- environmental justice and community development. York

A day conference bringing together community development practitioners and others working with communities in understanding values that link community development and the environmental agenda. See CDX website.

NH Leeuwenhorst Hotel, Noordwijk, The Netherlands. Three or four day conference for senior level fundraising professionals based in the global North. See: Resource Alliance, phone 020 7065 0802, Email: ifc@resource-alliance.org

Attracts representatives from charities, health bodies and arts organisations interested in fundraising as well as suppliers to the sector.

The IFC is the world’s leading education and training conference for fundraising professionals worldwide, renowned for its outstanding training and networking opportunities. The core 3-day programme offers over 100 workshops and sessions, with the option of attending a 6½ hour intensive Masterclass the day before. All sessions are English speaking and include plenaries, workshops and mini-courses covering:

- new media
- communications
- direct marketing
- legacies
- high level giving
- management & leadership
- corporate & foundations and many more!

The Congress attracts over 900 participants from more than 50 countries worldwide, and with almost two-thirds of attendees holding senior-level positions from Managers to CEO/Director level, the opportunity for peer-to-peer networking is unparalleled.

Featuring the world’s best hand-picked speakers including Geoff Peters, Karen Osborne, Bernard Ross, Tony Elischer, Stephen Pidgeon, the IFC consistently delivers a programme featuring the most up to date thinking and cutting edge fundraising techniques.

The conference is residential and all inclusive. Delegates book for three or four days (no accommodation rate also available).

The Social Enterprise Coalition last week (23rd May) launched a Health and Care Forum. It aims to help social enterprises act as a cohesive group for the development of the sector. Membership is open to aspiring social enterprise practitioners including charities bidding for public sector contracts.

SEC news item at http://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/Page.aspx?SP=2124.

Scottish charity regulator OSCR has published a summary of its latest stakeholder surveys, giving feedback from OSCR staff, charities and the general public on key issues.

Charities said that the most important issue facing the sector were Lack of funding, Difficulty in attracting volunteers, and Reputational damage to the sector by high profile instances of misconduct.

Following on from the recent Quirk Review, ‘Making Assets Work’, the government has announced a six point action plan “to give people greater control over how key assets in their communities are run - from disused swimming baths to pubs and community centres”.

As trailed, this includes a £400,000 fund for councils to vie become one of twenty pilot areas who will transfer up to forty key assets from local authorities to community organisations, plus a £30 million Community Assets fund to support community-led organisations in owning and running buildings, to be managed by the Big Lottery Fund.

New guidance will be issued to all local authorities to help them identify assets that community organisations could run, there will be a drive to promote powers available to residents to call for assets to be devolved, and training programmes for community organisations to build management skills.

Press release at http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1002882&PressNoticeID=2426, the full ‘Opening the transfer window: The government’s response to the Quirk review’ at http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1510746.

The Development Trusts Association has produced briefings on both the review and the government response, http://www.dta.org.uk/whatsnew/quirkreview.htm. And Capacitybuilders have announced a grant to support the DTA Community Asset Programme - http://www.capacitybuilders.org.uk/info/story/default.asp?item=63.

The government has published its consultation document on distributing funds from unclaimed financial assets. It proposes that youth services would be a priority, suggesting that over 700 new places for young people could be built in England. A proportion of the available assets would also be used, “resources permitting”, to develop the social investment market and deliver more sustainable funding to social enterprises, charities and community groups.

The Big Lottery Fund  will be used to do the distribution UK-wide with a specialist body to distribute the funds for social investment allocated via BLF. The devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will determine their own priorities - contact details are given in section 7 of the consultation document. Press release at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeches/press/2007/press_57_07.cfm, or consultation document here. Responses by 9th August.

Sector umbrella body NCVO is concerned that the government “appears to be trying to direct the outcome of this consultation by specifying at such an early stage its preferred priorities”. http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/press/releases/?id=5072. And members of the Commission on Unclaimed Assets (http://www.unclaimedassets.org.uk) told Third Sector magazine that Gordon Brown had privately endorsed a social investment bank and they hoped that this would go ahead.

Geraldine Peacock, former chair of the Charity Commission and a member of the CUA said “Our resolve is to make the bank happen one way or another.” See http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/658942/ (registration required).

The complaints procedure for users of public services provided by charities needs to be strengthened before the sector is encouraged to engage in further service delivery.

That’s according to the written submission of the Independent Complaints Reviewer, Jodi Berg, to the Public Administration Select Committee inquiry into third sector delivery of public services. Berg’s remit covers the Charity Commission, Audit Commission, Housing Corporation and several other non-departmental public bodies.

From Charity Finance news alert,  http://www.charityfinance.co.uk/charitynewsalert/issue30/publicservices.asp.

The DTI is consulting on ‘Administration of Additional Paternity Leave and Pay’, which will enable employed fathers to take up to 26 weeks Additional Paternity Leave, some of which can be paid if the mother of the child has returned to work.

Runs to 3rd August, http://www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/page39405.html.

Note: this is likely to be implemented in 2009.

The Advisory Group on Campaigning and the Voluntary Sector, chaired by Helena Kennedy QC, has produced its report. As “the voluntary sector has become the natural home” of much campaigning activity and civic engagement, tackling “the minefield of confusion, obstruction and outdated interpretations of the law” is important to the health of democracy. It urges changes in the Charity Commission’s approach to campaigning by charities as well as amendments to the law.

The advisory group comprised 25 organisations including Greenpeace, Oxfam, RSPCA, NCVO and Acevo. The report is in Word format, 301kb, on Bates, Wells and Braithwaite web site at http://www.bateswells.co.uk/Files/News/CampaigningReport.doc.

Coverage in the sector press includes a full page in Society Guardian, available at http://society.guardian.co.uk/voluntary/story/0,,2085490,00.html. From their summary of the changes needed:

Changes to the legal framework that would clarify the rights of UK charities to campaign; A less rigid interpretation by the Charity Commission of what constitutes “political campaigning”;  An end to the third sector’s restricted access to broadcast media by removing the provision in the Communications Act 2003 that bans voluntary organisations from running “political” advertising campaigns.

Charity Finance news alert includes some sector reaction, at http://www.charityfinance.co.uk/charitynewsalert/30extra/index.asp.

Two major trade unions with significant voluntary sector membership merged with effect from 1st May, to form a new body, Unite.

The T&G and Amicus will continue to operate as sections of the new union for an 18 month transition period ending November 2008. http://www.tgwu.org.uk.

A new award to find the UK’s most successful social entrepreneurs has been created by The Independent newspaper, the Schwab Foundation and the Boston Consulting Group. Their Social Entrepreneur of the Year award has key criteria of Innovation, Sustainability and Direct social impact. News article at  http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2510884.ece, or go direct to the details at http://www.schwabfound.org/unitedkingdom/. Closing date 2nd July.

This year’s Third Sector Excellence Awards, from Third Sector magazine, has increased to 24 categories, from Brand Development to the ‘Changing the World’ award. Closing date 29th June, http://www.thirdsectorexcellenceawards.com. Charity Times magazine’s awards have a relatively modest 14 categories, including Best Charity to Work For, which is open to individual vote (but has to have at least 20 employees to qualify). Closing date 8th June,  http://www.charitytimes.com/pages/charity_times_awards/index.htm.

Voting closed for the Social Change awards from Directory of Social Change on 23rd May, with 3 shortlisted nominees in each of 4 categories. Winners will be announced at Charityfair. http://www.charityfair.org.uk/awards/index.html.

Legislation to “modernise business rate relief for empty properties”, announced in the Budget in March, was published on 11th May, and is due to come in from April 2008. This will reduce the relief to just the first 3 months, but it has been confirmed that charities and community amateur sports clubs will be granted a complete exemption from rates on their empty properties.

Government news release at http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1002882&PressNoticeID=2418 has a link to further details on the Rating (Empty Properties) Bill.