New guidance helps charities tackle misconceptions

Myths and misconceptions have long plagued the charity sector. In an attempt to set the record straight, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has published a new guide, Dispelling Common Myths About Charities.

The comprehensive document explores ten myths relating to how charities are run, how they carry out their work, how they’re funded and staffed, and whether they’re liable for tax (among other issues) and offers practical advice to help charities tackle them and educate donors.

Here’s a rundown of the myths and the ICAWE’s recommendations:

1.     Charities spend too much money on fundraising

Recommendation: “Developing and explaining a fundraising strategy to justify expenditure will show how the charity expects to fund its work. Trustees and senior managers should think clearly about what level of investment will be needed and where it will come from.”

2.     Charities should not make a surplus or build up cash reserves

Recommendation: “Charities should ensure their reserves policy is easy to understand and linked to their strategic plan and risk management strategy. Far too frequently, more focus is placed on budgeted income, future income streams and the surplus or deficit for a single year. Reserves end up being considered only once a year when the reserves policy is reviewed as part of preparing the statutory financial statements. In addition, liquidity and treasury management needs to go hand in hand with the reserves policy.”

3.     Charities spend too much on high paid executives

Recommendation: “Charities can ensure executive pay is proportionate by benchmarking remuneration against similar roles in organisations that are comparable in size, sector, and location.

“Disclosures relating to remuneration and other benefits including expenses paid to trustees are required by charity accounting and reporting rules. Charities should therefore aim to explain their remuneration policies and senior management pay in the context of the executives’ responsibilities to maintain public confidence in their work.”

4.     Charities should not undertake commercial activities

Recommendation: “Charities often introduce commercial activities to diversify their income streams and avoid becoming too reliant on grants and donations. When charities decide to trade, trustees and management should consider whether a trading sbsidiary is required and how they will use it. The charity should develop a business plan and assess the demand for their proposed goods and services. Trustees must consider the viability and sustainability of the subsidiary’s business model and the set-up costs before they decide on the investment.”

5.     Charities should run and be staffed by volunteers

Recommendation: While volunteers are the backbone of charities such as the RNLI, and the Samaritans, even these charities are not able to operate without full-time staff.

“Charities should have a clear strategy where resources should be spent – how many staff to employ, the number of volunteers that will need to be recruited and trained, or a combination of both.”

6.     Charities spend too much on overheads

Recommendation: Charities should have a clear grasp of their administration and other related costs, and the impact they’re having on efficiency, impact, transparency, governance, and leadership. This can help trustees identify where savings can be made/further investment is required.

7.     Charities don’t have to pay taxes so need less money

Recommendation: Charities should understand (and be able to explain) their tax situation in terms of the contributions they make, and the tax reliefs and exemptions they’ve been granted.

“They should regularly review their tax strategy to ensure they’re claiming the relevant tax reliefs so they can maximise the funds available for their work.”

8.     You need professional qualifications to become a charity trustee

Recommendation: While professional qualifications aren’t essential to trustee boards, diversity is.

Trustees should identify imbalances or gaps in trustees’ backgrounds and perspectives and think creatively to fill the gaps, for example by inviting service users and people with relevant lived experience to become trustees. 

9.     Charities are less vulnerable to fraud than other organisations

Recommendation: “Trustees need to recognise their charities can be vulnerable to fraud and develop an effective culture of prevention. Every dimension of fighting fraud – deterrence, detection, and response – requires an effective anti-fraud culture at its foundation.

Trustees should ensure proper internal financial and data controls are in place and that both their design and operation are regularly reviewed, and new controls implemented where necessary.”

10.  Charities should not engage in campaigning and political activity

Recommendation: Charities have a long history of campaigning and political activity.

The issues tackled by charities, such as poverty, often require legal or structural changes that can best be influenced by campaigning activities.

“When charities decide to engage in political activity, they should ensure that they act within the charity’s governing document and in the charity’s best interest, weighing up the potential risks or benefits of speaking up – or not speaking up - on political issues relating to their cause.”

Need an extra fundraising bod to implement some of these recommendations?  We can help. Give us a call on 0203 750 3111 or email info@bamboofundraising.co.uk to find out how.

Meta and PayPal Giving Fund partnership puts an end to fee-free fundraising

Earlier this month, Meta announced a new partnership with PayPal Giving Fund (PPGF).

As of 1 November 2023, all donations made through Facebook and Instagram will be processed by PayPal Giving rather than Meta Payments Inc. 

What does the change mean for charities?

For the most part, the change won’t affect the way you raise money through Facebook and Instagram. You’ll still be able to raise money through fundraisers or donation buttons and access Facebook’s fundraising tools.

However, the change, which Meta says is part of a drive to ‘streamline operations’, will put an end to fee-free donations.

Historically, Meta has absorbed third-party payment processing fees, but when the switch comes into effect, charities will need to cover PPGF’s fee of 1.4% + GBP 0.30p per donation (donors will be given the option to increase their donations to cover the fees).

Deadline for action - 1 November 2023

Facebook Admins and Finance Contacts for UK charities should have received a communication detailing the upcoming changes. Anyone who has made a donation via Facebook and Instagram should also have been notified.

In case you missed the memo, there are a couple of things you need to do ahead of November 1, to avoid disruption.

1.    If you’re enrolled with Facebook Payments International Limited, you need to accept Meta’s updated Charitable Donation Terms by 1 November 2023

2.    If you haven’t done so already, you need to enrol with PPGF to receive donation payouts. If you already receive payouts from PPGF, you just need to accept the updated donation terms).

Note: If you miss the November 1 deadline, you’ll lose access to Facebook’s fundraising tools, with no guarantee that services will be restored in time for the Christmas fundraising push. So, the sooner you act, the better.

Things to note

Receipts: As of November 1, PPGF, rather than Meta, will provide donors with donation receipts.

Payouts: PPFG will make payouts to enrolled charities 15-45 days after donations have been received. Charities that aren’t enrolled with PayPal Giving Tools will receive a cheque within 90 days. 

Fundraiser end dates: Any Fundraisers that are created prior to September 15, 2023 (and before you take the required actions to switch to PPFG) will automatically end on October 31, 2023. If you want to set up Fundraisers with an end date past October 31, you need to switch to PayPal Giving Fund prior to September 15, and set up new Fundraisers after September 15.

Third sector response

Understandably, the news hasn’t landed well with charities.

Charity sector consultant Zoe Amar told Civil Society she was disappointed by Meta’s decision.

“It’s disappointing that Meta has chosen to do this now when so many charities are having a tough year due to the cost-of-living crisis. Meta’s decision is another reminder that charities need to review their dependency on social media platforms for fundraising, and plan how they can diversify their income-generating opportunities, for example through growing their mailing lists. 

I would urge Meta to reconsider this decision so that they can show support for the sector during the difficult winter ahead.”

Find out more about how Meta’s partnership with PayPal Giving Fund will affect you here. 

Charity coins a new term to describe giving to charity in your will

Familiar with the term ‘Willanthropy?’ If not, you soon will be if a new campaign from Remember A Charity is successful.

The legacy consortium, which is part of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, coined the term to celebrate the generous acts of everyday people writing charitable gifts into their wills.

Defined as ‘the act of giving to charity in your Will, the group’s #Willanthropy campaign aims to challenge the misconception that you need to be wealthy to leave a gift.

As per the campaign’s webpage, “Willanthropy comes in all shapes and sizes. From small but no less meaningful donations to sizeable gifts, anyone can be a Willanthropist.”

To showcase the diversity of the UK’s growing community of Willanthropists, Remember A Charity is inviting charities and members of the public to share their stories of Willanthropy on social media, using the hashtag #Willanthropy.

The consortium is also attempting to bring the term into common usage by calling on dictionaries to include it as an official term.

Comment

Lucinda Frostick, Director of Remember A Charity said of the campaign, “our focus is on opening up conversation about legacy giving and inspiring people to share their own stories. We want to highlight gifts in Wills of all sizes and are seeking to dispel the misconception that you need to be wealthy to leave a legacy. Leaving even a small gift in a Will can have a huge impact for charities. We hope to get people talking and acting to make a difference.”  

Remember A Charity Week

The #Willanthropy campaign comes a month before Remember A Charity Week, which takes place from 11th-17th September.

The annual campaign creates an opportunity for charities to raise awareness of legacy giving, by bringing together Remember A Charity member charities and their network of over 800 solicitors and Will-writers, to encourage people to consider leaving a gift in their Will.

Customisable legacy marketing assets  

To support their marketing efforts, Remember A Charity is releasing a new suite of customisable digital legacy marketing assets, including social posts, banner website banners, GIFs, bookmarks, posters, and coat hanger cards, which member charities can personalise with their own messaging, imagery and branding.  

Linda Frostick said of the suite of tools, “in the current economic environment, with even more pressure on budgets, prioritising legacy fundraising and securing sufficient resource isn’t easy. So, this year, we’re providing new resources for charities to use internally, as well as customisable legacy materials that charities can use to start their own legacy conversations with supporters – and build on throughout the year.” 

Final Word

Want to join the consortium and get involved in Remember A Charity Week?

You can get the lowdown on the cost, benefits of becoming a member, and the application process here.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for a legacy fundraiser to implement a Willanthropy campaign, you’ve clicked on the right website. Give us a call on 0203 750 3111 to get the conversation started.

How charities are utilising AI

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, artificial intelligence was a concept that only existed in science fiction. Then, in the 1950s, American psychologist Frank Rosenblatt invented the perceptron (a neural network that could learn by trial and error to simulate human thought and learning). This is widely considered to be the first iteration of modern-day artificial intelligence.

Since then, A.I. has become more and more advanced. From voice assistants such as Siri and Alexa, to traffic prediction on Google Maps, it’s ingrained in much of the technology we use today.

AI also has many applications in business, from data analytics and search optimisation to market research and customer service.

With all the fuss around AI Chatbot app, ChatGPT, we thought we’d have a look at how three charities have used AI to streamline operations, solicit donations, and improve service delivery.

charity: water

In 2016, charity: Water launched a chatbot called ‘Walk with Yeshi’ to raise awareness of the water crisis in Ethiopia.

Integrated into Facebook Messenger, the chatbot incorporated artificial intelligence and a conversational, multimedia interface to enable people to virtually join Yeshi, a young Ethiopian woman, on her daily 2.5 hour walk to collect water. 

The experience played out in real-time, making use of media sharing, geolocation, and personal storytelling capabilities together with Stripe integration to raise funds.

On the journey, Yeshi chatted with her audience and sent emotive photos, GIFs, audio, and videos to bring her story to life.

A first-of-its-kind immersive journey built specifically for Facebook Messenger, this AI-driven experience provided the global community with a new way to experience and understand the hardships faced by millions of Ethiopian women.

NSPCC

In 2018, NSPCC became the first UK-based charity to use voice recognition technology through Amazon’s Alexa, to boost donations.

The children’s charity used goDonate Voice, an off-the-shelf donation template skill, developed specifically for charities.

Charity supporters could enable the skill through the Alexa app or via their voice by saying “Alexa, open NSPCC” to donate. The money was then automatically deducted from users’ Amazon accounts and sent to the charity via Amazon Pay. 

Other uses

Voice recognition technology is not only being used to solicit donations. Accessibility charity Whizz Kidz launched an accessibility guide for London via an Alexa skill, advising on routes across the city with step-free access for wheelchair users and people of limited mobility, while the British Red Cross first aid skill outlines what to do in emergency situations.

Parkinson’s UK

In 2020, Parkinson’s UK teamed up with Australian AI firm Dataro to find out how machine learning techniques could be applied to direct mail fundraising campaigns to better target donors and improve appeal returns.

To test its effectiveness, the charity tested its own September Appeal selections alongside Dataro’s list.

Parkinson’s UK used its existing propensity model to segment the database and finalise a list of supporters to receive the mailing, while Dataro used machine learning to analyse patterns in the charity’s transactions, engagement, and communications data, and generate predictive scores for each supporter, reflecting their estimated probability of giving.

At the end of the campaign, both lists were compared. The findings?

The AI-generated list:

• achieved a higher response rate (14%, compared to 8% for the traditional list selection)

• identified 411 gifts that otherwise would have been missed

• saw a potential 23% increase in net revenue

Holly Matthews, Direct Marketing Manager at Prostate Cancer UK, said of the experiment: “Our current data selection model is based on supporters’ gift behaviour, but we know this is not entirely inclusive and misses out valuable prospects. Ideally our data selection would be based on multiple areas of a supporter’s journey, but this takes time. Dataro’s AI model allowed us to test something new. It demonstrated what we had suspected; that valuable data had been missed.”

Is AI coming for your job?

The digital landscape is changing, and as these three examples show us, the way we fundraise is changing.

Does this mean AI will replace fundraisers? Nope. Sure, it can help you analyse data, raise money, and automate processes, but it’s no match for human intelligence or empathy. It can’t read, understand, or respond to human emotions, all of which are key to building meaningful donor relationships.

The most effective and responsible approach to AI is to view it as a tool to augment human intelligence rather than a replacement for it. By doing so, you can unlock AI's full potential while preserving the value of human input and creativity.

Looking for a tech-savvy fundraiser for your team? We can help. Give us a call on 020 3750 3111 or email us at info@bamboofundraising.co.uk to get the conversation started.

Four ways to encourage disability disclosure

Did you know that 9.5 million people across the UK live with a non-visible health condition? Or that 1 in 7 people are managing an invisible medical condition alongside their jobs?  

Hidden disabilities are more common than you might think. The chances are, you have a disabled person on your team without knowing it.

According to a study by healthcare provider Bupa, two in five (43%) of employees with invisible disabilities choose not to disclose their conditions to employers.

To improve self-identification rates, organisations need to make disability inclusion a priority.

Before we delve into how to do that, let’s go back to basics.

What is an invisible disability?

As the name suggests, invisible, or non-visible disabilities are health conditions that aren’t immediately obvious.

For example:

• mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, personality disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder

• autism and Asperger’s syndrome

• visual impairments

• hearing loss

• sensory and processing difficulties

• cognitive impairment, including dementia, traumatic brain injury, or learning disabilities

• diabetes, chronic pain, respiratory conditions, incontinence

The impact of hidden disabilities in the workplace

Unfortunately, people can be quick to judge, misunderstand, and make assumptions if they can’t see evidence of someone’s condition.

For example, someone with chronic fatigue may be perceived as lazy if they need to take regular rests during the day. And someone with autism may communicate differently and be misunderstood by colleagues.

This prejudice is damaging, not just to applicants with disabilities, but to the productivity and cohesiveness of the wider team.

So, what can we do to encourage people to disclose?

Here are four tips:

1. Become a disability confident employer

Disability Confident is a free government initiative designed to encourage employers to recognise the talents that disabled people can bring to their teams.

The scheme benefits employers by:

• Increasing the number of high-quality candidates applying for roles

• Creating a workforce that reflects the diverse range of people it serves

• Improving staff morale, commitment, and loyalty by demonstrating that your organisation treats all employees fairly

  
  on the other hand, can be confident in the knowledge that:
  

• Their disability won’t put them at a disadvantage

• The workplace is inclusive

• They will be treated equally and fairly

However, becoming disability confident can’t be a tick-box exercise. Beyond signing up, you need to implement inclusive policies, take a firm line on ableism, and let it be known to people at the recruitment stage that you walk the walk when it comes to your disability confident status.

You can find out more about the Disability Confident scheme here. 

2. Provide company-wide disability awareness training

As we said earlier, a lack of awareness and understanding of invisible disabilities can result in prejudice and resentment – neither of which are conducive to a happy, healthy workforce.

Disability awareness training can help create a more understanding, open and supportive environment.

Enhance the UK  (a charity run by disabled people) helps organisations become more inclusive by using their lived experience to challenge stereotypes and provide

They use their lived experience to challenge perceptions and educate teams via fun interactive training sessions and workshops.

In addition to face to face and virtual disability awareness training they offer British Sign language workshops, access audits, and bespoke ‘lunch and learn’ sessions.

3.      Highlight invisible disabilities with signage

Disability awareness posters are a low-cost and effective way to remind people that ‘not all disabilities are visible’. They will also reinforce the fact you’re an inclusive employer. 

Make staff aware of the benefits of disclosure

Knowing about the Equality Act, understanding what constitutes discrimination, and being aware of reasonable adjustments can give employees the confidence to disclose. Here are some actions to consider taking:

• Provide training that covers the Equality Act and reasonable adjustments

• Promote the government-run Access to Work Scheme.

• Make sure you have a reasonable adjustment policy in place

So, it’s important to promote the definition of disability and show understanding. You can achieve this within disability awareness training sessions or induction materials.

4. Provide regular opportunities to disclose

For some employees, deciding to disclose a disability is a gradual process. It may start with checking the “yes” box on an anonymous survey, then disclosing it to a manager, and then to colleagues.

People often base their decision on the workplace culture and how they see other employees with disabilities being treated. 

Provide employees with regular opportunities to disclose. At each stage in the recruitment process and on a semi-regular basis during their employment, ask employees if they have any special requirements.

Some people may be uncomfortable disclosing face to face, so give them options. You could set up a dedicated ‘disclosure’ email address or include the option to disclose on staff surveys.

Final Word

Employees shouldn’t be afraid to disclose their disabilities – visible or non-visible. As an employer, it’s your responsibility to make them feel safe to do so. Being proactive about disability inclusion and implementing the ideas above will go a long way to achieving it.