A long-awaited agreement between the UK government and civil society organisations was launched on 16th July by the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, and the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy MP, at an event in London. Debra Allcock Tyler, CEO at DSC, attended the launch event. Read more.
As organisations are getting underway with preparing for the new Code of Fundraising Practice (the code) to come into effect on 1 November 2025, this month we have published three new guides for fundraisers in three key areas. These cover fundraising events, and fundraising through social media and online gaming. You can read our blog from our Head of Policy, Paul Winyard, for more details on what each guide covers.
With the Data (Use and Access) Act recently receiving Royal Assent, we’ve published information on what charities should be aware of at this stage before the relevant part of the Act comes into force allowing ‘soft opt-in’ for charities. This includes how charities can start preparing for the new rules for charity direct marketing coming into effect.
We have published information, supported by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), on what charities should know about the new rules for charity direct marketing in the Data (Use and Access) Act.
“When you have a small team, every moment, new idea and piece of content that is created must count. Thankfully, you don’t need a massive budget or team to create meaningful, strategic content and communications…” Read more from the Charity Comms article here.
Remember that while boilers and fires may be used less frequently, there are still summer risks, particularly associated with BBQs. Check out – Think-CO-Newsletter-Summer-2025.pdf
In this article, Charity Digital explore how the sector is using artificial intelligence in services in 2025, including developing chatbots, making predictions, and becoming more agile. Take a look here.
Whatever your fundraising target is, the team at easyfundraising can help you get there. This month, they are offering 250 exclusive fundraising packs to organisations in our area.
To get your complimentary pack, register for free funding with easyfundraising (it’s free) and when prompted, schedule a call with a member of the easyfundraising team who will send you your pack and explain how easyfundraising can help your organisation with funding. But be quick – once the packs are gone, they’re gone!
easyfundraising is a free, easy, and accessible way for your network of volunteers, staff and trustees to raise funds for you. They simply shop online with their favourite retailers, including ebay, Booking.com, Tesco, Trainline, Argos, M&S, and 8,000 others via the easyfundraising website or app and the retailer they shop with sends your organisation monetary donations. Find out more here: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/hammersmith-and-fulham/
We are excited to announce that London Resilience has commissioned Protection Approaches to establish a new Equalities Partnership within the London Resilience Forum.
This partnership will provide a space for equity-focused and equality-led organisations to shape how London plans for and responds to emergencies and crises in a manner that centres the perspectives and needs of various marginalised communities in London.
Emergencies – from the COVID-19 pandemic to flooding, terror incidents, fire, or the cost-of-living crisis – do not affect all communities equally. People already facing structural inequality often face the greatest harms. The Equalities Partnership will work to ensure that community expertise informs city-wide emergency planning, and that equity organisations are supported as strategic partners in building a more resilient London.
If your group works primarily with marginalised communities, communities who face additional barriers at times of crisis, or individuals with protected characteristics as defined in the Equalities Act, you can feed into what the Equalities Partnership will look like and how it will work.
You can share your perspective with the Protection Approaches team by:
✍🏼 Responding to this questionnaire
💬 Scheduling a chat with their team by emailing farida.mostafa@protectionapproaches.org
📧 Sharing your thoughts via email at farida.mostafa@protectionapproaches.org
Charities across the UK, regardless of size, can now utilise RVS’s platform to advertise their volunteering roles. The platform, along with its identity verification service, is completely free for charities to use. Introduced in March, the initiative has been funded by contributions from players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Learn more here.
Muslim Women’s Network UK (MWNUK) stands in full solidarity with all victims of child sexual exploitation. We welcome the recommendations made by Baroness Casey in her audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and support her calls for stronger accountability of institutions that have failed victims. We also support strengthening of laws and robust collection of ethnicity data relating to both perpetrators and victims, which will be essential for informed and effective responses to this form of abuse.
MWNUK CEO Baroness Shaista Gohir said: “A national inquiry must examine why early intervention systems failed to protect children including to what extent chronic underfunding of child protection services, along with the attitudes or inaction of frontline professionals, enabled abuse to continue unchecked. While it will also be important to recognise patterns that may exist within specific groups, including drivers that lead to their over-representation, we must not lose sight of the fact that perpetrators and victims come from all backgrounds, and a comprehensive response must reflect that reality.”
MWNUK previously ran a series of awareness-raising events across England, partnering with community organisations to encourage reporting and prevention. We also produced a set of powerful campaign videos, including:
- A survivorstory
- Pakistani men condemning the abuse
- A video in Urdu, tailored for harder-to-reach community members.
In 2013, we published a ground-breaking report titled Unheard Voices – Sexual Exploitation of South Asian Girls. The research was conducted to shed light on the often hidden and overlooked experiences of minority ethnic girls. Our findings reveal that, like their white peers, these girls were targeted due to their vulnerability and accessibility.
*Victims of sexual exploitation can contact Muslim Women’s Network Helpline on 0800 999 5786 / info@mwnhelpline.co.uk or via the Amal Safety Mobile iPhone App.
The UK Health Security Agency have extensive guidance and materials for supporting communities, including:
- Hot weather toolkit here
- Voluntary and community sector action card
- Beat the Heat hot weather advice
- An infographic and social media images here
- Keep up to date with Heat-Health Alerts
You can find a map of Cool Spaces across London here, and register your own too.
The Met Office’s #WeatherReady campaign also has lots of advice and guidance.
Wildfire Alert
London Fire Brigade provide guidance and support around wildfire risk on this webpage.
Social Channels
Do follow London Resilience on either BlueSky or X (Twitter) where we will be sharing content.
sobus
20 Dawes Road, London, SW6 7EN
Telephone 020 7952 1230
Email info@sobus.org.uk
Registered Charity No.1071089
and Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England No.03471416
Sobus is a new Community Development Agency for Hammersmith & Fulham. It has been created through the merger of the Community and Voluntary Sector Association Hammersmith & Fulham (CaVSA) and the Fulham Community Partnership Trust (FCPT). Building on the strengths of both organisations, sobus aims to provide a wider range of support services for local charities, community groups, social enterprises and start up businesses.