BULLETIN No. 101: July 2011

This is a monthly bulletin going out to around 10,000 clients, contacts, friends, friends of friends so forth, to keep them in touch with what's going on in the world of charities. Tip: if like me you have a low attention span or this came to you by mistake, scroll down to the …And Finally.

Daryl Martin

DARYL'S BLOG IN TOP 10
Daryl's Blog has been selected to feature on the 'World of Difference' website as one of the 10 best (independent) charity blogs out there. The World of Difference programme, which is run by the Vodafone Foundation, helps people to bring their skills and experience to the charities of their choice. It also encourages those taking part in the programme to engage in social media in order to boost their charity's cause. It's a great site, and there's a lot on there to inspire, amuse and inform readers. Here's a link to the article if you want to take a look: http://worldofdifference.vodafone.co.uk/news/archives/4061

BUILDING PROJECTS
My item on networking produced a reminder from Martin Slatter, who regularly comes up with helpful thoughts; if you are embarking on any major change to your premises, you must notify your insurers. If you don't and a claim arises during the work, you could be in difficulty. Store this at the back of your mind you hard pressed admin guys, who have to think of everything.

CHARITY TRADING
I've had questions recently relating to trading income, including room and hall hire and selling services. It's important to remember the limits that HMRC have set in respect of ancillary trading, i.e., the lower of £50,000 or 25% of turnover. If you breach these limits, your tax status will be affected. E-mail me if you'd like me to review your trading activities. If you are getting close to the limit you need to consider a separate trading company, but it's worth reviewing the mix as often the accounts don't properly differentiate between primary and ancillary trading. This can be complicated so take advice if you need to.

CHARITY COMMISSION
The work of downsizing their operations is moving forward. A number of senior posts are going. Their advice is only web-based apart from situations where they have a statutory duty to advise. What's the downside? I'm getting a lot of stories where it's getting harder to make trustees accountable for their actions. I had a call recently from someone who wanted to blow the whistle on some bad practises. A couple of years ago my advice would have been quite different, with a strong likelihood of a Section 18 enquiry being set up. No longer, this is a pity, as it leads to feelings of helplessness when things are going wrong. In one case, the trustees refused to accept mediation (is this an admission of guilt?). It's important that charities ensure that there is an effective mechanism in place for dealing with complaints, solving disputes and grievances. We have trained mediators and problem solvers always at hand.

CIOs
Delays continue. Model constitutions have even been published and it was hoped that the regulations would go before Parliament before the summer recess. Dream on. Anyway, the more I look at them the more the flaws show. That there will be no register of charges might seem a small matter, but it will have significant implications for company charities which at present register charges with Companies House. If you are considering incorporating or want to be kept in touch with the progress of CIOs, drop me a line. Andrew Hind, the former CE of the Charity Commission confessed that his failure to carry out due diligence when he became a trustee of a charity that decided to sue Franklin Mint and ended up with an enormous potential personal liability when the Mint counter sued. The lesson is: never trust an optimistic lawyer, and don't operate as an unincorporated trust if there is any possibility of personal risk, or if you plan to go around suing people.

APPROVED MILEAGE RATES
Don't forget that the 40p per mile rate went up to 45p in the budget. If you carry a fellow employee/ volunteer as a passenger you can claim an additional 5p. If you are paid less that these rates, you can claim relief for the difference against your employment income.

WHERE DO CHARITIES TURN FOR ADVICE?
David Locke, executive director of charity services at the Charity Commission, speaking at the recent ACIE annual conference, talked about commercial opportunities for professional advisers in the charity sector. The Commission, faced with a spending cut of 30%, will no longer offer advice. The onus will increasingly be on a charity wanting to register to get it right; 'if they don't it will be rejected'. Where a charity needs to obtain permission for something, perhaps selling land, if they don't make the case it'll be rejected. At present only 8% of charities turn to professional advisers such as us. This is going to increase, and we are putting more resources into this area of our activities. Give us a call if you need any help.

CAN YOU DECLINE A DONATION?
This is an interesting question right now, which is taxing the minds of people who are far cleverer than I am. If the News of the World in winding up, wants to say make a donation to the Church of England, who have held investments in its parent company so faithfully over the years, does the Church have legal powers to decline such a gift? If the governing document is silent on this point it may not be able to. Even if it does have powers to decline it may not be through the woods, because sometimes to decline a gift, where there is no viable alternative, is to rob the gift of its charitable status, which may be a breach of trust in itself. We'll cross this bridge when we come to it. Meantime, if you are planning to decline a gift, make sure of your ground beforehand and take advice if necessary. Sometimes of course we can break the law by accepting a donation and not reporting it if we suspect money laundering or similar. Life is never simple.

LOCAL REPRESENTATION
We had a number of responses to my mention of franchise opportunities in my June bulletin. Our plans are beginning to go forward and we have started talking to people in different parts of the UK. Let us know if this something that might interest you. One of my recent charity blogs points up some of the opportunities being thrown up by the public sector cutbacks.

TRUSTEE TRAINING
I made some attempts last year to get some trustee and independent examiner training organised in various remote locations. In the meantime, I am getting invitations to take a day or a half day to train trustees and managers/ leaders. It's much easier when someone else is doing the organising. Sometimes a charity will draw in others in the area, this works and it also spreads the cost. If you are interested in doing this let me know. I can put a mention into this bulletin if appropriate.

VOLUNTEERS' RIGHTS
I'm often asked what rights volunteers have compared with staff on payroll. The simple answer is not very much at all. From time to time it's tested in the courts with usually much the same result. Recently 3 Appeal Court judges ruled that a disabled volunteer is not covered by employment law. Leave has been given to appeal to the Supreme Court, so this one will run for a while yet. It might even go to Europe. It leaves open the question as to what rights volunteers should have. An interim report from Volunteering England cited many stories of injustice and mooted the idea of a Volunteer Complaints Commissioner, although it stopped short of endorsing such a solution. Meantime, a document or letter can be helpful in setting out rights and responsibilities, but it will be binding in honour only and have no force in law. Don't make it too prescriptive and try to avoid employment terminology. I'd be happy to vet any and give you my view. The problem is that if you begin to give equivalent rights to volunteers, you create a whole new set of problems and issues, and you risk losing the element of trust which makes volunteering so important.

BLOGS
It's been a busy month. Subjects covered in my charity blog include: compassion being good for business, and opportunities in the charity sector. Fundraising blogs have covered: wills, donor retention rates, and charity shops. My personal blog has been looking at my own journey, including: lifting the lid on the silent retreat we recently attended; I also blogged on the importance of touch, which seemed to resonate. Next couple of weeks could be quiet as we are going on some sort of Celtic pilgrimage round the British Isles. To sign up go to www.iel.org.uk

YOUR HELP NEEDED!
We took on 75 new clients in the last year. This is fantastic. But we lost 25: mergers, closures etc. We can take good care of another 100 clients this year. If we've given you good service could you tell a friend? If we didn't, please tell us.

AND FINALLY...

There's a lot of talk right now about how people change. I read this quote somewhere, 'People change when they are inspired, in pain or in love'. At a recent conference, a keynote speaker said that people begin to change when their misery level is higher than their fear level.

'If you don't like change, you'll like irrelevance even less', Gen Eric Shineski, ret. chief of Staff US army. Repeated from last month in the light of the previous quotes!

There's nothing quite like the smile on the face of a man who has thought of someone else he can put the blame onto. (This has surfaced a number of times recently in different shapes so it's not sourced)

'He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else' (Benjamin Franklin) Ouch, that one's too close for comfort!

A topical quote from Steve Chalke: 'Churches should be the most honest communities around. Honesty is a matter of authenticity. It is about making sure that what we say matches what we think, and is reflected in what we do'. Today we are surrounded by incredible disasters on every side. It's all about chickens coming home to roost. In recent decades we have allowed public standards to slip. Today we are ashamed of our politicians who have learned nothing, our bankers who are still milking us, now the police and the journalists there to hold them to account seemed to have formed unholy alliances. We in the voluntary sector must set high standards. Generally I find high standards of behaviour wherever I go. Be proud of them and hold to them. Be authentic.