Bulletin Contents - 26 March 2008

Low Cost Awareness Film Production

Risk Assessment for Village Halls

Budget Updates

BIG Fair Share Trust UK-wide

The Community Website Builder

SMS Fundraising

Donated Microsoft Software from Charity Technology Exchange

National Hubs and National Support Services Update

Nationwide and Heritage Lottery Fund - National Search for Local Heroes

People's Millions 2008

Low Cost Awareness Film Production

Charities with a turnover below £2 million are invited to apply to have a short, awareness-raising film made at a fraction of the usual cost. This is the fourth series of Volunteer Films launched by Media Trust, and as well as a broadcast quality film, with guaranteed airtime on Community Channel, a DVD and internet version is supplied, for a total cost of £1,000. Applications have to be in by 31st March, see www.mediatrust.org/latest-news for details or email volunteerfilms@mediatrust.org

Risk Assessment for Village Halls

The Health and Safety Executive recently added to their online case studies! A risk assessment for a village hall is available, which is likely to be applicable to many small community buildings - www.hse.gov.uk/risk/casestudies/villagehall.htm

Budget Updates

HM Revenue and Customs is reassuring charities that there will be no change in how they reclaim Gift Aid, with the introduction of transitional relief. This extra money will be added automatically and not need to be reclaimed separately, although there will be some delay while the legislation behind the Budget goes through the parliamentary process.

Less welcome for many charities, is the news that from April 2009 employment agencies will have to charge VAT on the full costs of supplying staff to an organisation, not just on their own admin charge. This could have a significant impact on voluntary organisations unable to claim back VAT fully if they use a lot of temporary or bank staff.

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget/budget_08/documents

BIG Fair Share Trust UK-wide

For further information on funding available, go to the Community Foundation Network website: www.communityfoundations.org.uk/fair_share_public.php

There are 77+ Fair Share Trust areas throughout the UK . Use the web pages to see if your area is one of them, together with the locally-chosen priorities for that area and contact details of your local FST agent.

Deadlines for applications as well as funding priorities vary across the UK as they are designed to meet local needs. Grants between £5,000 and £250,000 are available.

Please note that this is not an open grants programme, so you should contact your local FST agent to find out whether you are eligible to apply. You will find their details on website above.

The Community Website Builder

The Community Website Builder allows registered UK charities, non-profit making organisations and volunteer led groups or organisations to build and maintain their own website free of charge.

In under 5 minutes, you can have a professional looking, easy to edit website up and running. With no special software, skills or knowledge required, it's easy, quick and fun to set up and maintain your own web presence. The Community Website Builder Service is provided by BT and Recipero for use by UK charities, non-profit making organisations and volunteer led groups only.

This scheme is operated by BT Better World and Recipero Limited.

Website: www.communitykit.co.uk

SMS Fundraising

CTT is delighted to announce the latest release of its new SMSTXTGIVING service for charities who wish to collect donations via mobile text messages.

SMS TXT GIVING offers charities: Low set up costs and therefore low risk; A dedicated key word for your charity or campaign, among many other benefits.

To find out more about SMSTXTGIVING and our other mobile services, please contact them. Website: www.ctt.org/products__services/sms_txt_giving/default.asp

Donated Microsoft Software from Charity Technology Exchange

The CTX Programme is brought to you by Charity Technology Trust (CTT) in partnership with the not-for-profit technology capacity building organisation TechSoup.

The programme enables eligible charities to gain access to donated technology products. Choose from over 140 products from companies such as Microsoft, Symantec and Cisco. Acquiring a donation is simple:

Register your organisation. They will request details that will enable them to assess your eligibility to receive donations from their Donor

Partners and then notify you if you are eligible to proceed to the next stage. For further details please see Getting Started on their Website: www.ctxchange.org/getting_started

For more information, check out their Frequently Asked Questions on their website or contact them CTX, Building, 1 London Bridge, London SE1 9BG Tel: 020 7785 6415 Fax: 020 7785 3915 Email: customerservice@ctxchange.org Website: www.ctxchange.org/

National Hubs and National Support Services Update

From April 2008, their investment at a national level will be refocused from the six National Hubs to nine National Support Service workstreams.

The new national workstreams, and the lead agencies, funded by Capacitybuilders are : Campaigning and Advocacy - NCVO; Equalities and Diversity - Women's Resource Centre; Income Generation - ACEVO; Leadership and Governance - NCVO; Marketing and Communications - Media Trust; Modernising Volunteering - Volunteering England; Performance - Charities Evaluation Services; Collaboration - Bassac; Responding to Social Change - NCVO.

For further information about Capacitybuilders programme of funding for 2008 to 20011 go to Website: www.Capacitybuilders.org.uk

All the Hubs are brought together onto a Website: www.hubs.org.uk

Nationwide and Heritage Lottery Fund - National Search for Local Heroes

Nationwide Building Society has teamed up with the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to launch the Nationwide Community and Heritage Awards 2008, inviting the public to nominate people or groups who deserve recognition for community or voluntary work that has made a real difference to people’s lives.

Nominations for the very best and most inspirational volunteers in the UK can be made for either:

Community Champion – recognition for those who have made an impact in their local community; Heritage Hero – recognition for those who have volunteered to become involved in saving a part of their heritage and sharing it with others.

Nomination forms and more information can be found online at Website: www.nationwide.co.uk and www.hlf.org.uk Leaflets and nomination forms will be available from Monday 25 April from local Nationwide Building Society branches, HLF outlets, public libraries and via local newspapers.

The closing date for nominations is Monday 28 April 2008 .

People's Millions 2008

People’s Millions; the funding programme that allows the public to decide where Lottery funding should go, will launch later this month.

Keep your eyes on their website in March for full details of how to apply.

Website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/