.gif)
Charity and Voluntary Sector
CC: The Charity Commission has begun a new online registration application service, which is available initially for organisations applying with an approved governing document. The online service will guide organisations through the application process with helpful information on hand at each stage and applicants will also be able to save & return to their form, giving them the option to complete it over a period of time. Once submitted, the application will be considered for registration in the usual way.
A key aim for the new service is to continue to reduce the time to register: the Commission is aiming for an average registration time of 5 working days or less by the end of 2008 for those organisations applying online.
BIG: Projects in India and Bangladesh are receiving a share of a BIG £17m aid package funded by the Big Lottery Fund. The multi-million pound development funding has recently been channelled to UK-based charities working in some of the poorest countries in the world.
Two out of the nine projects being funded in the latest batch though the Big Lottery Fund’s International programme will work in Bangladesh and India to improve the level of health care for women and children and to support families affected by the Asian Tsunami.
CC: The Charity Commission has launched consultations on draft supplementary guidance for charities on public benefit. The draft guidance - Public Benefit and the Advancement of Religion and Public Benefit and the Prevention or Relief of Poverty, follows the publication of general guidance on public benefit in January 2008.
To accompany this draft supplementary guidance, the Commission has also taken the opportunity to publish new draft guidance on the Promotion of Social Inclusion, as this is an area in which many poverty charities, as well as other sorts of charity, are also engaged.
Press release ~ Public Benefit and the Prevention or Relief of Poverty ~ Draft supplementary guidance ~ Analysis of the law underpinning Public Benefit and the Prevention or Relief of Poverty ~ The Promotion of Social Inclusion ~ Public Benefit and the Advancement of Religion ~ Draft supplementary guidance
