BULLETIN No. 176: August 2018

My monthly attempt to keep my contacts, friends, friends of friends, etc. in touch with what's going on in the world of charities. A distillation of the many briefings that arrive on my desk, plus whatever I've gleaned from charities I'm currently working with. Always glad to get your comments, suggestions and requests for help.

Daryl Martin

d.martin@afvs.org.uk

What do we have this month?

1. GDPR Update
2. New Legal Helpline
3. Bursary Funded Fundraising Helpline
4. Legacy Giving
5. Our Iceberg is Melting
6. New Automatic Disqualification Rules
7. Employing a Friend or Relative
8. Charity Commission (1)
9. Marketing Campaigns
10. Charity Commission (2)
11. Trustee Training
12. Can Expenses be Gift Aided?
13. CRE 2018 (17 – 19 October)
14. And Finally...

1. GDPR Update
To spare my readers who lose the will to live every time they see these four dread letters, we’re issuing separate GDPR briefings. We’ve tried to list everyone who’s been in touch with us asking for support. We plan to send out a regular briefing to provide a regular update and keep you up to speed with what’s going on generally. We’ll take note of what the ICO is up to and smile indulgently at the big players getting fined lots of money for their inability to follow what are often basic procedures. We’ll remind readers when they need to review their practices, and gently nag them in case standards start to slip.

Our first briefing went out mid-July and can be read and subscribed to via this link; https://mailchi.mp/cacb7258d438/gdpr-briefing-an-introduction?e=5c66d7a691

The next briefing will be in a couple of weeks and will include some thoughts on how GDPR affects Recruitment Practices. If you’re involved in recruitment, you might find it helpful.

2. New Legal Helpline
In September we plan to trial a new service for AFVS members – a legal helpline offering a free 30-minute telephone consultation to discuss any legal queries or matters affecting their charity. This service will be provided by our legal associate, David Kirby of DK Legal, a solicitor with ten years’ experience in the charity sector. If you have an issue you’d like to discuss with David, let us know, and we’ll put you in touch. More information about the services David offers is available on his website: https://dklegal.co.uk/

3. Bursary Funded Fundraising Helpline
This is a current service that is being revamped and will also run from September. This service gives our members access to a service that offers professional guidance to increase your fundraising success. We offer a bursary funded health check phone consultation, offering a pre-bookable time slot of up to 1 hour of advice to include a telephone call and review of your current fundraising activities. This service will run alongside a calendar service, so you can pre-book your time, send in a completed overview form prior to the call to ensure a beneficial review, with the option for ongoing fundraising mentoring or consultation if required.

4. Legacy Giving
When I announced that I was putting together a briefing on Charity Legacies, a valued friend who knows much more than I do sat down and wrote a briefing that I couldn’t improve upon. It’s being fine-tuned with a couple of sections to be added and will be available to AFVS members by the end of August.

5. Our Iceberg is Melting - Changing and Succeeding Under any Conditions
The world is changing rapidly and dramatically in many different ways, and we have to look for ways to respond to the challenges ahead of us. Change is rarely easy. Someone recommended this book. I read it in an hour and ordered extra copies for my team. We heard recently that PWC is getting rid of landlines for their 18,000 staff; it’s all about ‘Agile Working’. We’re currently looking at all our processes to make clear judgements on what changes are needed. Let us know if you’d like us to review your operations support@afvs.org.uk

6. New Automatic Disqualification Rules
These rules are now in operation. They apply to all trustees and many senior staff. Our new Trustee Induction Guide contains detailed information. A PDF copy is free to AFVS members, and a small charge for non-members to be sent out a hard copy.

7. Employing a Friend or Relative
Last month I offered a briefing on employing a trustee. It’s not unusual. This briefing is a logical follow-on. Giving a job to a friend or a relative can be an unmitigated disaster or an enriching success. Email us if you’d like my briefing on the subject (or even the one on employing a trustee).

8. Charity Commission (1)

The CC is making changes to updating your charity's details:

Trustee names: full legal names of all trustees will be required and displayed. Where they hold variants of a trustee name with different charities, they will now hold one.

Trustee contact details: Where a trustee has provided different contact details for the different charities to which they are linked, they will ask for confirmation of their primary residential address. These details will then be maintained by all of a trustee’s charities. Any update to their details will be shared across all their linked charities. They will also use trustee email addresses to tell them about changes other people make to their record(s). The contact for a charity will now have to be a named individual.

Charity public address: they’ve separated out the public-address details for the charity from those of the named charity contact to allow charities to direct all communication to an appropriate location or address.

Third party contacts: they will retain trusted third-party contacts so that specialist advisors can submit the accounts. These details won’t be available for change in the initial launch of the service, so take time now to confirm they’re correct for the forthcoming Annual Return 2018 cycle.

9. Marketing Campaigns
I made a new contact recently; Tim who specialises in email campaigns. This is what he says: “Email marketing can produce a huge return, yet many organisations are missing out on the huge opportunities it offers. Despite having a large database, some organisations don’t know how to properly structure a successful GDPR compliant email marketing campaign because they don’t fully understand the new GDPR legislation or are afraid of it. If this resonates with you and you want to learn how to expand and make the most of your database post GDPR, then give 3d Consulting Services a call on 01798 873421 and ask to speak with Tim Dodd.”

10. Charity Commission (2)

a) They plan to recruit 85 additional staff after receiving a £5m increase to its budget. This extra £5m a year from the Treasury will carry on until it’s able to start charging charities for regulation.

b) They saw a 36 per cent increase in the number of compliance cases opened in the year, as well as a record number of applications for registration (36% didn’t succeed)

c) A major focus remains improving safeguarding in the voluntary sector. Significant numbers of charities which should have had safeguarding policies did not appear to do so.

d) The number of compliance cases rose from 1,664 last year to 2,269. In addition, serious incident reports rose by 29 per cent to 2,819, while statutory inquiries rose 19 per cent to 135 (excluding a single inquiry last year which covered 74 connected charities).

e) The number of disclosures of “matters of material significance” by auditors rose from 17 to 194, year-on-year, after the Commission reminded auditors of their duties to make disclosures.

f) There were 78 uses of new powers given to the Commission in the last Charities Act, including the disqualification of 14 individuals and six official warnings, the regulator said.

The Statistics stand out. One out of every three applications for charity status was rejected. I suspect these were mostly DIY applications. We can provide specialist help in this area. It’s increasingly clear that some thousands of charities lack effective safeguarding policies. If this is you, we can help. We plan to run safeguarding courses for trustees, staff and volunteers in the autumn. Let us know if you’d like details.

11. Trustee Training
We’re trying to organise a trustee training evening in Kent and need to get numbers up to a decent level. Let us know if you’d like details. We also need to set something up at a couple of venues in the Midlands support@afvs.org.uk

12. Can Expenses be Gift Aided?
A question I’m often asked. Yes, the ideal is for the trustees to claim their expense (and anyone else entitled to claim for expenses come to that), and then donate the money back and gift aid it.

Now, you must physically pay the money out; it must leave your bank. It can then be handed back as a separate transaction. If you don't do this the gift aid is not legal, and HMRC will be cross. Ther is no way around this. It’s the same as if you lent money to the charity and wanted to waiver it, and then gift aid it as a donation.

HMRC is very picky on these points. Codes of ethics can help to ensure 'coherent and consistent behaviour' among staff and volunteers.

13. CRE 2018 (17 – 19 October)
AFVS, IEL & VATADVICE will be exhibiting at the CRE 2018 (http://creonline.co.uk/exhibitors-cre-2018/)

Come and visit us on stands S74 & S75. We look forward to seeing you there!

Daryl is also running a seminar on “Want to know more about becoming a trustee or charity administrator?”

Seminar Title: Becoming an effective trustee or charity administrator
Speaker: Daryl Martin
Day/Date: Tuesday 16th October
Time: 3.00 pm – 3.45 pm
Room: Seminar room 3

For your complimentary tickets, please click on the link https://eventdata.uk/Visitor/CREcomp.aspx?TrackingCode=AFVS

14. And Finally...

Things Our Mothers Taught Us:

My mother taught me the importance of prayer: ‘You’d better pray that will come out of the carpet’.
  My mother taught me about time travel: ‘If you don’t sort yourself out I’m going to knock you into the middle of next week’.
  My mother taught me the importance of planning: ‘Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you’re in an accident’.
  My mother taught me irony: If you don’t stop crying, I’ll give you something to cry about’.
  My mother taught me the science of osmosis: ‘Shut your mouth and eat your dinner’.
  My mother taught me about stamina: you’ll sit there ‘till all that spinach is gone’.
  My mother taught me about weather: ‘This room looks like a tornado has gone through it’.
  My mother taught me about the joys of anticipation: ‘Just wait ‘till we get home’.
  My mother taught me humour (black humour): ‘When that lawnmower cuts off your toes, don’t come running to me’.
  My mother taught me to eat vegetables: ‘If you don’t eat your vegetables, you’ll never grow up’.
  My mother taught me genetics: ‘You’re just like your father’.
  My mother taught me roots: ‘Shut the door, you weren’t born in a barn’.
  My mother taught me about justice: ‘One day you’ll have kids, and I hope they’ll turn out just like you’.  

Thank you for your encouraging messages. We look forward to hearing from you with your questions, your suggestions, your requests for help and advice. Go well and enjoy your summer.

If you find this bulletin helpful, could you take a moment to pass it onto others who might appreciate it.

Daryl Martin