Local / community

A care centre in Berkshire has opened after 24 years of fundraising.

The BBC reports that a care home for people with physical and learning difficulties will open in Wokingham, Berkshire, this week after a 24-year campaign of fundraising by a group of parents.

The Giving Campaign Wales has launched a free Gift Aid toolkit for charities in Wales, to provide treasurers, fundraisers and charity trustees across the country with all they need to know about Gift Aid.

Gift Aid - Made Easy is a comprehensive guide, in Welsh and English, launched to help charities increase their income by up to 28%, simply by making more of Gift Aid.

The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) has published a new guide to seeking funding for neighbourhood learning.

"Funding neighbourhood learning" by Lynne Bryan and Cheryl Turner is published this month as a guide for small voluntary and community groups.

Rotarians in Great Britain and Ireland are about to celebrate their centenary of community service and fundraising.

The first Rotary Club was founded by Paul Harris in Chicago, USA on 23 February 1905. Since then, Rotary's work has expanded worldwide with clubs in 166 countries and a membership of 1.2 million business men and women.

Trading standards officers have stopped a scam in Staffordshire in which people were encouraged to donate clothing purportedly to raise funds for the local air ambulance.

In fact, although leaflets produced by the rogue door-to-door trader claimed "for every ton of clothing collected your local air ambulance will receive £100," the ambulance did not benefit.

To celebrate the first anniversary of Grant Tracker transforming from a CD product to an online service, NICVA is providing free access to the Web site and its database of funders for one week in February 2004.

Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland has raised over £150,000 for the Association of Children's Hospices since July 2003.

Rotary Clubs have participated in many fundraising events, including in the run-up to Christmas. In addition Rotarians are giving hundreds of volunteer hours each week at local hospices.

June Gotts has joined Breast Cancer Campaign as its new Community Fundraising Manager.

June's key objectives will be to work closely with volunteers and community groups throughout the UK.

Local voluntary groups can raise funds when their members shop at the Co-op.