Correspondence

Charity Commission News: Issue 66

Published 12 October 2021

Applies to England and Wales

Annual Public Meeting

Recently, the Commission held its Annual Public Meeting, where charities, the public and other interested parties were invited to hear from our chair and chief executive about our response to the pandemic and plans for the future. The senior team also took a range of questions in a live Q+A.

Because of the pandemic this year’s meeting was a virtual event open to all members of the public and charity representatives. If you missed it the recording is now available on YouTube.

Charity Fraud Awareness Week, 18-22 October

Now in its sixth year, Fraud Awareness Week 2021 encouraged charities to keep their organisations safe from financial harm in the post-Covid era.

During the week you were able to access top tips and detailed advice on timely topics such as how to fight grant or fundraising fraud and managing cyber-attacks.

This year, you were encouraged to sign up to a Stop Fraud Pledge and make a public commitment to tackling fraud in your charity. A whole host of charities have already taken the pledge – do consider joining them today.

Trustees’ Week - 1-5 November

Trustees’ week is an annual event to showcase the great work trustees do. We want to thank you all for playing such a vital role, volunteering your time and energy to steer your charity’s work.

Now in its 11th year, this is an opportunity to use the wide range of guidance, resources and online training to develop your skills, make new connections with other trustees and share your achievements.

There are lots of events already listed that you can book today. Most of these are free, with more being added regularly.

Annual Return reminder

Those charities with a December 31st year-end date are reminded to file their annual returns and accounts (where applicable) this month. Before you start, check you can log in, or request a new password if you need it. Your annual return may include questions about your charity and what it does, depending on your income and structure.

Find out how to prepare an annual return and what you need to include.

Fighting cybercrime: Free cyber security tools for charities

The National Cyber Security Centre is the UK’s authoritative voice on cyber security and is on an important mission to help us improve the security of the charity sector.

To help reduce the risk of cyber-attacks, they’re offering registered charities unlimited licences to their Early Warning tool, and 1000 licences to Web Check and Mail Check tools, for free.

• Early Warning sends you an alert if it spots any vulnerabilities, or signs that your network or computer has been hacked.
• Mail Check makes it harder for criminals to spoof your emails.
• Web Check identifies website vulnerabilities and advises what you can do to resolve it.

New feature

You can now log into our online services and print off your charity’s registration certificate.

Read the latest charity commission news and guidance

Keeping in touch with us

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