Local / community

Two charities based in Gloucestershire have decided to end their joint fundraising activities after they yielded poor results.

Fundraising consultancy Action Planning has published Powerpoint files and Adobe Acrobat PDFs from their recent event promoting the launch of the new £125 million Futurebuilders fund.

Futurebuilders, the new £125 government investment fund for England, was launched by the Home Secretary David Blunkett on 5 May 2004 at a conference for 1,400 delegates organised by Action Planning.

Keystone Fundraising is a new door-to-door fundraising agency set up by the Dialog Group after trials in towns and cities in England and Wales.

The London-based agency will initially concentrate on fundraising in towns between London and Bristol, with plans to spread further afield as the need for door-to-door fundraising grows.

Volunteers' Week 2004 will run from 1 - 7 June 2004 and offers good opportunities to promote your volunteering needs and to recognise your current volunteers.

Run by the newly-merged Volunteering England, Volunteers' Week aims to recruit, reward and recognise volunteers. It is an annual celebration of volunteers in the voluntary, community, public and private sectors.

Emotional support charity Samaritans will be holding its 50th annual fundraising week from 22 to 29 May 2004.

The charity is encouraging supporters to fundraise by taking time out with a friend to put the kettle on and make a donation.

Personal financial service company Abbey has expanded its new Community Programme to cover Bradford and the surrounding areas.

The group of community fundraisers has been revived and is relaunching itself with regular meetings.

The Community Fundraising Forum will be launched on 26 April 2004. At its first meeting Rebecca Bond from Action Medical Research will explore volunteer motivations and how we use these to manage volunteers.

Charities in Sheffield will be the first in the country to benefit from the new Community Programme of personal financial services company Abbey.

Over the next two months, Abbey will be donating up to £100,000 to charities in and around the Sheffield area whose applications fit with Abbey's new charitable priorities.

Giving Nation, the campaign set up by the Giving Campaign to promote charity in school, will continue after the Campaign closes under the auspices of the Citizenship

A fund that helps promote sustainable projects in the Yorkshire Dales has secured and distributed £1 million in its first year.