Charity Shops are brill!

What’s your image of a charity shop? Scruffy? Tatty? Musty? Full of old ladies? If this is your image, when did you last visit a charity shop? You might find things have changed generally…

Charity shops provide a very valuable resource to local communities at several levels:

• They raise money for good causes. Whether this is a local hospice or a national charity for the old, homeless or starving, all charity shops raise much needed funds to enable charities to fulfil their work.
• They are very green places. Charity shops are at the forefront of green recycling. They not only recycle clothes, but also household goods, books, CDs, DVDs, computer games, toys. Things that would otherwise have found their way into landfills. Some even sell furniture, which enables homeless people who have been offered a flat or house the chance to furnish it at a price they can afford.
• They provide for people on low or no incomes. Parents can dress their children and themselves with good quality clothes at a fraction of the High Street Stores prices. OK, they’re used and possibly a little dated, but if you shop around, you’d be amazed what you find. I use them to buy shirts. I like the “Oxford” style shirts and have no trouble picking up M&S, Ben Sherman, Polo and other leading brands at a fraction of the “new” price. A good machine wash and no one would have a clue where it came from!
• They offer a social service. Many charity shop managers I know talk about the customers, especially elderly widows, who pop in 2 or 3 times a day, not so much to buy, but for a bit of company and a chat. Because it’s a charity running it, they feel like they can trust the staff and volunteers and they often become friends, rather than customers.
• The times, they are a changing. If you thought charity shops were about old clothes, think again! Oxfam piloted specialist music stores and bookshops. Several charities now have specialist shops. Did you know that Oxfam has launched fashion boutiques? They will provide shoppers with high-quality, desirable clothing and look to turn the traditional concept of a charity shop on its head. The boutiques were launched in response to shoppers’ views that they wanted a more contemporary shopping experience.
• Move over High Street charity shops, the virtual ones have arrived! Many charities now have charity shops on Ebay. This offers them the chance to auction high demand brand names and achieve much higher prices than they’s get in one of their High Street shops. A good example is St. Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds. Check out their Ebay shop at: http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/stgemmasshop

So next time you pass a charity shop, don’t look down your nose at it, go inside and make the most of this unique place - you might just come out with a real bargain too!

The Media Trust - no sense of geography?

My weekly copy of Third Sector magazine arrived as usual this week and with it came a fold out flyer from the Media Trust, a charity that claims it: “covers all aspects of media and communications training for charity and voluntary organisations across the UK.” It was a list of their forthcoming training events.

I eagerly scanned it to see what they were putting on for all the charities in the north of the country, but out of 19 courses, only one on Podcasting was being held north of a line from London to Cardiff (via Bristol). Given the number of fundraisers and charities based in the north, that seems a rather poor share, when London has 16 of the 19 courses based there.

As well as the cost of the courses, northern fundraisers would also have to add the cost of travel and considerable time (plus the possibility of overnight accommodation if the course starts in the morning and they want to try and get cheaper travel tickets which are not usually available until after 09:00). It makes it much harder for those of us in the north to take advantage of such training.

This southern bias was confirmed recently, when one of the Yorkshire Institute of Fundraising Committee rang the Media Trust, to ask if they could provide someone to lead a training day on working with the media for us. They were told by the person at the Media Trust who answered the ‘phone that this was not possible, because they only run courses in London!

Now it seems to me that this is not only an insult to the hundreds of fundraisers and the charities that employ them “up North”, but is also a slight on the many excellent media industry people who run newspapers, TV companies and radio stations in the north. Are the Media Trust so London-bound that they don’t recognise or know media people in the north who would probably jump at the opportunity to engage with the voluntary sector?

Come on Media Trust, get your act together. There are people up here chomping at the bit for some decent media training opportunities.

New Gift Aid wording suggestion

Following the Government’s decision to allow charities to continue benefiting from Gift Aid at the pre-tax cut rate of 22p in the £1, the Institute of Fundraising, after consultation with the HMRC, has come up with the following text to go on all Gift Aid declarations:

“If you Gift-Aid your donation, ‘x charity’ will continue to receive an additional 28p. ‘X charity’ can claim Gift Aid tax relief of 25p on every pound you give. HM Revenue & Customs will also be operating transitional provisions for Gift Aid donations made from 6 April 2008 until 5 April 2011, paying a Government supplement of 3p on every pound you give.”

For any charities that had already reprinted their Gift Aid and other donation literature to take into account the new reduction in income tax rate, the HMRC have said it will be OK to continue using these, until existing supplies need to be replaced. There is no requirement to either shred or reprint any materials, which would only be a wasted cost to those charities.

It is important that all charities, no matter how large or small, should continue to make best use of this opportunity to continue to promote the use of Gift Aid and try to increase the % of donors taking advantage of if. In this way, they will lessen the impact of the reduction in income when the 3 year special provision comes to an end.

For more information about Gift Aid and how to make the most of it, check out the Institute of Fundraising’s special briefings at: www.tax-effective-giving.org.uk/downloads.html

Txt donations - the VAT dilema

For years the Institute of Fundraising and major charities have been trying to get the cost down of making donations via TXT on your mobile. One of the last major hurdles is VAT, as the mobile phone companies say they can’t distinguish between the various premium-rate lines they operate.

The HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs) stated 2 years ago that VAT was not chargeable on text donations, but the phone companies are charging charities an estimated £1m a year in VAT. Neither are they then returning the money in the form of a corporate donation.

However, at last the HMRC and the telephone companies have met and begun discussions on how to get round this problem. It would appear that all the phone networks are in favour of the no VAT charge, but they claim it is a very complex business and there will be no quick fixes to it.

We will have to wait and see if the phone companies follow through their words with real actions, in the meantime, try and choose a more cost effective way to donate to your favourite charities, preferably one that lets you Gift Aid your donation as well. That way, your £1 is worth £1.28 to the charity, which is better than losing 17p in unnecessary VAT!

Ecademy: a good place to meet, get promoted and research prospects

In the process of setting up my freelance fundraising business, I looked on the web for help, advice and support. I came across a couple of really useful links, one is Dr Alan Rae’s “Punch Above Your Weight” training workshops, which show small businesses or organisations how to create a bigger impression on the Internet (thereby dramatically increasing your chance of getting top results in Goggle Search Engine searches.

As a result of attending one of these fascinating days, I was also made aware of an online networking group for people, like myself, who are small business owners and who can harness the potential of online networking to not only get support and advice from others in similar positions, but also to increase their Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and be easily “found” by Google and other search engines.

Anyone can join Ecademy for free. Those who decide to pay a subscription (2 levels) obviously are enabled to make more use of the facilities and opportunities the site provides.

Whilst not obviously something that charity-employed fundraisers would necessarily want to join, it does have a good number of people from small, sole traders, to millionaire entrepreneurs who are involved in charitable activities and fundraising. This could be useful for prospect research for majors donors, etc. You might also find people with skills that could offer your charity advice and help, especially with regards to online marketing and marketing in general.

A “techie” diversion - apologies

Please forgive me for straying off the fundraising theme slightly, into the world of mobile computing. This does relate to fundraising, as I, like many others, rely on mobile computing to do our work.

Back in January I bought one of these incredible Asus Eee PCs for my daughter. This little miracle of technology came singing and dancing out of its box, ready for the user to start working on it, within 30 seconds of pressing the on button!

What is so special about the Eee PC is that it is slightly bigger than your typical Bible (version irrelevant), weighs less than a kilo, hasn’t got an ounce of Microsoft inside it (Hoooooray!) and costs under £200! (OK, you have to add VAT at £35) It runs on Linus-based software, which means Open Office and other FREE open source applications, so you never have to pay for the software, which is as good (and in some cases better) than MS software

It has everything you need: software, webcam, stereo speakers, mic, even voice activated commands. You can play your MP3s, record short videos, play some wicked games (Penguin Race is awesome) and best of all it hasWiFi built in, so you can log on to any wireless network (like the one on the National Express East Coast train I’m writing this on!).

Here’s the bit I really want to get over though. I started to enquire about 3G USB broadband access, you know, the little dongles you plug in in order to access the internet anywhere. People kept telling me it wouldn’t work with Linux. However, the really nice people at the Harrogate 3 shop took time to test it out on one of their USB modems and using the built in Wizard on the Eee PC, it’s a doddle! Just look for the 3G connection in Network>Create, then search for the network (i.e. in this case 3 UK), then search for the right country and click “Finish”. Virtually 100% Internet access wherever you are.

My apologies again to those who came looking for fundraising, but one’s mind can wander off it occasionally and mine did just now!

Darling, you didn’t change the Corporate Gift Aid status…

One last thought (for the time being) about the recent Budget decisions on Gift Aid, that seems to get quietly ignored each year, is the failure of the Government to do anything about Corporate Gift Aid. In the past, (pre-2000), when companies gave donations to charities, the charity could claim back the tax on that gift, just as they did with individuals who made Deeds of Covenants with the charity.

All that changed with the introduction of Gift Aid in 2000. The Government scrapped the tax on company donations going to charities and instead allowed the companies to claim it back for themselves. The rationale, it appears, was that the companies would give higher donations, that after they claimed back the tax would mean it cost them less. For example, if they gave £128, they could claim back the tax, which would have been £28, so the charity got £128 and the company only forked out £100. Fine, if companies and individuals thought that way. Reality: they don’t!

So when asked why they hadn’t changed anything about corporate donations and Gift Aid, following last year’s Gift Aid consultation, it would appear the Treasury officials will only respond by saying, “It remains under review”. It’s easy to keep quiet about something you, the Government, introduced that went totally pear-shaped, isn’t it Mr Darling?

The Chancellor did giveth…but it still cost many charities!

Following on from my previous blog about the reduction in Gift Aid from 28p to 25p for every £1 donated, the Chancellor, Alistair Darling (don’t you love that name?) made a surprise move in his recent Budget. The rate of Gift Aid, which was based on income tax at a rate of 22p in the £1, is not going to change for charities for the next three financial years, as a way to lessen the blow to income when the tax rate falls to 20p in the £1.

He also announced some tweaking of the system to make it easier for charities to collect and claim their Gift Aid. However, he failed to go along with the majority opinion, which was to change radically the way that Gift Aid is calculated, from the current system based on individuals having to declare they want the charities to claim the Gift Aid, to a system where it is given by the HMRC based on the proportion of a charity’s donors who are tax payers. This would have greatly reduced the time and money it costs charities to administrate Gift Aid. Still, I suppose we mustn’t grumble!

The thing that has really annoyed so many charities, is that there was no warning that he was going to keep Gift Aid at the same level for another 3 years. As a result, hundreds of charities have been getting all their donation literature re-printed, at considerable cost to some organisations, in line with the lower Gift Aid rate we were due to move to. Now they have piles of unusable literature, because the facts and figures are incorrect.

Sometimes a surprise can backfire and in this case I doubt the Chancellor will be offering to compensate the waste of time and materials his unexpected announcement has caused.

Goodbye Nokia!

When a donor gives to charity, they are doing so voluntarily. It is their choice to do so, no one can make them. (Convincing them to give is very different from forcing them!) So it is the fundraiser’s duty to make sure that the service the donor receives is second to none.

 

This doesn’t mean wasting cash whilst pampering donors with questionable small gifts, such as badges, or sending a series of letters and cards telling them how wonderful they are! They will soon see through this and wonder why you are spending their donation on them, rather than the people they intended it to be spent on through your charity’s services.

 

There are a few key points that should be stuck to at any cost:

 

1. ALWAYS thank the donor, no matter how large or little the donation. The £2 from old Mrs Pickles might be worth more in real terms to her than the £200 from Colonel Farquhar-Splatt. Anyway, Mrs Pickles lives alone in the council house her late husband bought under that woman Prime Minister’s initiative, whereas Col Farquhar-Splatt has a large family of sons, daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren, as well as a wife who likes polo matches and being seen at society events. Who do think would really appreciate a letter or card of sincere thanks and who do you think might be more likely to leave you a significant gift in their Will?
2. ALWAYS make sure you say “thank you” promptly. A couple of weeks later is too late. Make it your policy to always send your thanks within 5 working days. The sooner the better! Mrs Pickles and Colonel Farquhar-Splatt will both appreciate your promptness.
3. ALWAYS be courteous and polite when dealing with the occasional time a donor gets upset. It’s better to acknowledge fault than to try and justify it, even if you know you are in the right! Be a calming influence, not an agitator when a complaint arrives, be it by post or telephone, etc.
4. ALWAYS try and go the extra mile. Don’t just do the minimum of what the donor would expect, go beyond. They will notice and you might turn a potential enemy into a generous friend.

 

We would do well to learn from our commercial neighbours. Companies noted for excellent customer service are far more likely to get repeat custom from people. Those who don’t…beware! Let me give you an example of poor customer service, that has blighted a previously favoured company for me:

 

A couple of years ago I bought a wireless Bluetooth earpiece from Nokia. It wasn’t cheap. I’ve had several Nokia phones in the past and always found them to be reliable. The earpiece came with a removable rubber-coated wire that you mold round your ear to hold the device in place. After 18 months the wire inside the rubber broke, just from normal wear and tear. Several enquiries in shops failed to find a replacement part. I looked on the Nokia website. Nothing was there about replacement parts. I found their customer service pages and an email form to complete, which I duly did and sent it off.

 

A couple of weeks later, too long in my opinion, an email arrived back. It said that I needed to take it to certain branches of a national mobile phone retailer, whose larger branches acted as agents for repairs of Nokia equipment. My nearest one was 30 miles away. So I took an afternoon out and drove there, only to be told that they provided no service for these Bluetooth devices!

 

So I wrote to their CEO at the UK head office, explaining politely what had happened, that I liked Nokia’s equipment and asked if it would be possible to replace the part (estimated cost £1 - £2). I suggested that as their own customer services had led me on a 60 mile wild goose chase, taking an afternoon out from work, they might consider sending me the part for free.

 

A month later, I wrote again, after not receiving a reply. I was less complementary this time, saying that it was very poor customer service and I would be unlikely to use their products again if they couldn’t meet such a simple request.

 

A week later a letter arrived saying that these devices are sold as a unit and as it was outside the warranty period, they could not offer free repairs. Goodbye Nokia!

The Chancellor giveth and the Chancellor taketh away…

As we begin to get close to April 6th, many people will be looking forward to the reduction in income tax from 22p in the £1 to 20p in the £1. It will mean a bit of extra cash in the pocket or bank (although with cost of living rising daily, like the gas and other fuel bills for starters) many of us will hardly notice the change.

However, just bear a thought for all the charities that rely on Gift Aid to increase the value of your much appreciated gifts to them. Whenever the tax rate changes, so does the amount of Gift Aid. Since 2001 the tax rate has been consistent, enabling charities to increase the value of gifts by a whopping 28.2p for every £1 given. But not for much longer. The reduction of tax to 20p in the £1 means that in real terms, UK charities will lose out by about an estimated £75 million in this next financial year alone!

When you then take into account that they are also facing the huge hikes in fuel bills that householders are, many will find it harder to meet their financial needs. Running much-needed charitable services, be it a hospice, a centre for the disabled, a counselling service or any of the many others, it will be harder to do with costs going up and income coming down.

So when you get your April wage slip and you notice that there’s a bit more than last month, why not decide to share some of your good fortune with a cause close to your heart and increase the annual amount you give them, whether through regular monthly payments, or as a one-off gift? When you look around, despite the ridiculous cost of things today, the majority of us are actually very comfortable, compared to others, who are - literally - struggling to survive, day to day. Most of us could easily live with less, in order that others more needy might have a little bit more.