MONITOR
CHARITY
ChOps Grants 2012
The following grants were awarded by the Charitable Operations (ChOps) Committee for the financial year 2012:
ChOps Grants
The AHOY Centre Red Kite Learning* Lifelites Cripplegate Ward Club* Southwark Arts Forum*
Master’s Fund
City of London Festival Streetwise Opera Musicians Benevolent Fund Reed’s School Foundation The Royal British Legion * iT4C admin fee paid on their behalf to AbilityNet Brooklands Museum Trust* Central Bank Blandford Garrison Support Unit City of London Academy Outsiders Trust* The Lord Mayor’s Appeal Lord Mayor’s Appeal Sheriffs’ & Recorder’s Fund The Brainwave Centre Ltd The Guild of the Royal Hospital of St. Bartholomew The Wiltshire Bobby Van Trust St. Mary’s Calne Foundation
CoL Police Widows & Orphans Fund RAF Benevolent Fund
Christ’s College Finchley Gardening Leave* The Lord Mayor’s Appeal Royal Institution of GB* Mensah RSA Church Housing Trust CoL Police Widows & Orphans Fund Suzy Lamplugh Trust Disability Dynamics Research Autism* Crimestoppers Trust* Lawworks*
The iT4C Grant was £35,000 & other Grants totalling over £4,000 were used towards supporting projects in Lilian Baylis Technology School & Hammersmith Academy.
Overall Charitable Giving: £49,807
IT Charity Survey Workshop
O
n the 27th March the WCIT Hall saw a number of organisations brought together to discuss the recent survey on the use of IT by organisations in the Charities/Not For Profit sector. We had around 20 attendees from our partners and from associated charities, some of which had already helped us in the formation of the survey. The event was opened by the Master, who welcomed visitors and set the scene for the meeting.
findings of the survey. Amongst the key issues arising were: ? Charities face a pressure from both donors and the Charity Commission to keep governance costs as low as possible. ? Funders are reluctant to fund IT projects and it is difficult to justify/ A short presentation of the survey results evidence investment in highlighted: IT on grant applications ? 67% of the organisations surveyed had no ? A charity looking for IT paid IT staff, and 42% had no paid or support can be confused volunteer IT staff by the wide choice ? Yet 62% of the organisations stated that apparently available, e.g. they obtained advice and guidance on searching for ‘IT their use of IT from their staff; the next Support’ on Google returns thousands of most popular source of advice is Suppliers results. (45%) ? A big challenge is keeping abreast of the ? Only 32% of the surveyed Charities took fast-changing area of IT. advice from pro-bono consultancy sources ? Charities don’t have enough time to be ? The cost of IT and IT advice were the two more efficient! biggest barriers to the increased use of IT cited by respondents. Subsequently, we have met again with our We had lots of interactive discussion on the partners on the Survey. We are pursuing
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workstreams around volunteering, collaboration, improving transparency for the charities, investigating standards and some other initiatives to make adoption of pro-bono service by charities simpler. If this subject area is of interest to you, further information and opportunities to participate Contributed by WCIT Court Assistant Gary Moore & WCIT Freeman Dr David Rippon