Voluntary Action Lewisham

Charities working overseas

There are two changes that have been recently introduced that affect organisations spending money overseas. These could affect some of the organisations in Lewisham that include other countries in their area of operations.

Finance Act

Part of the Finance Act 2010 allows Her Majesties Customs and Revenue (HMRC) to judge whether money spent overseas is spent on charitable activities or not. If it decides that the money was spent on non-charitable activities HMRC may withdraw the tax relief on that money. To avoid this organisations spending money overseas should keep full records of the money spent.

Bribery Act

The Bribery Act 2010 also includes measures that while not aimed at charities could affect charities. The act creates four new offences, including bribing a foreign official and failing to prevent a bribe being paid.

Control of money sent overseas

Both of these measures could affect organisations that send money overseas, but do not control how the money is spent. This is something that the Charity Commission has already advised against. In at least one inquiry report they ruled that money raised for charitable purposes remained the responsibility of the charity that raised the money and that it could only be spent on charitable purposes. Passing money to another organisation, even if it was also charitable did not remove the obligation to ensure that the money could only be spent on charitable activities. See Charity Commission guidance for charities working overseas.

The Charity Commission - in collaboration with Mencap - has published a guide for trustees with learning disabilities.

The guide covers much of the material in the Charity Commissions guide CC3 and is available from the Charity Commission website.

More details can be found either on the Charity Commission website or in an article for Third Sector

The CRIB project will provide a range of information, advice and support to new, small, BME and Refugee organisations working directly with the public. CRIB will also help groups demonstrate community needs and promote the impact of your organisation’s work.

If you are thinking of starting a voluntary or community group or are already up and running we can help you to:

• Organise and plan your activities
• Find out about relevant funding opportunities
• Apply for local authority contracts
• Support your users better
• Keep in touch with key issues that affect your work
• Develop your knowledge and skills through our training days and workshops
• Create a strong and sustainable community organisation

Our Development Officer provides one to one advice and guidance on starting up, managing and developing your organisation and will support you to:

• Work out your ideas
• Set up a management committee
• Write a constitution
• Develop essential policies and procedures
• Write funding bids
• Operate to high standards
• Monitor and evaluate your work

To book an initial discussion please contact Mike or telephone 020 8698 6034.

Information and research

CRIB will also carry out research into the voluntary and community sector in Lewisham. We want to make sure that we reflect the diversity of groups in the Borough. This will also make it easier for members of the public to discover organisations in their local area. In addition it will help voluntary and community groups find partners for joint tendering or for other joint working. Plus, it will also allow VAL to circulate information about funding opportunities. To do this we will develop an online funding portal with details of funding news, opportunities and resources, in order to help organisations find the funding they need to develop their activities.

For more information about CRIB call 020 8698 6034.

• CRIB is committed to working alongside you to build a strong and independent voluntary and community sector in Lewisham.
• CRIB is part of Voluntary Action Lewisham and the Change Up Programme
• Our services are available free to not for profit organisations in the London Borough of Lewisham.

Governance is an umbrella term which tells you how the business of an organisation is carried out.

At VAL we see governance as the way our trustees, their committees and delegated staff exercise their responsibility and authority, and to ensure that at all times it is consistent with the spirit of our Articles of Association and our charitable status. In addition, it is about how we pursue our work to achieve our primary objectives.

In pursuing good governance, our trustees at all times seek to be accountable, transparent, consistent, flexible and representative. They also seek to work within our values and principles framework.

Change Up is a government initiative for investing in the development of Voluntary and Community Sector infrastructure and capacity building support. It has been developed with the voluntary sector and seeks to address key capacity needs of frontline organisations through infrastructure improvement. ChangeUp aims to ensure that by 2014 the needs of frontline voluntary and community organisations will be met by support that is available nationwide, is efficient, offers excellent provision to all, promotes diversity and is sustainable. This will be done on a local, sub-regional and regional basis. ChangeUp addresses six national ‘Hubs of Excellence’ to enable frontline organisations to fulfil their potential. These are:

1. Performance
2. Workforce
3. ICT
4. Governance
5. Finance

At the local level, the Lewisham Local Infrastructural Development Plan (LIDP) has been written in response to the ChangeUp initiative. Based on consultation and research, 10 initial development programmes have been identified:

1. Information and Research

2. Second Tier Development

3. Organisational Development

4. Neighbourhood Collaboration

5. BME Capacity Building

6. Volunteer Development

7. Volunteer Support

8. Premises Development

9. Social Enterprise

10. ICT Programme

ChangeUp has synergy with community focussed strategies and policies adopted by Lewisham Council and Lewisham PCT. The initiative can potentially ‘add value’ and maximise investments by Lewisham Council and Lewisham PCT. Nationally, ChangeUp is managed by Capacity Builders, an agency at arms length to government. Please refer to the ChangeUp website (external link) for further information and the East London Network website (external link) for details of sub-regional initiatives and resources.

Further Information

For further information on ChangeUp please contact Brian Wagenbach on: 020 8698 6034 or e-mail: brian@valewisham.org.uk

ASSET Support Services

The Community Accountancy Service at Voluntary Action Lewisham is free for charities and non-profit organisations working within the borough. This includes social enterprise organisations and community groups.  We have considerable experience of working with voluntary and community groups and understand the pressures and challenges faced by this sector.  We can support you at all stages of your organisation’s growth. For example:
 
Setting up a new community group

• an overview of financial implications and responsibilities
• writing a business plan
• creating budgets and forecasts to support funding applications

Getting going

• financial awareness training for your management committee
• support and training for treasurers
• developing a financial controls policy
• help with setting up basic bookkeeping systems
• how to monitor your cashflow
• record-keeping and reports for funders
• preparing year end financial statements 

As the organisation grows

• employing staff – from payscales to payroll
• preparing for audit or independent examination
• advice on choosing and setting up computerised accounts packages
• budgeting for full cost recovery
• support for lone finance workers and non-financial managers

Financial Health Checks
One of the ways we can help you assess the strength of your financial management is by doing a Financial Health Check for your organisation. This is a simple questionnaire which looks at the four key areas of

• financial controls
• record-keeping
• budgeting and financial planning
• financial reporting

After completing the questionnaire with the Community Accountant we can help you identify priority areas for improvement,devise an action plan and help you implement it by providing model documents and policies, bookkeeping templates, information and referrals to specialist agencies, one-to-one advice and support, and access to our in-house or public training courses.

Our newsletter, ASSET News, goes out once a year.  See the previous page - Community Accountancy - for the last ASSET Newsletter with information on Reserves Policies and free budgeting software.