Sir Nicholas Young appointed to GuideStar UK board
Howard Lake | 3 February 2004 | News
Sir Nicholas Young, the Chief Executive of the British Red Cross, has joined the Board of Trustees of GuideStar UK, the new charity that will publish an online database of UK charities’ financial and project information.
Sir Nicholas has had 17 years experience in the voluntary sector at Director and Chief Executive level, including five years as Operations Director for the British Red Cross from 1990 to 1995. He re-joined the Red Cross in 2001 after six years as the Chief Executive of Macmillan Cancer Relief. Previously he had been at the Sue Ryder Foundation, as Secretary of Development, where he set up the Sue Ryder Nursing Homes. In the year 2000 Sir Nicholas was knighted for his services to cancer care.
GuideStar UK aims to promote the voluntary sector for the benefit of the public by the provision of information about charities. GuideStar UK will build and maintain the first comprehensive database of UK charities providing information about their finances and activities. This will be published at no charge to the public via a Web site which will provide “sophisticated search facilities allowing users to track down charities by type of work, targeted beneficiaries, location or size.”
Advertisement
Sir Nicholas explained his reasons for joining the board: “this much needed venture is the first of its kind in the UK and will be the principal information resource and tool for the charitable sector. One of its great strengths is that it will provide charities, whatever their size, with an equal opportunity to communicate their activities and achievements to the public and the sector. As the primary source of information will be the charity reports and accounts provided to the Charity Commission, GuideStar UK will not to place an extra burden on charities. In fact it aims to help charities to streamline their reporting requirements.
“For the first time, donors, charities, grantmakers, researchers and policy makers have access to a complete source of high quality information.”
The board of trustees now comprises Brian Smouha (Chairman), Hilary Browne-Wilkinson, Stuart Etherington, Nick Ferguson, Jennifer Moses, Buzz Schmidt, Henry Strage, and Sir Nicholas Young.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.