Charity Anxiety UK has warned that insomnia is hitting increasing numbers of us after getting our fix of social networking sites, dubbed “electronic cocaine”

Apparently half of us access the sites while in bed, 43% use work time for this personal experience and whilst 38% of users believe the sites have improved their lives some 24% of us say they make us anxious, a common symptom of chemical drug use.

A three-day music festival held in Fife in May was targeted to raise more than £100,000 for charities Help For Heroes and Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association Rorces Help but only attracted less than a quarter of its expected audience of 12,000 (Live UK)

The organisers of the festival, Big Stooshie Productions have declared insolvency and the charities will get nothing.

The Coeliac Society has revealed that 1 in 100 people in the UK, or more than 500,000, have coeliac disease.

This is an autoimmune condition caused by intolerance to the gluten protein found in wheat, barley and rye and therefore present in breads, cakes, biscuits, flours, cereals and pastas and often used as an ingredient in such common foods as fish fingers, sausages, gravies and sauces, including soy sauce. Damage to the lining of the gut is caused by eating gluten and there is no cure or medication available – the only treatment is a gluten-free diet for life.

The charity currently has 3,000 members with the condition and campaigns for more gluten-free foods and more caterers, restaurants and event organisers providing suitable options.

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.