Welcome to ACO

Helping Individuals in Need. A Guide to good practice for charities

This toolkit is intended for those running a charity that gives grants to individuals in need. Authored by Caroline Aldred and Clementine Cowl, the idea for this guide came out of the questions that arise frequently at ACO meetings such as ‘our trustees want to offer loans to applicants, but can we do this and what are the legal implications?’ or ‘how should we manage home visits?’ We hope that this guide will assist in finding answers to these questions.

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The funds managed by ACO members are discretionary and seek to complement and enhance welfare support provided by local and central government. Our members operate in the UK and across the globe. In recent years many funds have reviewed their operations, researching patterns of need and developing more strategic programmes of assistance

ACO provides support to its members through:

• Networking: building peer networks providing opportunities for members to share and get advice and support
• Raising standards: promoting good practice, tackling problems together and offering solutions
• Lobbying and campaigning: giving our members a voice by responding to government consultations and raising awareness about the work of our member organisations
• Information: providing members with up-to-date information tailored to their specific interests through our monthly newsletter "Charity News Review" and policy briefings
• Online services: our website and member forums provide opportunities to seek and share advice and experience

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Latest News

ACO Trustee Recruitment 2019

February 2019

We are now looking to recruit Trustees to support the continuous development of ACO. We have a strategic plan to transform the services we offer our members that is reviewed annually and agreed by trustees.

Definition hit the road

February 2019

ACO and Definition, our PR agency, are gearing up for the start of the ACO PR project. We will update members of the PR group on March 11th

A Year of Succession

January 2019

Quite a lot of change will be taking place in the ACO team this year. Catherine Ginger is retiring this month and is replaced by Claire Bijeje as administrator, and a new Communications Officer will be appointed.

For the latest news via e-mail please Register