The establishment of the Health Lottery, a competitor for the National Lottery has caused a bit of a stir. At 20.4%, the health lottery distributes a smaller share of revenue to good causes than both the for-profit National Lottery (28%) and fundraising lotteries run by hospices themselves (50-60%).
I mean, just off the top of my head, I can name several supermarket chains who have asked me to buy my shopping from them. And that is not even counting the many smaller, local shops who also want to sell me stuff. Wouldn't the world be a better place if only Tesco was allowed to sell things?
I attended a workshop this morning at the NCVO annual conference entitled "Is Philanthropy the solution to funding the Big Society? ". With my researcher hat on, I spend plenty of time comparing various ways of measuring the level of giving, but perhaps not enough time thinking about why people are giving. Why do people give to charity?
There are 170,000 charities in England and Wales, but what do they all do, and what is the best way of classifying them? Some questions are too long to answer by tweet, so this is a rapid blog on demand for the wonderful @katherinehudson
Public sector bad, private sector good? An armchair audit of the staff costs of the Audit Commission.
I spend a lot of time looking at the annual accounts and reports of charities, so I wonder what insight could be had from a quick comparison of the annual accounts of the recently axed Audit Commission with the annual accounts of a private sector financial services firm.
Will we be living in a Conservative utopia of public services being delivered by charities funded by philanthropists and service users? Or will the cuts programme decimate civil society as we know it?
What about the wider world? Will capital letters be so-ooo last century? Will newspapers and magazines only be available on devices made by Apple, or will they still be available in dead-tree format?
We live in interesting times.
I'm currently working on a project producing statistics on the funding of children's charities in the UK. The hardest part is deciding which charities to include as a children's charity. This famous picture taken in 1938 outside Lord's Cricket Ground illustrates the problem.
A terrible plague is sweeping the earth, the likes of which we have never seen before. Or not since that terrible Bird Flu outbreak that killed 2 swans, a barn full of Bernard Matthews and sold 2.6million extra copies of the Daily Express. Happily however, I've watched plenty of Zombie films, so I know how to keep myself safe.
Credit Crunch iPod Dock - Recommended Best Buy
I can't believe the value for money. A fully functioning iPod dock, compatible with you existing stereo system, for just £4.99.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=31700
This is surely a Must Have Best Buy 2009 Editor Recommended Pick TM. Perfect for beating the credit crunch.
And so green too - no need to junk the old stereo. Smugisfaction guaranteed - also works with iPhones.
