Large and small charities to share expertise through Charity Twinning

Howard Lake | 17 June 2013 | News

Online giving platform Charity Choice has announced the Charity Twinning programme which is designed to encourage greater skills sharing in the charity sector, in particular amongst large and small charities.

The first three partnerships which are acting as pilot projects are:

• Alzheimer’s Society and Hope for Children
   
• Fairtrade Foundation and Orangutan Land Trust
   
• Macmillan Cancer Care and Hospice Aid UK.

The programme was established in response to smaller charities citing resource as a limiting factor in recruiting new donors, and research that shows that small charities have experienced a drop in income overall in the past five years. 

Lynda Thomas, Director of Fundraising at Macmillan, said: "Fundraising is a vital part of what we do here at Macmillan and we're constantly looking to evolve the ways and means of finding new revenue streams. Charity Twinning encourages us to think outside of the box and take inspiration from a completely different source, a small charity. And on the flipside give back something to the charity community by sharing the wealth of experience we have here in the team."  

Angela Hay, Director of Hospice AID UK, a small charity, said: "Joining the Charity Twinning program is a really exciting opportunity for a small charity like us. Resource is so tight especially when it comes to training so a program like this allows me bounce ideas off someone else in the industry, helping to grow and expand Hospice AID UK."

Tanya Noronha, Publisher for Charity Choice, explained why she established the new programme. "Although charitable giving appears to be growing," she said, "small charities are struggling to cut through and make an impact on where people donate.

"Charity Twinning is designed to help both large and small charities better understand the range of different ways to approach fundraising and make better use of them. We hope the experience will facilitate more skills sharing in the third sector leading to more effective fundraising across the board.”

Noronha is inviting charities of all sizes to take part in Charity Twinning.

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.