Charity Funding

[lloydyuk]

Hi, can anyone explain the definition of being a charity please?

Headway is registered as a charity however I know people who attend (as did I) and everyone who does pays for their service whether directly or via council support.

So if everyone is paying to attend what charitable contribution does Headway make? Locally it is stated that £100,000 is required through donations or funds raised to remain open.

So how is Headway a charity?

[bexx87]

Defines what a charity is classed as:

gov.uk/government/organisat...

Headway - the brain injury association is registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (Charity no. 1025852) and the Office of the Scottish Regulator (Charity no. SC 039992). Headway is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England no. 2346893.

Search for them:

apps.charitycommission.gov....

but I don't think they would be opened to talking publicly about their finances and every centre is it only "independent business"

results:

apps.charitycommission.gov....

[bexx87]

If they were making money for profit I don't think the government would allow them to be called a charity and I don't think the government would like them get ripped off for 40 years ....

our 3rd party company eduserv is a charity but we still pay them to host our kit in one of their data centres.

You pay headway for a service (nothing comes for free) headway help you via outreach or whatever and put the money you give them to pay their staff and running of their centres etc

We are leaving eduserv so they have to make adjustments because us leaving them is effecting them financially

I worked at another charity (doing it support but they didn't want to pay a corporate gigant like Microsoft for their operating system so they used open source called Linux) who (like headway) got government contribution and every year they had to make a case to BCC on what they were doing with their money (which I'm sure hwbristol have to do at their agm where they told all beneficiaries here's what we are doing with your money but all bcc councillors including Marvin cancelled)

And I imagine your asking because you want to know how to make bic a charity but you don't want to be associated with headway but you are asking how they act as a charity ...

[lloydyuk in reply to bexx87]

Which is why I asked what constitutes a charity? You mentioned profit. The service I personally received from Headway locally was very poor in my opinion. Not the place here to list what I see as such. Numerous other users have stated similar experiences. I didn’t realise you have experience of or use the local centre/outreach service though. Apologies.

[bexx87 in reply to lloydyuk]

Headway don't help me but I have experience of other charities but when I asked if they could help and they said no I did report it and as far ad I'm aware it was dealt with and if you or other people think they are treated you unfairly in a sense then report it and let a convo between thier head office and central manager happen don't be scared

[lloydyuk in reply to bexx87]

I did at the time, and sadly nothing changed after 2 meetings with them so I left the service.

[bexx87 in reply to lloydyuk]

I would bring it up again regardless with Andrew

[headwayuk Partner Headway]

Hi lloydyuk,

As described above by other members, as a charity Headway is a non-profit company. While our local groups are charities in there own right, affiliated to the national organisation, we do all share the same common goal of providing support and services to help improve life after brain injury.

Headway groups vary across the country, but unfortunately where we can't meet the costs with other sources of funding many of our groups have to make a charge for their service.

I am really sorry to hear of your negative experience and we would like to discuss further. I will send you a private message so we can get your contact details and look into this for you.

Best wishes,

Andrew

[lloydyuk in reply to headwayuk]

Thanks Andrew I’ve never properly understood how the local centres work in relation to the National centre. I believe some regions are NHS linked whilst others aren’t for example. Complicated stuff.

[timmarshall666]

I had a bad RTC 2012 just meeting with other clients who have been through the same things emotions, anger, angsiety, realy helped me i was in a bad way not understanding why i was doing every thing wrong. Got so low i wanted to end it . Now after this time i use Headways lifestyles services and sports activities, i do so much nearly every day. I now have applied to get a teacher training course. I was a carpenter joiner had my own company and i no i cant do this through fatigue and epilepsy. Any one can run and redgester a charity. And with out the money from government and self funding it would not happen.

[lloydyuk in reply to timmarshall666]

Good to read and hear, nice one. My impression is that each Headway is run very differently and standards vary massively across the country. Some are overseen by NHS, some have a CEO (more business sounding I think), surely there must be guidelines to follow to secure a franchise.....Or presumably anyone could set up a Headway?