In the news last week...

‘Give as you Live’ launches its first smartphone app

Give as you Live is an online fundraising platform allowing users to shop at over 4,100 top stores and raise funds for charity. The store pays Give as you Live a percentage of your total purchase price in commission and of this, 50% is passed on to a charity of your choice. Last week, Give as you Live launched its first smartphone app on the iOS platform. The app includes features such as a menu bar so shoppers can access their favourite retailers and an in-built browser, avoiding the need for Safari. Shoppers can also keep track of how much they have raised for their charities. Give as you Live has already helped to raise nearly £10m for UK charities, highlighting the growth in digital fundraising and payments.

New disqualification rules for trustees

From 1 August 2018, changes to disqualification rules mean there will be more restrictions on who can run a charity. The key two changes are as follows:

• people who are disqualified from acting as a trustee will also be disqualified from holding certain senior manager positions in charities
• an increase in the number of reasons that disqualify someone from acting. The new reasons include being on the sex offenders register and certain unspent convictions – such as for terrorism or money laundering

If you will become disqualified when the new rules change on 1 August 2018, you can choose to apply for a waiver of your disqualification before then.

Plastic bag levy raised over £58 million for good causes last year

The plastic bag levy, which was introduced by the government in 2016, requires all retailers that employ at least 250 staff to charge 5p for single-use plastic bags. In England, it has raised more than £58m for good causes in the year to 6 April 2018 – Read the full article here.