Laura Crane Trust

Quality and Standards

Institute Of Fundraising

The Institute of Fundraising is the professional body that represents fundraisers in the UK. Its mission is to support fundraisers through leadership, representation, standard-setting and education, to deliver excellent fundraising. At the core of the Institute lies membership, and it currently has 4500 individual members and 250 organisational members.  The Laura Crane Trust is an organisational member and its fundraisers are individual members.
The Institute is an excellent point of reference for advice and training and produces ‘Codes of Fundraising Practice’ for its members to strive to abide by.  It also runs excellence training in two stages:

• The Foundation Course in Fundraising  - on satisfactorily completing this first part of the training, a fundraiser can add MinstF after their name on all their correspondence.
• On completion of the ‘Certificate in Fundraising Management’ the letters become MinstF(Cert).

Jacquie, Chair of Trustees, is fully qualified and Pam ( Fundraising Manager)  has successfully completed the Foundation Course.
We endeavour at all times to abide by the Code of Fundraising Practice.

Fundraising Standards Board

Over 800 charities, including many of the UK's biggest, have already joined this scheme, membership of which is voluntary, and in doing so have agreed to adhere to a strict set of codes and a Fundraising Promise committing them to treat the public with respect, fairness, honesty and clarity in all their money raising activities. They have also signed up to an independent, robust and transparent complaints process. Membership will be visible to the public through the addition of our logo (a tick) on their fundraising materials. The Laura Crane Trust has been accepted and is allowed to display the tick, effectively the ‘quality mark’ of charities and it has made a promise to the Fundraising Standards Board.

Staying updated

As members of the Institute of Fundraising we read ‘Third Sector’, which comments on topical subjects within the charity world, features prominent figures in the sector, gives us a forum for discussion and keeps us updated on legislation affecting charities.  Great fundraising ventures also win acclaim within its pages and advertisements offer staff and services which might be of use to us. We also read other charity-related material, both in magazines and on the Internet.

Communicating with other charities

As there are other charities supporting various aspects of cancer it makes sense to stay in touch to ensure that we are aware of the bigger picture.  There are many conferences organised and bodies such as TYAC (Teenagers and Young Adults with Cancer) where people from different disciplines come together to share information and discuss strategies e.g. charities, researchers.  Charities will help each other by sharing information and resources.
The remit of the Teenage Cancer Trust www.teenagecancertrust.org is to gradually provide TCT Units in or attached to UK hospitals admitting teenage cancer patients, where they can be together with others of their own age group in a bright and 'un-hospital-like' environment.  Whether in a TCT unit or, as if often the case, in adult or children’s wards, we offer funding for age-appropriate recreational equipment items for these young people to help them to forget, for at least some of the time, the brutal reality of their situation. These are such things as laptop computers, games consoles, art materials, personal CD players, musical instruments, DVD libraries - and soothing items to help in periods of isolation. Donations are always greatly appreciated to help with this area of support. If you wish to help in this way, please indicate that your gift is to go to the 'support' area of our work.

Donna’s Dream House www.donnasdreamhouse.org , a specially adapted holiday home for terminally ill children and their families, has advertised in the Laura Crane Trust newsletter, ‘Momentum’.

We are very grateful to Macmillan Cancer Support  www.macmillan,org.uk , Yorkshire Cancer Research www.ycr.org.uk  and Kirkwood Hospice www.kirkwoodhospice.co.uk who were all instrumental in providing Jacquie with support and useful information in the early days of the Laura Crane Trust’s development.