human trafficking: the numbers

Eight generations ago our ancestors ended the slave trade, yet today the numbers associated with human trafficking are staggering.

Click here to access our special issue Share magazine on human trafficking, featuring interviews with Beth Redman, Gary Haugen and Christine Caine.

Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme - how Stewardship have helped

The Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, which will be introduced from April 2013, is very nearly law. The Scheme will allow a new ‘Gift Aid style top up payment’ from the Government on cash donations (such as church collections and bucket collections) but without the need to obtain a Gift Aid Declaration from the donor.

Stewardship has played a central role in the development of this Scheme. We:

• provided input to HMRC, and the Treasury, to the conceptual design of the Scheme;
• commented on drafts of the Bill that will govern the Scheme;
• took part in a public consultation, and responded with a number of comments and observations

I was called by the Government as an expert witness, to provide evidence to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee, scrutinising the Bill.

As a result of this, the Bill has been significantly amended since it was first published and, a number of the amendments directly respond to the concerns that Stewardship expressed to HMRC and the Government: 

Gift Aid Matching rule

As originally proposed, in order for a charity to claim for £1 of cash donations under the Scheme, it would have to claim for at least £1 of Gift Aid donations as well. This ‘matching’ rule is designed to reduce the possibility of fraudulent claims. However, we were concerned that this would limit the ability of very small churches and charities to fully benefit, even if they did receive £5,000 of cash donations in a given year, because their Gift Aid income may not be high enough.

Stewardship asked for this ratio to be increased from 1:1 to 10:1 (so that for each £1 of Gift Aid claim, the charity would be able to claim on £10 of cash donations). We were therefore delighted that the Government, this week, agreed to not only increase the ratio but to increase it right up to 10:1 as we originally requested.

Eligibility requirements

Before becoming eligible for the Scheme, a charity would need to be registered with HMRC for Gift Aid purposes for at least three years, and to have made successful Gift Aid claims in three of the last seven years. Stewardship expressed concern that this will make it difficult for new charities, and for church plants that become independent of their mother church, to benefit under the Scheme when these are just the sort of charities that need the sort of help that the Scheme offers.

Stewardship therefore asked for this rule to be modified so that ‘younger’ charities could benefit from Year 2, albeit with a lower limit than the £5,000 offered by the main Scheme.

Whilst the Government did not make exactly the change that we pressed for, they have this week changed the Bill so that a charity becomes eligible after two years, and on the basis that successful Gift Aid claims have been made in two out of the last four years.

Community buildings rule (1)

In addition to the £5,000 of small cash donations that all charities would be able to claim on, where a charity (such as a church) has meetings in a ‘community building’ (which is defined in the Bill), they will be able to claim on an additional £5,000 of small cash donations. Commercial and residential buildings were excluded from this opportunity.

We were able to persuade Government to modify the commercial buildings restriction so that churches that meet in (for example, leisure centres, cinemas and theatres) will now be able to qualify for these additional payments.

Community buildings rule (2)

In order for a community building to be eligible for the additional top up payments, charitable activities need to be carried on with at least 10 persons on at least six occasions during the year. In counting the 10 persons, the Bill as originally drafted excluded some volunteers, persons employed by the charity and officers or trustees of the charity. We were concerned that this would mean that smaller churches would be excluded as volunteers, employees and trustees will typically also be church members.

The Government accepted these concerns and deleted reference to volunteers, employees, officers and trustees.

Connected charities rule

In order to prevent charities artificially splitting into a number of new charities in order to gain access to top ups on multiples of the core £5,000 limit, a connected charities’ rule will state that where certain conditions exist, a single £5,000 limit will be shared by all of the connected charities.

Stewardship was worried that because of the many close family connections that exist in the local church, this rule may impact, wrongly, by connecting a number of local community charities, where this was not intended by the legislation. HMRC therefore worked closely with Stewardship to test out a revised connected charities rule.

Charity mergers

We were concerned that where a charity changes its legal form (for example, changing from a charitable trust to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation), or where one charity merges with another, that the eligibility criteria are carried over from the predecessor to successor organisation. This was built into the original Bill but required the predecessor organisation to be dissolved. We pressed for this requirement to be dropped since there are circumstances in charity law whereby the predecessor organisation should be retained. The Government tabled amendments to the Bill that removed the requirement to dissolve.

The Small Charitable Donations Bill will now be considered by the House of Lords in December. Once enacted, we will publish a Briefing Paper on the Scheme, tailored to the needs of churches and Christian charities and containing illustrative examples of how you can maximise the benefit for your church or charity.

does your church make overseas payments?

If a church makes payments to an overseas entity, it is important that the church’s trustees take suitable steps to ensure that the payments being made are actually used for charitable purposes (even if the purpose in sending them was charitable). In our experience, there are a number of legal traps to look out for and our new Briefing Paper ‘Guidance for Churches making international payments’ is designed to guide churches through the process in a straightforward and proportional manner.

To download your free copy, click here.

Churches Exception from Registration - extended to 31 March 2014

Readers of this blog will know that some, but not all, churches must register as a charity with the relevant charity regulator (the Charity Commission in England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator in Scotland, and shortly, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland). 

In England and Wales, the temporary Exception from Registration for certain denominational churches with a gross income of under £100,000, which was due to end in October 2012, has again been extended - this time to 31 March 2014. 

Churches that should be registered with the charity regulator but haven’t yet done so, are advised not to delay and risk losing out on valuable tax reliefs given to charities. This advice follows a change in tax legislation which means that registration with the regulator is essential. 

Further help: 

• For more on the exception from Charity Registration in England and Wales, click here
• For more on why churches should register as soon as possible to preserve tax reliefs, click here
• For more on the registration requirements, refer to our Charities Act 2006 Briefing Paper here

Charitable Incorporated Organisations - a reality at last

The long awaited new charity structure, the Charitable Incorporated Organisation, is at last becoming a reality. The CIO was originally conceived many years ago, and enacted in the Charities Act 2006. Two sets of regulations were passed by the House of Lords Grand Committee on 27 November which mean that, at last, the first applications for CIO status can be made. A further two sets of regulations will need to be approved by Parliament to complete the new rules.

In the meantime, The Cabinet Office has issued an indicative timetable for the introduction of the new charity structure as follows:

Scottish book week 2012

At 11 a.m. on St Andrew’s Day thousands of people across Scotland will stop what they’re doing and read. Hopefully, the country won’t grind to a halt but what a fantastic thought – all those noses in books for an hour.  As a self-confessed bibliophile, it’s my idea of bliss.

The Reading Hour is part of a week-long series of events run by the Scottish Book Trust to celebrate the place books have in our lives.  For some, reading is a solitary activity, best enjoyed with a cup of tea and a comfy chair; for others, it is more of a communal activity to be shared in book groups, libraries and schools.  Some of my most enduring childhood memories are book-centred: buying my first Enid Blyton book (which I still have, by the way), the smell of the mobile library, listening intently to Bernard Cribbins reading the Paddington Bear stories on Jackanory.

So, I pondered, how can we be generous and celebrate our love of books at the same time?  Well, it turns out that there are more options than you might think.  Here are some of the ones I came up with but you may have more ideas:

• Have a clear out and give your old books to charity shops.  My personal favourite is the bookshop at Pitlochry station platform.
• Hold your own book sale and donate the proceeds to a cause.
• Volunteer to read: primary schools and playgroups are delighted to hear from volunteers willing to read to groups of children.  This is also a great way for churches to link to their local schools.
• Think about offering your time to read books or newspapers to benefit those with sight impairments.  Our local paper, the Strathearn Herald offers such a scheme. Get in touch with the Association of Scottish Talking Newspapers to find out if there are volunteer groups in your area.
• Support the Scottish Bible Society to bring bibles to rural parts of China. See for yourself the excitement created by the arrival of a shipment of bibles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pieFAsTS2og
• Or you could take a leaf out of my book (sorry) and volunteer a few hours a week to a local Christian Bookshop or maybe set up a book stall at your church.

It could be the start of a new chapter for you . . . .

Other Links:

http://www.volunteerscotland.org.uk for other reading-related opportunities

Comrie Book Group and the 2011 Booker Prize authors: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00l9g4z

The Seeing Ear http://www.seeingear.org/TSE/

RNIB National Library service http://www.rnib.org.uk/livingwithsightloss/reading/services/rnibnationallibrary/Pages/national_library_service.aspx

a white Christmas for all

People do Christmas differently.  I, for one, love all of the trimmings, lights and buying thoughtful presents for people I love.  But each year I’m becoming more aware of other people’s Christmasses, and how else I can be a blessing to others.

This year, inspired by Operation Christmas Child’s 100 millionth shoebox being sent out, I decided to get involved.  It’s been years since I made up a shoebox - and even then, only because my mum thought it would be good for my sister and me to get involved! - but I suddenly had the urge to go out and buy lovely gifts for a little girl who I’d never met.  My friend made a shoebox as well, and we both sat on the floor in her lounge, with her young daughter, making up our boxes together and explaining ‘why’ to her excited 3-year-old.  The best present in those boxes was definitely the new toy her daughter gave from her own toybox for a child she didn’t know.

It’s too late to make a shoebox now for this year, but another inspiring campaign this Christmas is the one led by Refuge – the charity for women and children, against domestic violence.  The charity provides temporary accommodation for women and children who need a refuge from domestic violence.  Each year, they make sure every woman and child in their care receives at least one Christmas present.  This year, they have a gift list with John Lewis: you can order gifts online, and Refuge will deliver them. Gifts cost between £2.99 and £40, and the gift list closes on December 6. Go to Johnlewisgiftlist.com and enter list number 522953.

It might be that money’s tight and that’s the one thing you can’t give this time of year.  The good news is there are lots of alternative ways to bless others at Christmas.  You can bake cookies, spend time writing encouraging messages in Christmas cards, invite someone to join you over Christmas, take a friend to a service at church, go carol singing without collecting money, let someone use your home on Christmas day when you’re visiting family...  I bet if you spent 10 minutes thinking over a cup of tea, you’d come up with something that would really bless someone you care about.

Lastly, why not check out thechristmastree.org.uk for inspiring stories and heart warming clips to get you in the mood?

anti-bullying week 2012

Bullying is something that can affect us at any age: whether you’re bullied as a child or teen, or abused as an adult or elder.

This week is national Anti-bullying Week, and the theme is ‘We’re better without bullying’. Even if you’ve never been bullied, it’d be hard to disagree with that statement. It seems almost obvious, doesn’t it? So why is it important to raise awareness and funds?

Because, actually, it’s not obvious. There’s a tendency to downplay bullying as just a bit of a scuffle in the school yard, but in reality bullying can ruin lives. Victims can experience depression and low self-esteem, and studies show that the bullies themselves sometimes go on to become perpetrators of domestic abuse later in life*. The financial burden on society to rectify these issues – the costs of counselling, medication, legal expenses – is huge, to say nothing of the emotional price that victims pay. It turns out that we really are better without bullying.

Kidscape, a UK registered charity, estimates that a whopping 50% of school children have reported being bullied at some stage in their school life. As a parent, that figure seriously concerns me. It means that either my child or yours may endure name-calling, alienation, physical abuse or worse whilst in the education system. Even more worrying is the fact that some schools don’t have the knowledge or the resources to put a stop to it. Anti-bullying week is designed to put the problem on everyone’s breakfast table; to make it an issue not simply for the 50% and their families, but for anyone who has a voice to stand against bullying.

Charities like Kidscape, Childline and BeatBullying are vital. They provide schools with the resources and schemes to effectively equip teachers and students, so that they can challenge and prevent bullying.

This week I urge you to support one of these charities in the following ways:

Financially – head to your giving account and make a gift, or set up a regular Direct Debit. Do a fundraiser. Your chosen charity’s website will tell you how your gift is being used, and if it doesn’t, don’t be afraid to pick up the phone.

Get educated – these charities produce fantastic resources and Q&As to help you to understand the problems so that you can get involved.

Pray - Pray that the charities will use funds wisely to help eradicate bullying. Also pray about ways in which you might get involved on a long-term basis, perhaps on a volunteering or fundraising basis.

Account numbers

Kidscape Campaign for Children’s Safety – a/c 20042518

Childline – a/c 20021854

*Source: ScienceDaily, 2011, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110606171405.htm

image by Childline

World Mental Health Day

Mental health is still, unfortunately, a subject that comes loaded with stigma. But the reality is that even if you've never been affected by mental health issues yourself, you probably know several people who have.

Today is World Mental Health Day - a day to raise awareness, break taboo, and highlight some of the amazing organisations who do so much to help sufferers and their families.

If you've got a Stewardship giving account, you can support any of the following charities with a one-off gift or a regular donation. Just log in and search for their name, or use the keyword 'Mental' in the Name field on the donations page:

*image courtesy of Mind

bog-standard generosity

Part of the joy of my job is to spend hours (often the wee ones, just before I fall asleep) scouring the web for the latest news on giving and generosity. And when my own eyes fail, I ask my trusted colleagues to keep theirs peeled for the good stuff.

So when I received an email about a lady who was intending to sit on the toilet for charity, I mouthed ‘whaaa?’ and clicked on the link immediately. What I discovered made me laugh out loud. Not only was this slightly potty woman really going to sit on the loo to raise money for her church, she was also using Stewardship’s give.net to do it.

Rona’s Toilet Sit – raising money for a loo at St George’s Church, said her give.net page proudly.

“There,” I thought, considering the many hours we’d spent diligently and prayerfully dreaming up the future of give.net. “Our work is complete.”

I decided to give her a call.

“Some people do marathons,” she said, when I asked her about her unusual fundraising drive, “but I’m too old to run so I thought of a LOO-vely sitting down challenge.”

And so, the delightful Rona will be sitting on a disconnected toilet for two hours in the middle of her church on September 8^th, to raise £2000 towards her church facilities project and, “so everyone can laugh”, she says.

“If I raise £2,000 I will be FLUSHED with success.  But we need about £76k overall as we have to bring water in from the road.”

Two thousand pounds may well just be a drop in the basin, but it reminded me that sometimes we must do the extraordinary and slightly - well - weird to make a generous difference in the world. Very few of us are willing to make spectacles of ourselves for a valid cause (although our Facebook photos often give others ample reason to laugh at us), but as Christians we’re inspired to become ‘undignified’ in our worship and our lifestyle, with the sole aim of making God’s Kingdom known. Sitting on a toilet so that a church can have the facilities to accommodate lots of people? I’d say that fits the description pretty well.

Rona will be live-tweeting throughout the event, and invites people to send her a tweet (or more importantly, a donation) as an encouragement. “Clean toilet humour only, please,” she insists, with a laugh.

The generosity challenge:

Spot the amount of toilet-related puns in this month’s Extra Mile.

Kidding!

Make September your month to raise money for a cause you love, and let us know what you’re doing: we’d love to get in touch and perhaps even feature you in our give.net blog.  Be extraordinary, extravagant and perhaps even a bit weird. Remember, you can use give.net to create and customise a fundraising page.

Not able to fundraise this time? Perhaps consider donating to Rona’s sponsored toilet sit! Or you can use give.net’s search tool to look for causes that interest you.  

image Restroom Reminder courtesy of Raymond Gilford