Charity organisation Business and Education in London South (BELS) is offering 600 free two hour workshops in personal finance to young adults.

The Money4 Life workshop is aimed at the most deprived young people in the area and is designed to prevent them ending up as victims of rapacious banks and credit card companies. The subjects covered include achieving enough self-knowledge to budget sensibly, prioritising spending, choosing financial products, resisting marketing pressures, tackling money problems if they happen and trying to save.

A new free directory enquiry service which requires callers to listen to around 20 seconds of advertising before getting their number has been launched.

The service is on 0800 100 100.

An alternative free service, using a voice prompt system rather than a live operator is available on 0800 118 3733.

According to BT staff some services are charging as much as £1.50 a number.

Around £883 million of National Lottery money – supposed to go to the most needy charities as well as arts, sports and heritage projects – is being given to councils to pay for everything but.

According to the Daily Mail the Big Lottery Fund has paid out £10,000 to needy Gosport Borough Council in Hants for a shredder, £250,000 to needy Stockport Council to “help staff manage their moods”, £315,000 to needy Blyth Valley Council in Northumberland to improve their footpaths and £295,000 to needy Ealing Council in West London to “provide services” for traveller communities.

Apparently the grants, adding up to a total of £883 million of “misdirected money” were revealed by the Conservatives through Parliamentary answers and Freedom of Information requests.

The probity of trustees has come under the spotlight with revelations that the Tate Gallery acquired 73 works of art from 20 of its own trustees between 1955 and 2005, bestowing considerable financial benefit on those trustees. (Daily Telegraph).

The conflict of interest had already been noted in 2006 by the Charity Commission when it found that the Tate had breached charity law by buying seven works by five trustees over an eight year period. The new figures for additional purchases have been released by the Tate under a Freedom of Information request.

A court decision on a £2 million lawsuit against a promoter of charity concerts for disadvantaged children is expected in the next few weeks. (Audience).

The Singapore Tourist Board (STB) is suing promoters Childrens Media Ltd and Tribute Third Millennium Ltd after a concert, Listen Live, the promoters were due to stage in September 2005 was first postponed then cancelled in January 2006.

The STB say they gave more than £2 million to the promoters. Court filings claim that Childrens Media Ltd is just a “front used to knowingly and dishonestly misuse funds”.

Auction website eBay has been urged by a Government report on ticket touting to stop allowing touts to make millions out of charity events.

The role of eBay was noted when tickets for the 2008 Live 8 concert were offered on the site only minutes after they became available, at prices from £2000. Protesters stopped the sale by making bogus bids of up to £10 million. Continue reading →

A new searchable database of ethical funds has been launched by ethical investment analysts Eiris. (Third Sector).

The website features profiles of funds along with details of screening criteria and voting rights.

www.eiris.org

The joy of giving has been given a scientific basis by neurologists who have discovered that making a charitable donation heightened activity in the midbrains of 20 respondents (Daily Telegraph).

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) has pointed out that the midbrain is also involved in producing the same warm glow that comes from having sex or food, and that something in the human brain has been shaped by evolution to allow a similar joy to be felt when something helpful to someone else is done. Continue reading →