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The Fax Machine Mentality is About to Get You Fined
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Right, if you’re a charity that works with kids, vulnerable adults, or even occasionally has staff or volunteers interacting with them, this week is about safeguarding.
And frankly, this shouldn’t even need to be a post. It should be a flashing, siren-wailing sign in your boardroom that says: “CHECK YOUR BLOODY VOLUNTEERS.”
Yet here we are.
Because a shocking number of charities—particularly the smaller ones run by busy, well-meaning volunteers—still view the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check as tedious paperwork. A box to tick. An admin burden.
It is not.
Continue readingHow one grassroots charity turned three years of rejections into £13,500 in eight months — and what your organisation can learn from it.
Sarah is a dedicated trustee of Oakdale Community Sports Hub, a grassroots charity with a £250,000 annual turnover. She joined the board three years ago after volunteering as a coach for their youth football programme. While she works full-time as a primary school teacher, she dedicates her evenings and weekends to helping the Hub thrive.
Oakdale runs multiple community sports programmes from a modest facility they’ve gradually improved over their 12-year existence. They’ve created a vibrant space where local children and adults can access affordable sports activities. The sessions are packed, the testimonials are glowing, and the community impact is obvious to anyone who walks through the door.
But the organisation is perpetually caught in a financial balancing act.
(A quick note: Yes, Oakdale turns over £250k—but if your charity is working with £25k, £50k, or £100k, this guide is absolutely for you. In fact, it might be even MORE important for smaller organisations, because you’re often competing against larger, better-resourced charities for the same pots of money. Everything in this guide scales down perfectly. The principles don’t change whether you’re managing £25k or £250k—you just need fewer trustees and simpler systems. Don’t skip this thinking it’s not for you. It is.)
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Right. Let’s talk about your Treasurer.
They’re usually the hero of the hour, aren’t they? They volunteer to wrestle with spreadsheets while everyone else suddenly remembers urgent appointments. They understand debits and credits. They turn up to meetings with actual paperwork. And generally speaking, they’re a decent human being.
We trust them. They’re part of the team.
This trust is exactly where the stupidity begins.
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Right. Let’s not mess about.
There’s a new piece of mandatory compliance that’s about to land your charity in a proper mess if you ignore it. And I mean the kind of mess that makes accidentally double-booking the village hall look like a minor admin blip.
We’re talking about mandatory Identity Verification for Companies House.
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The Art of Stupidity 