Party leaders back legacies

David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Milliband have backed the Legacy10 campaign which encourages people to leave ten per cent of their legacy to charity by signing up to the initiative themselves.

From April onwards, those who do donate at least ten per cent will have their inheritance tax cut from 40% to 35% owing to a new change in inheritance tax law.

Read more on the article and on Legacy10 here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/15/party-leaders-charity-legacies

http://legacy10.com/

Oxfam bucks the trend with increased Christmas sales

 

With many households tightening the purse strings, it came as no surprise at the start of the year that many of the retail big hitters struggled to meet their Christmas financial targets.

However, Oxfam have reported their best financial figures ever for the festive period, suggesting that consumers are turning to them for bargains in times of financial austerity.

Although the charity do not release revenue figures, busy trading in the five weeks leading up to New Year's Eve pushed like-for-like sales up 11%.

The charity saw more donations to stores from members of the public, most being either homeware and clothing.

Read more on the story here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/19/oxfam-christmas-increased-sales

Cancer Research Continuing to Promote the Catalyst Club

The Catalyst Club is a major donation programme which was introduced in May 2011.This programme sought to attract 100 philanthropists willing to donate £100,000 over a three year period. James Khan (Dragons Den) is the patron and features in an on-line campaign targeting high net worth individuals. In addition Khan and the charity will host a number of dinner and events including one at Downing Street hosted by George and Francis Osborne. 

Cancer Research have sought to give their high paying philanthropists incentives and benefits so that they may be assured that their donations are appreciated. In addition the charity will provide these philanthropists with a greater knowledge of how there money is being spent. One publication compared this treatment to that of a Gallery, where there patrons given additional benefit for support.

Cancer Research to Target Overseas Donations

For the first time Cancer Research is expanding their fundraising activity overseas. This move is in a bid to raise funds for the development of a new research institute in the UK. The 'Create a Change' campaign is hoping to attract high end donation from individuals, trust and foundations, particularly from the Middle East and US. 

The institute is being created in partnership with a variety of international organisations allowing Cancer Research to seek donations from overseas with a little more rigour. This new venture may encourage Cancer research to seek aid from overseas in future depending on this campaign success.

East Africa Campaign Most Successful in Charity's History

Save the Children recently announced that their East Africa campaign has become their most successful campaign after Britons donated £7million in a 6 month period. This figure surpassed the record set by the £6.8million raised by the charity for the victims of the Asian Tsunami.

The campaign was initiated after reports emerged that in excess of 1.7million children in East Africa were being severely affected by the drought. The situation in Somalia was particularly dire with hundreds of thousands needing help, as short food supplies gripped their country.

The use of Bob Marley in their campaign was clever with songs being downloadable for donations and ultimately evoking a 'Bob Marley effect'. This high impact and highly concentrated campaign was extremely effective ensuring that help and donations reached those who needed it and the number of donations is sure to rise.