Suffolk province is now just over half way through its 2019 Festival period and things are definitely hotting up. This year, six lodges achieved grand patronage status, exceeding their targets, and many more are closing in.

Every part of the province is playing its part, with many significant  individual efforts are taking place.

Andy’s cycling challenge

Andy Gentle has promised to cycle to every lodge in the province during the Festival, with a fundraising goal of £15,000.

To date Andy has covered 1,749 miles and visited 55 out of the total of 68 lodges in the province and in the process, picking up the broken column in each lodge visited. So far Andy has managed to raise £12,305 towards his target.

As 2019 draws closer, the pace is picking up with several notable events planned. The next two years will see much more activity and the enthusiasm to just get on with it is undimmed.

Stephen Dunmore, chief executive of the Fundraising Regulator, is to stand down in June.

A statement from the regulator today said the former Big Lottery Fund chief executive, who was appointed interim chief executive of the Fundraising Regulator in December 2015, had had his term extended until June, but he is not expected to continue in the role after that time.

The statement also said Lord Grade, who has been chair of the regulator since November 2015, would continue in post until Christmas 2018, at which point it is expected he will step down.

The regulator also announced it had extended the terms of four of its board members and appointed Walter Rader, a former commissioner for the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, as board member or Northern Ireland on a three-year term.

Margaret Moore, vice chair of the board, and Suzanne McCarthy, chair of the standards committee, have had their terms extended until March 2020, while Michael Smyth, chair of the complaints and investigations committee, and David Cunningham will have their terms extended until March 2019.

Richard Newton, board member for Wales, was appointed on a three-year term in January.

The terms of the remaining three, Sacha Deshmukh, Jenny Williams and Lucy Caldicott, who were each appointed for two years in February 2016, will come to an end, although the regulator said they would be able to reapply for further terms as part of a recruitment process that is already underway.

The regulator said it expected to announce the results of that process in April.

The Fundraising Regulator said in a statement that Rader’s appointment demonstrated its commitment to working collaboratively with charities in Northern Ireland. 

“I am extremely grateful to all of our board members, who have been invaluable in our formative phase and have provided wide-ranging expertise, hard work and commitment,” said Grade in a statement.

“They have been essential during our set-up, the development and launch of the Fundraising Preference Service, the management and development of the Code of Fundraising Practice and the first investigations and casework about charity fundraising.”

The regulator said the recruitment process for the chief executive role would begin “in the early months” of 2018 and later in the year for Grade’s successor. 

Well over half of small and medium-sized charities have no strategy for dealing with major IT incidents, according to a survey of charity chief executives.

Only 41 per cent of the 234 leaders quizzed said their organisations had formal policies or strategies for dealing with an IT failure, data breach or cyber attack.

The research, which is based on the views of chief executives of charities with annual incomes below £5m, was commissioned by the grant-making trust the Garfield Weston Foundation.

Fewer than 40 per cent of respondents said they had strategies in place to deal with other serious incidents, including the withdrawal of a substantial funding source, the departure of key staff or serious failures in service delivery.

Gillian Murray, chief executive of Pilotlight, which works with the foundation to connect voluntary organisations and businesses to make them more effective, said the IT finding reflected how many charities were chronically under-resourced.

Charities, said Murray, were far more aware of the importance of thinking strategically than they were 15 years ago, but didn’t have the time or funds to do so.

The research also found that many chief executives lacked confidence in their colleagues. Only 39 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that their staff and volunteers had the skills and experience required to help their organisations prosper and grow in the next five years.

Forty per cent of respondents cited partnership-building with the commercial sector as the skill their organisation most lacked. Murray said this highlighted a “big shift” in the attitude of charities in favour of working more closely with businesses.

The research was published on Friday to coincide with applications opening for the Weston Charity Awards 2018. The Garfield Weston Foundation, which began the awards in 2014, is extending the scheme to Wales this year.

The 20 winners will receive £6,500 of funding and a year of leadership and strategy coaching from business leaders, which will be facilitated by Pilotlight.

Society lotteries generated more money for good causes in the year to March 2017 than ever before.

Figures published by the Gambling Commission on Friday revealed that Britain’s 491 society lotteries raised £255.6m, up from £212.1m in 2016 and £190.6m in 2015.

Malcolm Fleming, a spokesman for the Lotteries Council, which represents society lotteries, said one of the reasons for the increase was that the percentage of sales income going to good causes had risen from 43 per cent to 43.6 per cent.

Fleming added: “Additionally, society lotteries across the country have been working hard to engage players in the win-win nature of society lotteries.”

The funds generated by the Health Lottery, which consists of 51 local lotteries across Britain operating under one brand, have significantly increased the amounts raised by society lotteries since it was launched in September 2011.

Jo Bucci, chair of the Lotteries Council, said in a statement that 2016/17 had been “a fantastic year of fundraising by the country’s society lotteries”.

But Bucci said a simple change to the law governing society lotteries would help to raise even more for good causes.

She said: “We hope to raise even more this year, but more and more of the lotteries we represent are having their fundraising capped by the sales limits in gambling law.

“These limits are increasingly out of date, and the Lotteries Council urges the government to bring forward plans to raise the limits and help us contribute even more to good causes.”

The council has proposed an increase in prize values from £25,000 to £100,000, an increase in the permissible amount of ticket sales in a single draw from £4m to £10m and an increase in the annual income cap on a society lottery from £10m to £100m.

The infrastructure body Navca made a loss of almost £73,000 in the 2016/17 financial year, its most recent accounts show.

According to its accounts for the year to 31 March 2017, the membership body’s income fell from £476,766 in the previous year to £395,185 in 2016/17.

Expenditure also fell slightly from £581,050 to £564,785, the accounts show.

When net gains on investments of £82,326 and a £2,984 loss on Navca’s defined-benefit pension plan are taken into account, the accounts show that Navca made a loss of £72,725 for the year covered by the accounts.

It is the second year in a row that Navca has made a loss, with the infrastructure body losing £121,000 in the year to 31 March 2016.

Navca said last year that its trustees had planned to underwrite deficits between 2015/16 and 2017/18 so it could continue to operate in a “climate of unprecedented austerity”.

The umbrella body has reported a substantial fall in income in recent years because of the loss of funding from the Office for Civil Society and from other one-off grants, with its income in 2012/13 totalling about £2.6m.

The latest accounts also show that the number of members fell from 184 to 176 in 2016/17 – although membership income remained flat – and income from grants and projects fell by 21 per cent to £193,944.

Reserves are approximately £300,000, with the accounts saying this is likely to have increased to £500,000 by the end of March 2018.

Navca is carrying out a digital leadership programme, is implementing new research, member engagement and income generation plans, and is consulting with members on transforming its membership model, the latest accounts show.

Jane Ide, chief executive of Navca, said: “We established a three-year plan to address the financial issues we faced, and the results in our latest report show that we are firmly on track and making progress.

“We still have work to do and I’m in no way complacent about that, but we are in a good position at this point in the plan and I am very optimistic about Navca’s future as the voice of local infrastructure and a champion of local social action.”

– This article was clarified on 1 December 2017; please see final paragraph

English Heritage is consulting staff about plans to cut about 90 jobs as it bids to put its finances on a sustainable footing.

The organisation, which was spun out from the public sector to become a charity in April 2015, supported by £80m of government funds, pledged to become financially independent by 2022/23.

The charity, which spent more than it earned in its first two financial years, said in a statement it had exceeded its financial targets in those two years and was expecting to beat them in its third year.

“In light of this period of success and so that we continue to control our costs carefully, we have taken the opportunity to review how we operate and how we are organised,” the statement said.

“As a result of this review, it is likely that we will reduce English Heritage’s workforce by approximately 4 per cent.

“Decisions of this nature are never easy, but we believe it is better to take these decisions now – from a position of strength – in order to ensure the charity’s long-term success.”

The at-risk roles are mainly office-based middle-management positions across a number of departments, an English Heritage spokeswoman said. 

The charity said in its statement that all of its properties would remain open and the changes would not affect admission or membership prices.

The charity’s most recent accounts show it had an income of £103m and an expenditure of £109.2m in the year to the end of March 2017.

Spending was about £5m higher than income in the previous year, when it brought in £95.4m, its accounts show.

The charity said this was because it had received the £80m grant from the government in 2014/15 but had only begun spending the funds in the next financial year. 

Kate Mavor, chief executive of the charity, said: “We have had a tremendous first three years, with record visitor numbers, but to ensure we become financially independent we need to change how we are organised.

“These changes will involve some difficult decisions, but they are vital if we are to continue to look after the sites in our care and tell their stories to this and future generations.”

– The story previously said the charity had made losses in each of its first two years

The health and social care charity change, grow, live has promoted Mark Moody to chief executive.

Moody, who is the charity’s executive director with responsibility for managing its health and social care services, will take up the role in April.

He has been at CGL for 17 years and has held positions at every level of the organisation, the charity said.

Moody replaces David Biddle, who announced his departure from CGL earlier this year after four years as chief executive and a total of 21 years at the charity.

Biddle is expected to work on other projects outside the charity sector when he leaves the charity next year, the charity confirmed.

Moody’s salary was still under negotiation, a spokesman for the charity said, but would be released once it had been decided.

The charity’s accounts for the year to the end of March 2017 show that its highest earner, who is not named, was paid between £180,000 and £189,999 during the year.

The spokesman said some of the charity’s service users were involved in the selection process for the chief executive.

CGL, which changed its name from Crime Reduction Initiatives last year, has grown rapidly in recent years, with income rising from £80.8m in the year to the end of March 2012 to £158.3m in 2015/16.

Mike Pringle, chair of CGL, said: “Mark is, of course, well known within CGL for his immense passion and commitment to our mission.

“He also enjoys a strong reputation across the whole sector and I am confident that he is the best-placed person to lead us as we continue to support people to transform their lives and reach their full potential.”

Moody said: “Working for CGL is an absolute privilege and I am honoured to take up the position of chief executive, leading this fantastic organisation.

“I look forward to working with our staff, volunteers, commissioners and partners in continuing to deliver truly transformative services.”

Facebook has scrapped its fees on charity donations made through the new fundraising tools that are being rolled out in the UK, it has announced.

The social media giant had been piloting the tools, which allow charities to include donate buttons on their fundraising pages or individuals to set up fundraising pages for causes they are interested in, since September.

It said yesterday it would roll them out fully and would no longer be charging fees of 5 per cent on each donation for the service. 

In a statement, Facebook said: “We have been inspired by our community raising millions for non-profit organisations with the fundraising and donation tools.

“That is why we are announcing that we are eliminating all fees on donations made to non-profits on Facebook.”

This will include all donations made to non-profit organisations on fundraising pages, as well as donate buttons on charities own non-profit pages and posts, and in live videos, the statement said.

The tools that were piloted – the donate button and personal fundraising pages – have now been fully rolled out in the UK, as well as in the US, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Finland, Luxembourg and Denmark.

Facebook also announced it was testing Fundraisers API, which will allow people to connect their fundraising pages to similar pages on other platforms.

In a statement on its website, it said it had been testing the tool with charitable events and races.

“We’ve seen many impactful stories from this beta and are excited to roll out to 500 additional non-profits by the end of spring 2018,” the statement said.

– The article was updated on 30 November after Facebook confirmed its former fee structure, which it had been unable to do before publication of the story

William Shawcross, the outgoing chair of the Charity Commission, has said he hopes that a consultation on charging charities to fund the regulator will be published before Christmas.

Appearing in front of MPs on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee this morning, Shawcross said he hoped the consultation would be published soon to help the commission deal with high levels of demand for its services.

The commission hopes to get an additional £7m a year from charging charities, although it is expected that only the largest and richest charities would pay, with previous estimates suggesting the annual cost to each charity would be between £75 and £1,750.

“In the end, the only way that the charity regulator can be funded is by the charities themselves,” Shawcross said. “Most sectors do fund their own regulators. There’s nothing very unusual about that.”

Shawcross told MPs that demands on the regulator had increased significantly while its budget had been frozen. He said about 8,000 new applications to become charities were submitted each year, and the total number of registered charities had grown by about 20,000 during his tenure.

The commission is also running 187 statutory inquiries into charities, compared with 12 when Shawcross was appointed in 2011/12.

The Charity Commission has had its budget almost halved since 2010 and currently has its funding levels frozen at £20.3m until at least 2020.

This has prompted the Charity Commission to seek a consultation on charging charities to fund more of its work, although this has been delayed repeatedly because of the need to get Treasury approval.

Shawcross, who is stepping down as chair at the end of the year, told MPs that last year’s EU referendum and this year’s general election also caused significant delays to the publication of the consultation.

Also appearing at the committee, Helen Stephenson, chief executive of the Charity Commission, said the regulator had modelled the amount of time needed to deal with certain cases and used this data to predict the amount of funding it needed to be a robust regulator.

Discussing the fundraising scandals uncovered in 2015, Shawcross said the practices uncovered by the press were “outrageous” and the newspapers had “done charities a service in exposing that, as it should not have happened”.

He said that large charities might have “taken their eye off the ball” when it came to fundraising practice before 2015, although he added that the Fundraising Regulator had improved standards in the sector.

Shawcross said the commission had used its new powers, which include disqualifying people from being charity trustees and directing charities to take certain actions, about 70 times since they were granted by parliament last year.