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third sector finance news

Charity Business files held in storage in Gloucester

Charity Business files held in storage in Gloucester

Data from the defunct outsourcing company and its clients is being held by the storage company Ardent until a receiver is appointed

Archived files belonging to the collapsed outsourcing company Charity Business and its clients are being held at a storage company in Gloucester.

Craig Ashby, managing director of Ardent, an office supplies and storage company, told Third Sector that he had more than 250 boxes of files.

Clients of Charity Business, which went into administration in January, recovered some recent data from a storage facility in Swindon, Wiltshire. This was led by Cambridge House, the London poverty and social change charity, which invited other Charity Business clients to collect data belonging to them. 

But some organisations were concerned that they would not be able to recover data from previous years.

Ashby said the charities’ data was safe and that he would store it until an official receiver was appointed for CBusiness Ltd, a subsidiary of Charity Business.

He said his contract was with CBusiness Ltd, which is not in administration, even though liquidators have been appointed for its holding company, CBusiness Holdings.

Until an administrator is appointed, no one has the power to retrieve charities’ data.

Ashby said he had been told by RSM Tenon, liquidators of CBusiness Holdings, that they hoped to have an administrator appointed for CBusiness Ltd “within the next couple of months”.

“I’ve had a lot of phone calls in the past couple of weeks,” Ashby said. “The data’s safe, but it’s all mixed up. I can’t tell whose data is whose, and part of my contract is that I’ve agreed not to look in any of the boxes.

“I can’t let people come and look. I’m holding on to it until I know what’s going on.”

Ashby said his company was owed “quite a bit of money” for storing the data, and he hoped to reclaim this from the administrator.

Article source: http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/go/finance/article/1118709/charity-business-files-held-storage-gloucester/

Youth employment scheme open for applications from charities and companies

Nick Clegg

Nick Clegg

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says this part of the Youth Contract will get to the hardest-to-reach teenagers

A £126m government scheme under which charities and companies can apply to receive funding to provide employment training for 16 and 17-year-olds has opened for applications today.

Under the scheme, part of the Youth Contract programme announced in November, charities and businesses can bid for contracts that will give them up to £2,200 for each young person they help.

The scheme will use a payment-by-results model. Organisations will receive an up-front payment for each young person they take on, a “re-engagement payment” if the young person meets set outcomes after three to six months on the programme and a “sustainability payment” if the young person has met the set outcomes six months after that. The outcomes will include taking part in apprenticeships and holding down jobs.

The programme will target 16 and 17-year-olds who are not in education, employment or training and have no GCSE qualifications at grades C or higher.

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said: “We all have a duty to reach out to the young people who can be hardest to reach. That’s why today I am calling on charities and other organisations at the coal face to work with government to help tens of thousands of lost teenagers onto a brighter path.”

The scheme is being run by the Department for Education and funding is being allocated by the Young People’s Learning Agency. The deadline for the first stage of the application process is 5 March, and shortlisted applicants will be invited to bid in a second stage. The contracts are due to be awarded in June.

Article source: http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/go/finance/article/1118155/youth-employment-scheme-open-applications-charities-companies/

Health Lottery ‘costs good causes and government £20m a year’

National Lottery

National Lottery

Camelot says its research shows that the existence of its rival draws £1m a week away from the National Lottery

Camelot has estimated that the Exchequer and good causes funded by the National Lottery  will lose a total of at least £20m a year because of the Health Lottery.

A spokeswoman for Camelot, which runs the National Lottery, said it had done “consumer-based, sales-based and econometric research” and believed that the National Lottery was losing £1m a week in sales to the Health Lottery.

About 28p from every £1 National Lottery ticket goes to good causes, but the rate for the Health Lottery, launched in September by the media owner Richard Desmond, is 20p in the pound.

“We estimate that this represents at least a third of weekly Health Lottery sales,” the spokeswoman said. “Our analysis shows that the majority of this cannibalisation is being felt by National Lottery draws that take place on a Saturday – the same day as the Health Lottery draw.”

She said that after calculating the amount the National Lottery gave to good causes and paid in duty to the Exchequer every year, this meant that £20m could be lost by them. Unlike the National Lottery, society lotteries such as the Health Lottery do not pay duty on sales, she said.

“We expect this figure to rise sharply in the coming months,” she said. “The Health Lottery says it plans a number of marketing initiatives and changes to its game plan to ensure it reaches the £50m it promised to raise for health-related charities in its first year.”

The spokeswoman said Camelot had shared the figures with the National Lottery Commission and the Department for Media, Culture and Sport. Camelot raised concerns about the Health Lottery with the Gambling Commission last year and asked it to carry out a review then, she said.

A spokesman for the Health Lottery said that since its launch it had raised more than £10m for good causes. The DMCS itself had estimated, he said, that if current National Lottery ticket sales trends continued, income would increase in 2012/13 by about £232m more than it had projected in September 2010.

“We have always believed the Health Lottery scheme, on behalf of the 51 community interest companies that participate, would inject a new lease of life into the lotteries sector, offering consumers choice without diluting the overall market,” he said.

“This has proved to be the case and we are delighted that people have recognised the scheme is a fun, new alternative that donates funds directly to local good causes in their areas.”

Article source: http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/go/finance/article/1117851/health-lottery-costs-good-causes-government-20m-year/

Investing for Good plans to launch large bond programmes this year

Geoff Burnand

Geoff Burnand

The organisation’s chief executive, Geoff Burnand, is also to be director of fund development at the Social Investment Business

The social investment broker Investing for Good expects to launch bond programmes worth tens of millions of pounds on behalf of several large charities in 2012, according to its chief executive and co-founder, Geoff Burnand.

The organisation has also announced that it will move into the offices of the Social Investment Business and Burnand will also take up the role of director of fund development at the SIB next month.

The two organisations have agreed to look at merger in the future, but will remain independent at present.

Burnand, who was previously chief investment officer at Charity Bank, told Third Sector he would be responsible for managing the development of new funds worth up to £10m this year, and further investment products in the future. He will also work on further bond issues.

Investing for Good supports a £20m bond programme for the disability charity Scope, which the charity announced last year. Burnand said two more issues on a similar scale were likely in the next couple of months. “Another couple might come to market in 2012,” he said.

Burnand was not able to reveal the names of the charities involved.

In 2010, Investing for Good announced its intention to merge with Charity Bank. However, Burnand said the planned merger was “never consummated”, partly because of reservations about the move on the part of the Financial Services Authority.

Jonathan Jenkins, chief executive of the Social Investment Business, said: “We believe there is significant opportunity to raise additional funds alongside those we currently manage, and Geoff is the ideal person to help us expand in this space.”

Article source: http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/go/finance/article/1117371/investing-good-plans-launch-large-bond-programmes-year/

Online social investment tool published by NCVO and CAF Venturesome

Sir Stuart Etherington

Sir Stuart Etherington

Social Investment Made Simple demystifies the subject, according to Sir Stuart Etherington of the NCVO

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations and the social lender CAF Venturesome have launched a free online tool designed to explain social investment.

Social Investment Made Simple is hosted on KnowHow NonProfit, the NCVO’s information site for the sector, and contains examples of various types of social investment. It also offers case studies of charities that have successfully used social investment, and lists other places where charities can find support.

In a statement, the NCVO said the site was developed “in response to feedback from many people in the sector that there is a lack of clear and honest advice available to help organisations make informed decisions”.

Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the NCVO, said he felt social investment could be crucial for the sector’s long-term financial sustainability.

“By demystifying what can be a complex issue, we hope more voluntary organisations will be able to take full advantage of what is a major growth area for the sector,” he said.

Article source: http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/go/finance/article/1117143/online-social-investment-tool-published-ncvo-caf-venturesome/