Giving & Donating
Naming a Charity in a Will Without Creating a Problem
Legacies are the largest single income line for many charities and the most frequently botched form of giving. Most of the failures…
Nirmala Saxena
Editor, Goodwilly
Nirmala edits Goodwilly and asks of every project whether it would survive without the grant.
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38 articles
Giving & Donating
What Employer Matching Schemes Actually Match
Workplace giving programmes promise to double your donation and frequently do something narrower. The conditions are where the…
Giving & Donating
The Second Gift Is the One Fundraisers Care About
Acquiring a donor costs money that only the following donations repay. That single fact shapes almost everything a charity does…
Volunteering
The Volunteer Roles Charities Struggle Hardest to Fill
Offers of help cluster heavily around a few visible activities. The persistent shortages are in roles nobody pictures when they…
Volunteering
When Your Day Job Is the Thing a Charity Actually Needs
Professional skills donated well are worth many times the same hours spent sorting boxes. Donated badly, they create work that…
Volunteering
Why Some Charities Turn Volunteers Away
Refusing free help looks perverse until you count what accepting it costs. The reasons are almost always capacity, liability or fit.
Secondhand & Thrift
Online Resale and the Charity Shop Are Different Businesses
Both sell used goods and almost nothing else about them is the same. Which one suits an item depends on weight, brand and how fast…
Secondhand & Thrift
The Thirty-Second Inspection That Prevents Most Regret
Buying used usually happens under time pressure with the seller watching. A fixed short routine catches most of what matters.
How Charities Work
Why Charity Rating Sites Disagree With Each Other
Two evaluators can look at the same organisation and reach opposite conclusions. The disagreement is usually about what they…
How Charities Work
The Grant Cycle and Why Small Charities Live in Twelve-Month Chunks
Most grant funding runs for a year at a time, which shapes hiring, planning and what organisations are able to attempt at all.
Community Projects
Why Most Community Projects Stall in Their Second Year
Launch energy is abundant and lasts about eighteen months. What replaces it decides whether anything is still running at year three.
Community Projects
Community Fridges and the Logistics Nobody Sees
A shared fridge redistributing surplus food looks simple and runs on a schedule of collections, checks and records that has to hold…
Community Projects
Opening a Bank Account Is the Hardest Part of Starting a Group
New community groups consistently report the same first obstacle, and it is not funding or volunteers. It is persuading a bank to…
Community Projects
How Community Gardens Survive Their Third Winter
Growing space attracts volunteers in spring and empties by November. The projects that last have decided in advance what happens in…
Community Projects
Insurance for a Volunteer-Run Activity
Most local groups discover they need cover at the point a venue asks for a certificate. Working out what is actually required takes…
Community Projects
The Difference Between a Group of Neighbours and an Organisation
Informal cooperation and organised delivery answer different problems. Confusing them is why some groups collapse under structure…
Repair & Reuse
Why a Repair Café Works Socially Before It Works Materially
The number of items mended at a repair session is modest. The reason the model has spread across dozens of countries is not the…
Repair & Reuse
Tool Libraries and the Items People Actually Borrow
Most households own tools they use once a year. Lending libraries exist because that pattern is obvious and the logistics of fixing…
Repair & Reuse
Right-to-Repair Rules and What They Have Changed So Far
Legislation requiring manufacturers to supply parts and information has arrived in several regions. The effects are real, uneven…
Repair & Reuse
The Few Skills That Fix Most Broken Household Things
A small number of techniques account for a large share of successful domestic repairs. None of them takes long to learn.
Repair & Reuse
Why Giving Something Away Is Harder Than Throwing It Out
The friction in passing on a usable item is almost entirely logistical. Understanding where it sits explains why so much reusable…
Repair & Reuse
Giveaway Group Etiquette and Why Collections Fall Through
Local giveaway networks move enormous volumes of usable goods and fail in one consistent way. The fixes are all about how the…
Repair & Reuse
Textile Recycling Is Not What Most People Picture
Clothing put into a collection bank enters a sorting and trading chain that spans continents. Very little of it becomes new…
Repair & Reuse
Furniture Reuse Organisations and the People They Actually Serve
A network of organisations moves used furniture into homes that have none. The referral structure behind it explains what they can…
Repair & Reuse
When Repair Is the Wrong Answer
The case for mending things is strong and it is not universal. A few situations make replacement or disposal the better decision.
Repair & Reuse
Spare Parts Are the Real Bottleneck in Household Repair
Most failed repairs are stopped by a missing component rather than by a missing skill. Where parts come from decides what can be…
Giving & Donating
What Happens When an Appeal Raises More Than It Asked For
An oversubscribed appeal sounds like an unambiguous success. For the organisation holding the money, it is frequently an…
Giving & Donating
Donating Shares, Property and Other Things That Are Not Cash
Non-cash gifts can be worth more to both sides than the equivalent money. They can also land a small charity with an asset it…
Volunteering
Why Weekday Daytime Volunteers Are Worth More Than Weekend Ones
Availability is the constraint no volunteer advertisement mentions. When you can help decides how useful your help is far more than…
Volunteering
Fundraising in Your Own Time: What Charities Need You to Ask First
Raising money for an organisation without telling it creates problems that are entirely avoidable. Most of them concern permission…
Secondhand & Thrift
Why Second-Hand Books Are Nearly Worthless and Which Ones Are Not
Almost every used book is worth less than the cost of listing it. The exceptions follow rules that have little to do with age or…
Secondhand & Thrift
Sizing, Shrinkage and Why Used Clothing Fits Unpredictably
A used garment labelled your size may be two sizes away in reality. Three separate mechanisms are responsible and only one of them…
How Charities Work
Why Two Charities With the Same Name Are Different Organisations
Federations, national bodies and local branches share branding and rarely share bank accounts. Donors regularly give to one while…
Community Projects
The Group Chat Is Your Infrastructure, and Nobody Backs It Up
Most small community projects run on a messaging app owned by one person's phone number. That arrangement fails in predictable and…
Repair & Reuse
Why Shoes and Bags Are Worth Repairing When Clothes Often Are Not
The repair economics of leather goods and garments diverge sharply, and the reason is how much of the original value sits in the…
Repair & Reuse
Upcycling Usually Destroys Value, and Occasionally Creates It
Turning an old thing into a different thing is satisfying and frequently makes it worth less than it was. The exceptions follow a…
Repair & Reuse
Screws, Glue and Clips: How a Product Is Fastened Predicts Its Life
You can tell how long something will last by looking at how it is held together. The fastening method is a decision about your…
Repair & Reuse
What Happens to Electronics at the Recycling Centre
Electronic waste follows a route that most people picture wrongly. Knowing the actual path changes what you should do with a…