The huge rise in the cost of postage stamps, now up to 50 pence for second class letters, has left your editor wondering if there would be a business opportunity in providing a mail franking service, currently costing 31 pence to frank a second class letter, to the cash-strapped public. (See Marketing Matters, Issue 26, May/June 2012, FRANKLY THINKING)

For this our charities with high street premises are especially well placed to install a franking machine and offer the service, perhaps just on second class letters, to keep it simple. According to the manufacturers of the smallest machines the annual saving of £296 (19 pence x 1560) on five pieces of mail a day, Monday to Saturday would cover the annual cost of rental, and consumables, and that those buying at around £400 and amortising over five years could justify the cost with one to two pieces a day. Continue reading →

The management of the Royal Albert Hall has belatedly banned trustees from selling their tickets to touts after it was revealed by the Times newspaper that two of its trustees were making more than £100,000 a year from the sales, and one had set up his own touting company to profit.

The move also follows criticism of the Royal Albert Hall management by the Charities Commission, and warnings that the touted tickets brought the venue into disrepute and could put their funding from the National Lottery, worth £40 million since 1996, at risk.

A new by-law, hastily brought in by the hall management, requires members selling unwanted tickets to sell them at face value or less, stopping the abuse.

News that the government has dropped plans to cap tax relief on donations to charity at £50,000 from next April has been welcomed in the sector.

Nearly 50% of the sector’s income comes from donations from the super-rich, who then enjoy unlimited tax relief on their philanthropy. It was feared that those giving their support to the sector might withdraw it if the tax breaks were not available and the only benefits were personal PR and a nice warm feeling.

A four-year jail sentence was handed down at Birmingham Crown Court to Neil Greatrex, 61, who as trustee of the Nottingham branch of the Union of Demicratic Mineworkers (UDM) was able to sign cheques and steal £143, 000 over five years from a miners’ care home, to spend on home improvements. He denied 14 charges of theft but was found guilty on all of them, Judge John Watt telling him “This was calculated and sophisticated greed”

Greatrex was formerly the president of the UDM.

A new exhibition for not-for-profit organisations, NFP Events, takes place at the Business Design Centre, Islington on Tuesday September 25.

Running in conjunction with an existing show, NFP Technology, it will feature exhibitors supplying organisers of events as well as a programme of free seminars on aspects of organising events.

www.nfpevents.org.uk