FUNDRAISING – Keeping it legal
Since 2015 charity fundraising has increasingly come under critical public scrutiny, with a few well publicised cases of bad practice being reported in the media. As a result parliament reviewed the self-regulation methods employed by charities and found them not fit for purpose. Consequently to strengthen the system of charity regulation a new organisation called “The Fundraising Regulator” (www.fundraisingregulator.org.uk) was established as the independent regulator for charity fundraising.
The Regulator has set out a new ‘Code of Fundraising Practice’, which includes all the legislation and rules governing how charities raise money. Every charity and its volunteers have to abide with the code. Breaches of the code carry legal sanctions.
All of Solihull Branch’s fundraising activities are therefore governed by this code and we, as your branch officials, endeavour to make sure that when you volunteer for Guide Dogs in a fundraising capacity you are complying with current legal requirements. Some of the main points that apply are as follows:-
§ Collectors must avoid causing obstruction/nuisance or congestion.
§ Collectors must wear appropriate clothing showing the name of the fundraising organisation. (We provide GD Tabards and most of you have GD clothing as well as your Identity Card).
§ Collectors must not pressurise the public to give their support.
§ Collectors must be able to give the public information on how to make a complaint. (Refer all complainants to the Coventry Office for which contact information is at the foot of the Collectors’ list for the day)
§ Collectors must be courteous at all times.
Lastly, in relation to Street Collections, in addition to all of the above, volunteers must wear a ‘Collectors Authority’ card signed by the local organiser. N.B. Never tie these to your bucket or collecting box (keep them on your person) as they authorise the holder to collect. Not a good idea if the bucket and authority card get stolen together! Either Ken or I will provide these on the day.
In hindsight, we have generally complied with the regulations and have nothing to be worried about.
The scope of the new Code is vast and too complicated to go into in great depth and I would encourage you all to enjoy your volunteering and keep the ‘FUN’ in Fundraising.
Many thanks,
Branch Organiser
Guide Dog Week
As you may be aware the theme for Guide Dog Week this year is “Move it for Money”. Talking of which, you may not have realised that the Bank of England has very kindly decided to make the end of this Guide Dog Week the date on which it finally withdraws the old £1 coin (was it planned or did it just happen that way, I wonder?)
On Monday 16th October, the old coin will no longer be “legal tender”, which means that you will no longer be able to use them to buy me a coffee, but if you gave them to me, I could still pay it into the bank for the benefit of Guide Dogs.
So, if when you are collecting during Guide Dogs Week, or after, if anyone asks whether we can take the old pound coin – the answer is “yes, please”! How long for? Well, we still pay the old (larger) 50p coins in to the bank from time to time and they ceased to be legal tender over 20 years ago.
Kenneth
News from Puppy Class
During August we held a Family Fun Day at the puppy walking class and raised over £120 with cake sale and donations. The point of the day was to raise awareness of our collection activities and to try to get 'new blood' involved in the collections. Everybody seemed to enjoy the morning and thereappears to be a desire to make this an annual event. The good bit about it was that some puppy walkers brought their children and grandchildren along. I think the event is best described as organised chaos.
We played lots of fun games with the dogs, all based on reinforcing the basic training. The games included:
§ Pass the parcel with treats and tasks
§ A relay race with obstacles
§ Puppy ping pong
§ Awater carrying game that almost descended into a wet T-shirt competition and a couple of games far too complex to describe!
Martin Richards
Watch your step
Mark Sanders recently appeared on a film as part of the “Speak Up” project in his role as a volunteer at the Thomas Pocklington Trust. He talks about the way in which individuals are affected by sight loss and of its impact in his own experience. The film is available from here and is also on YouTube.
Branch trading catalogue
If you receive this newsletter by email, you will also have a copy of the Branch Trading catalogue which includes diaries, calendars, Christmas cards etc. Please note that this is a different catalogue from Dogalogue and all orders from the Branch catalogue help to boost our branch income. Please let me have any orders by or email at or phone (0121 705 5146). If these are received in time, they should be available at the branch meeting.
Ruth
“Me and my guidedog” – a re-run or just a get together?
The “Meet and Greet” which was held at Leamington on Friday 8th September provided an opportunity for the now “grown up” pups to meet up with mum.
Klodo and his sister Kiera with her owner Janet Price are both part of the Solihull branch, whilst Kez and his owner Ian Jones live in Leamington Spa, not far from her mother Georgie who lives with her owner Mrs. Sager.
Once Mum had had a gentle word with Klodo, as they do and probably not before time, the evening went well.
Kenneth
Social Media
As many of you will be aware, we have been active on Twitter for some time now. We set up a Facebook page18 Months ago and that too has proven to be to be successful. We are keen to add posts locally relevant to our group to raise awareness and promote our branch, as such welcome any photos, stories, with a short narrative for possible inclusion. Please feel free to follow, like, comment, share, retweet, invite friends to like our pages on Twitter and Facebook. Also please send photos and stories to Martin and me at . Thank you.
Michael Abbott
Future branch eventsNB a more up to date Events List is at www.solihullguidedogs.org.uk/events.asp /
When / What and where / Organiser/contact /
Saturday 23.9.2017
8:30 am- 2:30 pm / Street Collection in Knowle, B93 0HN / Pat and Tony Revell (0121 430 4617)
email:
Saturday 30.9.2017
9:00 am - 5:00 pm / Street Collection in Solihull Town Centre, B91 3AA / Pat and Tony Revell (0121 430 4617)
email:
Saturday 7.10.2017 - Sunday 15.10.2017 / Guide Dog Week / See the national Guide Dogs website
Saturday 7.10.2017
9:00 am - 6:00 pm / Collection in Birmingham International Station, B40 1PA / Pat and Tony Revell (0121 430 4617)
email:
Saturday 14.10.2017
9:00 am - 6:00 pm / Collection in Birmingham International Station, B40 1PA / Pat and Tony Revell (0121 430 4617)
email:
Thursday 26.10.2017
7:15 pm - 8:30 pm / Branch Open Meeting in Langley Hall Social Club, Langley Hall Road, Olton, Solihull, B92 7HE / Pat and Tony Revell (0121 430 4617)
email:
Saturday 25.11.2017
9:00 am - 6:00 pm / Collection in Birmingham International Station, B40 1PA / Pat and Tony Revell (0121 430 4617)
email:
Saturday 2.12.2017
9:00 am - 6:00 pm / Collection in Birmingham International Station, B40 1PA / Pat and Tony Revell (0121 430 4617)
email:
Friday 8.12.2017 - Saturday 9.12.2017
9:00 am - 6:00 pm / "In store" collection in Sainsburys, Maypole, B14 5TN / Pat and Tony Revell (0121 430 4617)
email: