Always good to be in Edinburgh - one of the world's great
cities and its wasn't raining....
Here for a joint ACEVO/ACOSVO meeting to discuss the
future of our sector and cross border relations. ACOSVO - The Chief Officers of
the Scottish Voluntary sSctor - is our sister organisation here, and I have been
working with the redoubtable Pat Armstong, their CEO, over the last decade in building partnership. We had a pleasant dinner and chat about
future joint work - particularly how we can mobilise SNP MPs on issues that
affect our third sector generally .
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| Me and Pat Armstrong, CEO of ACOSVO |
The context of the referendum and the election have given
added spice to the discussion with a range of the leaders of cross border
charities operating in Scotland. There are over 900 registered with the
Scottish regulator OSCR and although they form only 4% of the total
registration in Scotland they account for some 80% of turnover. So we had
people in the room from well known charity brands like Oxfam and Crisis. And I
was joined by 2 of my trustees Kate Welch and Kate Mcdonald, so we could outline
some of the plans ACEVO has in its " Big Conversation"
consultation.
An invigorating discussion. We touched on recent travails
on pay and fundraising with the general view that we should keep all this in proportion. Its
not a crisis but it is something we must watch. The Scotland Director of the
Institute of Fundraising was there and I had a good chat afterwards about how
we respond.
Some interesting reflections on a warmer climate for
charity in Scotland and a better approach from Government and indeed their
regulator. Though one member did warn that the SNP is an unforgiving beast and
you cross them at their peril.
We had a good discussion on campaigning - a strong view as
you would expect that this lies at the heart of charity and must be protected. Fortunately in Scotland the regulator is not about to "review" this
and there is the intriguing prospect that if your charity is headquarted in
Scotland you have to register with OSCR but not the E+W Charity Commission. Perhaps if we get CC charging and a repressive approach on CC9, UK charities
might switch their HQ! As ACEVO is a WISE charity (members in Wales, NI,
Scotland and England) that's tempting.
Edinburgh's such a cool place to live (in both senses obviously). Not
that we have such plans....Obviously.
There was one member who said there was no doubt that
their campaigning role had been down played in the recent election as a result
of fears about the Lobbying Act !
Just a few hours before heading off on the tram to the
airport - I'm going to check out some of the sights I've not seen before,
including the museum on the Mound, in the grand Bank of Scotland premises. On
the way spotted the Macmillan cancer van in a prominent position outside the
Scottish Royal academy. Great to see that ACEVO member and former Macmillan CEO Ciaran Devane was made a knight in the Birthday Honours ( indeed were a number of ACEVO members were
honoured - like my vice chair Sharon Allen, David Bull from Unicef and Jeremy
Hughes of Alzheimers).
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