Knowledge and Insight - Charities

The Autumn Budget 2024 presents a mixed picture for the UK charity sector, with both opportunities and challenges. Read our key highlights.

Making sense of environmental, social and governance ratings when investing.

Labour’s plan to levy VAT on private education is making bursars’ lives even harder. We shed light on opportunities and risks that you may face in the months ahead.

Exploring ways to create positive outcomes for society with your investments.

As the threat of VAT being added to independent school fees becomes more realistic, we understand that there has been a surge in interest in advanced fee payment schemes. For those independent schools in receipt of funds from such schemes, we look at the options to earn a monetary return on the cash before the associated expenditure falls due.

Building, powering and managing the built environment is responsible for a huge portion of global emissions. To transition to net zero, the building and construction industries urgently need to reduce their emissions. We discuss what this could mean for charities and their investments.

Property is often a relatively low maintenance asset for a charity – until something goes wrong. In some cases, unexpected property liabilities or disputes can threaten a charity’s long-term viability. We talk to Simon Taylor from the Ethical Property Foundation about some key property challenges, and how charities can manage the risks.

The sale of its Grade II-listed London property has helped NAFAS reduce its operating costs, finance new initiatives, upgrade its technology and invest in the charity’s future. We spoke to CEO Steven Lane.

In our post-pandemic, cost-of-living-crisis world, many charities are facing a property conundrum: how to optimise their office space usage while reducing overheads? We talk to Rui Domingues, director of finance and operations at the Charity Finance Group, and Dan Bishop, head of operations and services at the Association of Chairs, about their mutually beneficial solution.

John Fitzgerald, digital evolution manager for the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), has some top tips for charities to enhance their cyber security capabilities. 

Mark Sait, CEO of SaveMoneyCutCarbon (SMCC), a leading UK-based money-saving and sustainability platform, tells us about some of the ways charities can cut their surging energy bills and boost their ESG credentials into the bargain. 

John Brady, head of fundraising at St Andrew’s Hospice and Anna Baker Cresswell, executive director of HighGround, share their thoughts on how the cost of living crisis is affecting their charities, and their response to it.