Third Sector readers doubt need for CharityComms - July 10th 2007
Charity, Volunteering and Grant News
Third Sector readers doubt need for CharityComms
The majority of respondents to a Third Sector poll believe that CharityComms, the new charity communications institute, is unnecessary.
Last week it was announced that the institute would be launched in the autumn, with a brief to promote best practice among voluntary sector communications staff and establish qualifications and professional development standards.
However, in a Third Sector Online poll, 65 per cent of respondents echoed the views of Fifth Estate, a sectoral group of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, and the Institute of Fundraising's PR in Fundraising special interest group that the institute was not needed.
CharityComms is an initiative led by Joe Saxton, chair of the Institute of Fundraising and founder of research company NfpSynergy. Saxton said he was primarily interested in the views of people who work in communications, and those he had spoken to had all been very positive.
He said: "We are only just starting but the people we have talked to are interested and excited about our communications work."
However, he admitted that he needed to speak to more people before finalising plans for the institute. "We are a tiny organisation and we have to do some communicating ourselves," he said.
This week's question reads: Should 'volunteering' and 'workforce' be combined in the new ChangeUp national support services?
Volunteering organisations such as Volunteering England and Timebank UK plus Navca and YouthNet have condemned Capacitybuilders' plans to amalgamate the Volunteering and Workforce Hubs into one national support service next year, claiming the move would risk a fall in volunteer numbers.
However, this week Capacitybuilders chief executive Simon Hebditch said he was still not persuaded of the need for a separate volunteering support service