Greetings!

Estimates by the British Heart Foundation of losses caused by bogus clothes collectors suggest the sector could be losing way more than previously thought. The recent deluge of new employment legislation is also creating headaches for charities. On a more positive note, Beatbullying chief Emma-Jane Cross has secured cross-sector support for a new code of conduct to govern collaborations in the sector.

BHF bogus collection losses triple to £3m

The British Heart Foundation has advised that its losses from theft of charity shop donations and bogus collections have almost tripled from £1.2m last year to £3m this year.

New sector code aims to improve partnerships between charities

Beatbullying chief executive Emma-Jane Cross is setting up a cross-sector working party to devise a code of conduct that will govern how charities should treat each other when embarking on formal or informal collaborations.

Charities suffering due to costly employment tribunals, says HR director

Charity funds are being wasted because the UK's employment tribunal system is expensive and encourages false claims, according to the HR director of homelessness charity Broadway.

Booktrust in talks with DfE to mitigate funding cuts

Booktrust, a charity providing free books to children which saw its funding slashed by the Department for Education in December, is to enter talks with the Department to mitigate its losses.

Almost half of sector thinks Big Society is just a 'rebrand', poll finds

A poll of over 1,000 members of civil society has found that 42 per cent believed that Big Society is "politically rebranding existing community action".

£12m service delivery charity to be subsumed by local authorities

Connexions Staffordshire, a £12m-turnover charity that until recently employed 330 staff, is to be wound up and its services absorbed into Staffordshire County and Stoke-on-Trent City Councils.

Small voluntary organisations to play "crucial" role in Work Programme

Prime contractors for the government's Work Programme will have to prove that they are developing partnerships with small, specialist voluntary sector providers in order to win contracts.

Final call to take the Charity Pay Ratio Survey

In response to debate around the introduction of a 'pay ratio' for public sector organisations, Charity Finance guest editor Andrew Hind issued his request for help researching the situation in the charity sector. This survey will close on Monday 10 January so click now to take part!

American boardrooms can offer UK charities valuable insight

BoardSource has recently published its NonProfit Governance Index 2010. Tesse Akpeki says the findings hold valuable insights from the US for governance development in the UK.

Did you know...