November 2008 Archives

According to a recent Guardian article, in 2006 a quarter of Shelter's income came from street fundraisers and 75% of Greenpeace's new members were recruited this way between 2000 and 2003. Clearly chuggers are having a huge impact but charity watchdog Intelligent Giving has called for people to boycott the clipboard and golf umbrella brigade.

I have a feeling that many people will be turned off by charities using these methods, which may dilute the impact of their campaigns. This is especially worrying given Shelter's excellent, often quite radical, homelessness campaigns. Other charity professionals on Third Sector Forums seem to agree.

What does everyone else think?

Yes you read correctly. A recent Times article quoted the Torie MSP Alex Johnstone:

“School discipline is reaching crisis point and giving individual headteachers the power to decide whether or not to use capital punishment would be a good move."

Now one can only presume this is a typo, a good one at that. The misquote/quote is mildly amusing but it also raises two important questions (ok, number two isn't that important):

1. Should corporal punishment be brought back to schools?

2. What is the funniest typo/error you've seen in a newspaper?

Today is Social Enterprise Day! It's all about celebrating the inspiring entrepreneurs who are using their entreprising ideas for social or environmental change.

To coincide with Social Enterprise Day, I'm really pleased to announce the beta launch of a little project which I've been working on in my spare time...Third Sector Forums.

TSF is a friendly online community for UK charity professionals, volunteers and social entrepreneurs. The forums are a place for people to network, learn, debate and discuss third sector issues. Categories include funding, fundraising, governance, legal issues, internet, marketing, campaigns, social enterprise and beyond.

While the forums are third sector focused, private and public professionals are welcome too. We're especially keen to get ethical businesses onboard. The forums are 100% free to use and run by volunteers.

The forums would not exist without private sector support. The purchase of the forum software was sponsored by Sure Languages. The wonderful Third Sector Forums and Third Sector Lab logos and various graphical elements across the website were created by Nothing Does graphic design and branding consultancy. Last, but by no means least, Clear Blue Designs provided the professional forum set-up and design as well as ongoing technical support and hosting.

That's my shameless plug over, hopefully see some of you on the forums soon.

I'm a self-confessed geek and regularly use online forums. I mentioned on one of them that I'm doing this blog on the Sunday Mail site, to which someone responded:

"Are you a royalist righty then?"

I responded:
"Are you perhaps thinking of the Mail on Sunday?"

To which someone else responded:
"And the difference is??"

While it is a red top, I've always thought of the Sunday Mail as being neither left nor right wing. That's not to say that it doesn't offer opinion pieces, it just doesn't seem to follow a strict political stance. Which is no bad thing. A quick flick through the paper will show you that, unlike the Mail on Sunday, it isn't chocked full of stories on credit crunch house price madness, Princess Diana and asylum seekers.

Perhaps I'm way off the mark though.

Is the Sunday Mail a right wing newspaper?

I'm Ross McCulloch, a 28 year old, recently married, Fifer living in Glasgow and working in Hamilton. I've had a fairly varied career since leaving university. I've worked for a bank, run my own business selling trainers, co-ordinated an education programme and developed services for looked after and accommodated children. I'm now a Development Officer managing a partnership between three Lanarkshire charities. I also volunteer for Scottish Community Foundation and sit on the Big Lottery Fund's Fair Share Scotland Panel.

Third Sector Lab will look at volunteering, charities and social enterprise. From your local bowling club or community hall to the latest celebrity endorsed idea that will supposedly change the world. The blog isn't just for people working or volunteering in the third sector. I hope to show people where their donations go and cast a critical eye over the big issues being tackled by the sector.

As well as all the hefty stuff mentioned above I want use this blog to dispell the myth that everyone working in the third sector is a Guardian reader who wears shoes made out of tofu. As with all blogs there will be lots of personal opinion so it's worth noting that what I say doesn't necessarily represent the views of my employers or the organisations which I volunteer for.

Heart of Scotland is an excellent idea and I feel privileged to be taking part. There's a great range of blogs covering topics as diverse as journalism, living with a disability and traffic cones.

Let the gibberish commence.