Trust is of paramount importance to charities. It is a major factor underpinning the donations of time and money by millions of people every year. This time and money is the lifeblood of a charity and to keep people onside, the trust has to be maintained. But how do you do that?

I talked to somebody last week from an overseas development charity which was busy preparing for its 40th anniversary. Not 50th, not 25th, but 40th. This is not unusual. Charities seem to be obsessed with celebrating anniversaries. It doesn’t have to be a particularly significant anniversary, but it does have to be celebrated. For me, charities celebrating anniversaries makes about as much sense as hedgehogs celebrating a new bypass. 

Joe’s blog about TOIL has provoked much comment, not least in the nfpSynergy office. Mirroring the comments on our site, opinion is divided. And all of this happening while Joe is sunning himself in the Caribbean…

The charity campaigning landscape is increasingly crowded. Today, charities need to put more thought into getting MP’s attention than five years ago. Drawing on our insights from the Charity Parliamentary Monitor, we give you five tips for making your mark at Westminster.

• “Depth of public resistance to charities giving to political parties seems profound and unequivocal,” says nfpSynergy’s Saxton
• The British public are happier (slide 2) for foreign businesses (24%), foreign governments (15%), churches and religious organisations (15%) – and even the royal family (13% - 7% saying ‘probably’, 6% ‘definitely’) - to give money to support UK political parties than for UK charities (13% - 10% say ‘probably’, 3% ‘definitely’) to so do, according to new data out today

‘Charities’ rank lowest out of a range o

A briefing released in Sept 2009, using data from the Charity Parliamentary Monitor to examine whether party conferences are a good use of resources for charities and non-profits.