In the news last week...25 September
Take a look at all the charity sector headlines from the last week
FPS scam and other FR updates
A number of charities have received a scam email purporting to be from the Fundraising Regulator and requesting payment towards the Fundraising Preference Service (which is, of course, covered by the voluntary levy that certain charities pay to the regulator). The regulator has given assurances that there is no evidence to suggest its database has been hacked.
The regulator has begun sending out invoices for the second year of its levy this month and has also opened registration for commercial fundraising businesses and CICs.
Meanwhile, in Scotland…
It seems that fundraising is a much less contentious issue north of the border – the Scottish Fundraising Standards Panel has said this week that it has not had to investigate any complaints about fundraising practice since it began in December, in contrast to the FR in England and Wales, which says that it is typically investigating around 20 at any one time. One reason underlying this could be that while many of the largest charities also operate in Scotland, they are registered in England, meaning that they are instead covered by the Fundraising Regulator.
Commission guidance on serious incidents
The Charity Commission has published new guidance on reporting serious incidents in charities. The Commission said that it is concerned about ‘significant underreporting’ and urged charities to act early.
Successful challenge to new rules on environmental cases
The charities ClientEarth, Friends of the Earth and RSPB have achieved a victory in a High Court case against new government rules, which removed cost limits on how much charities and individuals have to pay if they lose a case against a public body. While the rules with remain in place, the judge said that there must be clarification and a cap will be fixed at the beginning of a case.
Local charities day 2017
The minister for civil society, Tracey Crouch, announced that Local Charities Day will be back for its second year, on 15 December.
