Some of you will know that I sit on Scottish Community Foundation's Grants Committee. As part of my role I'm lucky enough to get to hear about the work carried out by the Women's Fund for Scotland. Established by the Foundation in 2002, the fund has given away £1M in grants to over 550 community groups, helping to provide life changing skills; opportunities to learn and ways to build the confidence of those overcoming domestic violence, poverty or ill health.

In a round about way my link to the Women's Fund for Scotland finds me blogging about something I know nothing about...handbags. I know that grown men shouldn't have their boxers showing over the top of their jeans and nobody should wear white leather loafers. Therein my knowledge of fashion ends. I can however tell you with great glee that you'll have the chance to bid on some ludicrously exclusive bags at Harvey Nichols, Edinburgh, on 27th September 2010.

To get involved in the event check out @HandbagHeaven10 or HandbagHeaven.org.uk

To find out the full list of handbags, including Prada, Fendi and Mulberry bags from a range of celebrities, including Kylie, Sophie Dahl and Kate Moss click here.

Bullying UK support a staggering 500,000 people a year with no government funding. Amazingly, they do this on just £50,000 a year.

However, financially things aren't great. The recession hit, and people struggled to find money to donate to charities. John Carnell and the team don't have a big budget to advertise, or hire people to pester you on the high street. They have to be as cost effective as possible to ensure as much of the money raised goes to supporting as many people as possible.

In John's words;

We support 500,000 people a year and need only £50,000 a year to do it. We were founded 11 years ago as a 100% web powered charity where the aim was to help as many people as possible for the lowest cost we can.

I think we proved that a different form of charity one that dosent suck up millions of pounds to help only thousands of people can work. Sadly we have always struggled to bring in donations from the general public and the government refuse to fund any of our work because we have asked tough questions of their policies.

This year what with the financial crisis has really hammered what little money we had coming in, we only have one member of staff (ME) and i just think that given that how efficient we are and how little money we need to do it some people out their must be able to help.

Problem is one person can only knock on so many doors per day and chase down leads never know if it's the right use of time.

Any donations no matter how small will really help and if theirs a business out their that wants to make a tax efficient donation that would be really good as well.

So, I'm asking you to do one - or preferably all of the following things;

1. Donate two quid a month here or if you can't afford to give regularly why not give a larger one-off sum today.

2. Use the hastag #savebullyinguk on Twitter and raise awareness.

3. Tell your friends on Facebook about the great work Bullying UK are doing and share the donation link: http://www.justgiving.com/bullyinguk/donate

4. Republish John's words on your blog. Copy and paste this article (I actually pinched nearly all of this article from Rich Baker). It will take 5 minutes to do. You can use your influence to help thousands of people. Imagine if we could get 10,20 or even 50 blogs all with the same message. We could reach thousands of potential donors and campaigners.

Simple.

If you have ever witnessed bullying, or indeed have been bullied yourself, think what a great source of support something like Bullying UK would have been and what a difference it could have made.

You can do something right now that could make a real difference to the lives of thousands of children and young people across the UK.

Whether you're involved with your local toddlers group or you're part of a global charity you can't afford to miss The Gathering 2010.

SCVO's showcase event is the largest third sector get-together in the UK. Not only is The Gathering a great opportunity to connect with other voluntary sector organisations, it's also a great place to pick up some new skills. Want to learn how to sharpen your digital communications and raise funds via the internet?

The event takes place on 18 & 19 Feb 2010 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) and it's totally free.

You can use The Gathering 2010 forum to learn, debate and connect with other attendees before, during and after the event.

If you can't make it along to The Gathering 2010 the forum is a great way to be part of it.

Maybe see you there!

50 marathons in 56 days. Just reading that gives me sore legs. Mark Cooper plans to achieve that extraordinary goal this May, covering 1300 miles running from Amsterdam to Barcelona.

Mark hopes all the blisters will be worth it as he aims to raise a staggering £25,000 for The Edinburgh Headway Group.

He's kindly taken some time out of his training schedule to chat about the challenge.

Where did the idea for 50 marathons in 56 days come from?

I cycled the length of the UK in April 2009 and I loved pushing my physical and mental limits. I then heard about Eddie Izzard running for sport relief and decided I wanted to run even further than Eddie did. I was also a heavy smoker up until 2007 when I binned the cigarettes and more or less gave up drinking for a healthy lifestyle.

How much preparation is involved before you set off on an 8 week long run?

I thought about this trip on Thursday 17th September 2009 and in the beginning I totally underestimated the challenge. I intended to run unsupported from Amsterdam to Barcelona carrying all of my kit on my back and sleeping in a tent. Very quickly i realised that this would not be sustainable. Once I properly researched this the full scale of the task became clear. I have secured a support vehicle, a kit supplier, an insurance broker and a author named Paul Benjasmin who has mapped out my route already for cyclists. I am still however in need of a main corporate sponsor to fund accommodation and fuel costs.

What do you think is going to be the most exciting part of your journey?

When I think about the run itself my mind tends to wander towards the end in Barcelona. This is a problem for me as I have to remain focussed on the here and now. Amsterdam will be wonderful because my friends and family will be coming to see me off from the start and also at the end. I guess the entire trip will be exciting at points and also hell at points.

Why did you choose The Edinburgh Headway Group as your charity?

I have chosen The Edinburgh Headway Group (EHG) as the work they do to support people who have suffered an acquired brain injury such as a stroke. My Mother Sheila passed away in 1997 from a Brain Haemorrhage and I consider the work the EHG do as vital.

Are you getting close to your £25,000 target?

So far I have raised nearly £4,000 and I have a promise of another £6,000 but this will not be available until early in 2011. I have various fundraising events to hopefully get nearer to my goal but ultimately this is going to come down to friends, family and strangers digging deep and putting themselves out for a wonderful cause.

What's next once you've completed your 50 marathons?

I keep on getting asked what I will do once I get to Barcelona and I usually laugh and tell people that I wouldn't dream of thinking that far ahead but depending on the outcome of this expedition I think that Mark Cooper Runs America has a certain ring to it.

You can support Mark by donating online and keep up to date with his epic run on Mark's website.

You can also say hello to Mark on twitter and facebook.

Can you offer any top tips or words of advice to Mark?

You may not have heard of her, yet, but Lynne McNicol has helped raise over £650,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust, allowing the creation of a specialist cancer unit at the Sick Kids' Hospital. Lynne's achievements even saw her named Scottish volunteer fundraiser of the year.

For most people that would be more than a lifetime's worth of volunteering but Lynne's work has only just begun. Her new charity It's Good 2 Give! will support young people with cancer and their families in the east of Scotland.

Lynne points out that many young cancer patients require multiple transfusions - "one young person aged 10 has asked that, if we are able to, we give blood regularly - she needed over 30pints of blood during six months of treatment to fight cancer. It would make a huge difference if more of us donated just one pint from time to time."

With that in mind I've decided to go and give blood next week to help Lynne meet her target of 100 donors in January.

To find out where and when you can give blood visit the Blood Transfusion Service website - there are loads of locations across throughout Scotland.

If you decide to give blood in January please leave a short comment below.

A new study carried out by the University of Strathclyde reveals that voluntary sector staff are afraid of making Freedom of Information (FoI) requests.

An article in the Daily Record details that "about half of the voluntary sector workers questioned said they are discouraged from seeking information because it may harm working or funding relationships [with the public sector]."

Given the financial squeeze placed upon many third sector organisations, following widespread local authority cuts, will 2010 see even fewer charities making FoI requests?

If you have plans for 10th September 2009 scrap them now. Whatever they are they'll be dull compared to the Glasgow Twestival.

We're hoping to raise £2500 for asthma charity No Strings Attached Scotland by bringing together Glasgow's twitterati for a night full of amazingly talented local bands and DJs as well as the chance to win a serious stack of prizes. The evening will be hosted by Clyde 1's twitter-fanatic Colin Kelly and tickets are selling fast!

Enter the promo code 'thirdsectorlab' and you can get yours for just £7 instead of the standard £10!

If you live in Glasgow and you use Twitter you're officially a 'tweegie'.

Want to meet other tweegies and raise lots of money for charity? Well you can do just that at the upcoming Glasgow Twestival.

Globally the last Twestival raised a staggering $250k for Charity:Water.

This time it's all about local causes.

Us tweegies have decided to let the twittersphere decide which charity will walk away with the funds raised. You can vote and/or nominate your chosen cause on our UserVoice page. There's some high profile causes on there already, such as ENABLE Scotland, Quarriers and the Big Issue Foundation along with some smaller charities, namely No Strings Attached and Glasgow Women's Library. Voting ends at 12pm on 31st July.

The event itself will feature the finest local musical talent. Glasgow band Any Color Black are the first act to get involved and we'll be announcing more over the next few weeks. We'll also have a raffle, auction and a few other surprises on the night.

Where and when?
Glasgow Twestival
10th September 2009
7pm - Midnight

The Living Room
150 St Vincent Street
Glasgow
G2 5NE

Tickets
Tickets will available soon for the charity event of the year via www.Amiando.com - You'll hear first by following our updates on @Gtwestival and our blog.

Links
Twitter - www.twitter.com/Gtwestival

Charity nomination/voting - http://tweegies.uservoice.com

Blog: http://glasgow.twestival.com

Please use the hashtag #tweegies when tweeting about the event!

Further Enquiries
If you want more info on the Glasgow Twestival 2009, use of our logo or if you'd like to donate a prize please get in touch with me - ross[@]thirdsectorlab.co.uk or @ThirdSectorLab

I'll leave you with a little teaser of just one of the acts who will be playing the Glasgow Twestival:

as you were. as you are // live @ the mill from Any Color Black on Vimeo.

Not long until the call for ideas for the wonderful Social Innovation Camp Scotland closes. Friday 22nd May to be precise.

Essentially the SIcamp weekend is all about using the net and technology for positive social change. They need the help of a huge range of people - from software developers through to business experts, from digital media lawyers to people with expertise in solving social problems - to help make the selected ideas a reality.

I could waffle on all day about how great an idea SIcamp is but the nicely animated video below does a far better job of explaining the concept.

I just need to think of an idea now...