Yaarah Schools was lucky to be invited to attend the Small Charities Coalition ‘Small charities, BIG Questions’ event on the 20th of January 2010. It gave us an opportunity to have a question and answer session with the Charities Commission and the HMRC. We were able to get a better understanding of the ways in which both operate in relation to Yaarah Schools and broaden our knowledge in certain areas. The event was interesting and highlighted a lot of good things but also some of the problems that smaller charities and organisations like us face on a day to day basis. It was good to hear that many other organisations shared some of our concerns about the clarity of the Charity Commission website and that they were currently working on making the website a lot more user-friendly.
There is also support which is provided by both the Charity Commission and the HMRC via the help lines allowing a member of the relevant team to go over individual issues in a lot more depth than can be found on the websites. The mind boggling legalities around gift aid and the importance of higher tax payers were also simplified with great relief to many in the room! All in all the session helped us to see that although at times it may feel as though bodies such as the Charities Commission and HMRC are working against us they are actually doing everything within our best interests in order to protect us both now and in the future.
With the question and answers session over it was on the celebrating the 1st birthday of the Small Charities Coalition! Yaarah School has the Small Charities Coalition to thank for so much including:
- Providing free fundraising workshops and training delivered by the Institute of Fundraising
- Matching us with various individuals whose experience and knowledge helped to give us a more solid direction
- Generally advising us on issues which we were clueless about and presenting us with continual updates and opportunities that can benefit us in anyway
The whole Yaarah Schools team would like to wish the Small Charities Coalition a very HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY!!! We will be forever grateful for all the help you have given and the support you continue to show. Hopefully the Small Charities Coalition has many more birthdays and great tasting birthday cakes to come!
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Fantastic write up ladies, and whose that handsome fella between you?? lol