Fundraising news

The BBC’s current affairs programme Newsnight will tonight run a story about face-to-face fundraising in which it will report that donations acquired via by the technique are often wiped out by agency fees.

Lottery funding under the new regime must not act as a substitute for statutory spending cuts, Navca and the Directory of Social Change have warned.

neilirwin: The Sun reported on 21 Aug that Mark Townley had been twice previously convicted of fraud and given a suspended sentence in both cases.

Charity aims to raise an additional £1m by the end of this year

Open Arts host Dance Development Day

12 bands selected as ‘The Contenders’

The Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for the flood relief effort in Pakistan has now raised £35m.

neilirwin: Radio Foyle Item on Cityside ABC who paid money to Mark Townley / NTF (8m30sec) http://trunc.it/ahkdb

neilirwin: Article in Belfast Telegraph on Cityside ABC and NTF: http://trunc.it/allc7

Don't be an easy target, says Niki May Young. Protect yourself from charity theft.

neilirwin: Companies House gives notice that NTFUK will be dissolved on 17 Nov unless cause is shown to the contrary before then. http://trunc.it/an67p

neilirwin: NICVA looking at organising legal advice meeting for groups who are owed money by Mark Townley / NTF.

Arts by offenders is an exhibition of artwork produced by offenders, patients in secure hospitals, young people in children's homes and immigration centre detainees in Scotland. This collection of paintings, drawings and creative writing was selected from entries to the 2010 Koestler Awards.

neilirwin: Gift Aid Fundraising course well attended with good & very good feedback. 17 participants with only 1 currently using Gift Aid.

Newry-based Newpoint Players Youth Group stage Little Women

The Internet Advertising Bureau has teamed up with Oxfam and Shelter to offer a search marketing toolkit designed to help charities and public sector organisations increase their visibility online.

Volunteering is more popular in some groups and areas than others, and a big expansion is needed if Cameron's vision is to come true

Central to the idea of the "big society" is the assertion that there is a willingness and capacity to get involved in voluntary action. If the vision is to be realised, a substantial expansion of volunteering is required. What does the evidence base suggest?

Philip Blond, director of thinktank ResPublica, has argued that volunteering rates have "doubled" recently. In fact, volunteering levels are very stable over time. We have had reliable national survey datasets since the 1980s and they consistently show that around 40-45% of people volunteer at least once a year, with around 25% doing so at least once a month. There is some anecdotal evidence of a recent increase in people seeking opportunities to volunteer – but we can't yet distinguish whether that's a long-term trend, or a short-term response to recession.

We also know that the great bulk of volunteering, charitable giving and civic participation is accounted for by a relatively small subset of the population – termed the "civic core" (those who collectively contribute two-thirds of unpaid help, participation in civic groups and charitable donations). New analysis in the Third Sector Research Centre shows that: 1% of the population account for 9% of the volume of unpaid help recorded in the Citizenship Survey; two-thirds of unpaid help is given by around 7% of the population; 87% is given by 31%. The core groups are largely composed of well educated, middle-aged professionals; 57% have higher education qualifications; 33% have degrees and are aged 40-64; over 40% of females with degrees are in these "core" groups. With these groups approaching saturation, a wider range of people will need to be drawn into voluntary action; we can't just trawl for the usual suspects.

What about the match between the supply of volunteers and need? As a rule, the core groups are overrepresented in wealthier areas: 42% of those in the most prosperous tenth of residential neighbourhoods are in the "core", whereas only 25% of those in the least prosperous areas are. We can also quantify the share of voluntary effort by geographical area. This again shows a strong social gradient. The amount of unpaid help and civic participation is much higher in the more prosperous parts of the country. In the case of participation in civic and neighbourhood groups – and remember the ambition of David Cameron to have every adult involved in these organisations – the amount of such activity in the wealthiest 10% of areas is well over twice what it is in the most deprived areas. Survey evidence on the number of volunteers recruited by charities and other nonprofit organisations paints a similar picture, with above-average numbers in southern and rural local authorities, but substantially fewer in disadvantaged parts of the Midlands and the north.

So advocates of the "big society" need to consider how to stimulate an increase in the level of volunteering, when all the evidence points to its stability. They also need to think about how to support voluntary action in places where it's needed most. The Wolfenden Committee long ago recognised that the "soil for voluntary action was more fertile in some places than others", and that is a lesson we would do well to remember.

• John Mohan is deputy director of the Third Sector Research Centre

• Volunteering
• Voluntary sector
• Communities

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Public response has been extraordinary, says chief executive Brendan Gormley, as total raised hits £29m