The Good Fundraising Code, a free code for fundraisers to adhere to, has now passed 350 members subscribing. This is a great sign that a no-fee code is wanted by charities in the UK as a commitment to best practice without charge.

Visit www.practicalfundraising.com for more details or to sign your charity or non profit organisation up for free.

Many charities benefit extensively using the Charity Technology Exchange for very low cost software - it is a pleasure to see Microsoft and other companies supporting our sector in this way

Interesting to see following on from our encouragement to boycott Freepost due to charities being charged even when a stamp is on an envelope, that sometimes charities are charged more than once due to the envelopes sometimes going through several machines.

The incapacity of Royal Mail to offer a service that can work for charities by not charging when a supporter puts a stamp on an envelope, and by avoiding double charging regardless, means we would still encourage charities to boycott this awful service.

Small Charity Week takes place from 14 to 18 June 2010. It is designed to celebrate small charities and the work they do. Visit www.smallcharityweek.com for more information

We will be launching the Good Fundraising Code on 12th February 2009 through www.practicalfundraising.com

42 organisations have already signed up pre-launch and we have attracted a little attention in the trade press. The code is a direct response to members of the Practical Fundraising Association asking for a free code... although you do not have to be a member to join and sign up to these standards.

We have naturally attracted criticism from the paid-for code, but then that is not a great surprise... just sad that some people respond in this way rather than seeing this as a contribution to better standards and a request from charities who do not want to pay fees to be seen to be of high standards.

Thank you to all the charities signing up... we will continue to provide services asked for by charities as the need arises.

2009 will pose many challenges for all of us in fundraising and the voluntary sector. We will need to be more creative, more innovative and develop new ideas more quickly to survive. The training and direction we take will help you in this, I hope.

To give everyone the chance to attend courses closer to their organisations, we are moving a number of training locations in 2009.

We will be adding in the following venues -

Exeter in March
Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham in April to June

Other venues will also be changing for 2009 - do let me have any suggestions you may have for new venues.

The initial tests on unrestricted income asks to trusts continue to grow and our new trusts application service will be the focus for the business over the summer as a result, before the new training season starts in the autumn. It is encouraging that many charitable trusts are now seeing the need in charities is for revenue and unrestricted income more than anything. These enlightened trusts are not in the majority of the larger funders, but are a growing group which will really help the sector, especially as the credit crunch is likely to affect many individual givers.

We have looked at a number of different advertising options from websites and opted for Oxado. The flexibility of banners is as good as Google and you can choose individual domain names you do not wish to be displayed so if you notice any that would conflict with your ethical policy, you can block them immeditately from being served on your websites. They also do not have a block on you serving their ads alongside others, so there is no restriction on your freedom to advertise other services or use other providers in the future. Also, you can earn 10% referral income for any other website that you persuade to sign up, which could be particularly valuable in the case of large corporate supporters... although individuals can also sign up too with Oxado. Visit www.oxado.com/?origin=pub183935 to sign up at any time.

As even getting supporters to put a stamp on a FREEPOST envelope AND crossing through the FREEPOST line will not ensure we are not still charged for the service, we have launched a Boycott Freepost campaign until Royal Mail find a simple way to resolve this issue with charities and other good causes.