In the news last week...2 October
Take a look at all the charity sector headlines from the last week
Response to House of Lords report
The minister for civil society, Tracey Crouch, will respond by the end of October to the report by the House of Lords Committee on charities, which published a range of recommendations back in March. One of the key recommendations, to implement the reforms to the Lobbying Act proposed by Lord Hodgson, has already been rejected by the government. But there are a range of other recommendations – around issues such as improving commissioning, protecting grants from local authorities and providing more support for trustees – which many of us will hope the government acts on.
Grant-making news
It was a big week for grant-making – ACF released their latest Foundation Giving Trends report, which showed that grant-making from the largest 300 grant-making charities rose by 12% since the previous year, to around £2.9 billion, with income and assets up too.
Also last week, following the release of the 25th edition of DGMT, we held a roundtable event bringing together voices from a range of different grant-makers in the sector to discuss trends and issues in grant-making, past, present and future. You can follow what happened on #DGMT25 on twitter, and also read a series of guest contributions over on our blog.
GDPR preparations
A survey by the Institute of Fundraising has found that many charities (around two-thirds of those who responded to IoF’s survey) do not have a plan in place for when the new data protection regulations (GDPR) come into force next May. It highlighted particular uncertainty amongst smaller charities. The majority of respondents to the survey felt that the biggest issue was a lack of clear guidance on the new regulations.
Digital summit
The Charity Commission held a joint summit with the Fundraising Regulator and representatives from 14 digital giving platforms, discussing issues such as ensuring support for individuals setting up or donating to online appeals and making sure that resources are used as effectively as possible.
Also, while we’re on the topic of staying informed about the news, the Charity Commission have just sent out their latest newsletter – if you don’t already get it, you can sign up to keep up-to-date with what’s going on at the regulator.
