common definition of “small” is an annual income of £1.5 million or less – although The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) classifies small charities as those having an income of £500,000

Many fundraisers consider themselves – or are considered by their colleagues – to be second-class citizens within the charities where they work.

I have never understood this attitude.

A charity’s operations and its fundraising are inextricably linked. Without fundraising, there can be no service delivery; and without a service there is no

There are few voices in the Charity Sector as significant as that of Sir Stuart Etherington, the former Chief Executive of NCVO.

So, when he set out before the General Election what he thought the Charity Sector should be asking of the next government, it would have been wise for charity

CharityConnect has an excellent online community that enables professionals, Trustees, and other volunteers in the sector to exchange experiences, ask questions, and offer solutions to the problems faced by others.

Recently there’s been an increase in issues involving Trustees and the trustee/executive interface. Challenges have ranged from the use of Trustees’

A leading question on everyone’s minds at present is: “What will the new Government’s attitude be towards the Charity Sector?”. To this I would add: “And what will their attitude be specifically towards small charities?”

Those of us who can remember back to the early days of this century will recall

There is a widespread – and understandable – assumption that as the economic situation has worsened and competition for both charitable and statutory grants has intensified, people have cut back substantially on their charitable giving.

In fact, a report by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) concludes that although giving levels