The Nonprofit FAQ

Institute of Fundraising creates a website for volunteer fundraisers Funded by the Office of the Third Sector and the Vodafone UK Foundation, the site http://www.how2fundraise.org provides advice on fundraising law and best practice, and allows volunteers to create sponsorship forms, letters and other materials bearing the logo and mission statement of their chosen charity. The site also provides a guide to running fundraising events, fundraising forums where volunteers can share ideas and guidance on fundraising law and best practice. BBC Children in Need, Barclays, Marie Curie Cancer care and Volunteering England have already signed up to use the site.

"Volunteers raise billions for charity each year," said Lindsay Boswell, chief executive of the institute. "If we can help them raise even a few percent more, then that will be a massive additional contribution to good causes."

The Institute of Fundraising's website is: http://www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/ The forms and templates are only available for organizations that are members of the institute.

OneWorldTrust's website is http://www.oneworldtrust.org. "The guiding vision for the One World Trust is a world where all peoples live in peace and security and have equal access to opportunity and participation."

To all on soc.org.nonprofit

A few weeks back I mentioned a WWW page for UK charity fundraisers which I was about to publish. Well it is now available and although not of direct relevance to this newsgroup I believe some of you might be
interested. It does of course include a link to soc.org.nonprofit.

Here is the blurb:

FIRST WWW PAGE FOR UK CHARITY FUNDRAISERS

A fundraiser at Amnesty International British Section has produced the UK's first WWW page for charity fundraisers.

http://www.fundraising.co.uk/

The page lists fundraising discussion lists, upcoming seminars and events, service organisations, magazines, vacancies, and other not-for-profit Internet resources. It also has examples of online fundraising appeals by various charities.

Howard Lake, the creator of the page and a professional fundraiser for seven years, says "I hope the UK Fundraising web page will act as a practical example to the UK voluntary sector of what can and should be done with the medium of public electronic communications."

Howard has spent the past year researching electronic sources of fundraising information for UK charity fundraisers as part of a (part-time) MSc in Information Science at City University. "Many not-for-profit organisations have used public networks like the Internet for campaigning and coordination for years", he says. "But very few are using such networks for fundraising, whether direct appeals for money or for donor research or sharing experiences and best practice."

"US fundraisers, particularly those in universities, are leading the field in using the Net to fundraise and network with other fundraisers. I hope the UK Fundraising page acts as a spur to those charities still hesitating about getting online to realise that there are useful, focused resources available that are relevant to them."

Howard plans to publish the results of his MSc research on the page in November for other charities to share.

NB. The UK Fundraising page and related research are privately-funded and are not in any way an official Amnesty International project.


Howard Lake

Trust Fundraiser

Amnesty International British Section Charitable Trust

99-119 Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R 4RE, UK

Tel: + 44 (0171) 814 6200

Fax: + 44 (0171) 833 1510


registered charity no 294279