VoluntaryNews

The Helplines Association has a three question survey on the "Impact of National Bullying Helpline controversy", which can be completed by individuals as well as organisations, http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JDNWVKC.

The Scottish parliament has repealed a restriction set a century ago on the amount a specific charity could give out to its beneficiaries (widows living in Govan or Glasgow). The maximum had been set at £25, suitable then but not now.

Alliance magazine has started an online debate on whether the argument that the values of civil society are in danger of being overwhelmed by market forces is valid or a false polarisation.

New Philanthropy Capital and Keystone have kicked it off, arguing that we need to synthesise the best insights of both civil society and market paradigms. There are some thoughtful responses, read at http://alliancemag.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/test/.

For Student Volunteering Week, Volunteering England published 'Student Volunteers: A National Profile', based on research on volunteering by students in the 2006-7 academic year.

Two "works in progress" reports from the Northern Rock Foundation's Third Sector Trends Study have been published.

'What makes a Third Sector Organisation tick?' is based on the study of fifty third sector organisations in North East England and Cumbria, and finds that there is higher management capacity than is sometimes thought, but they are less good at communicating their value and impact.

Society Guardian has a new Charity Effectiveness web section, http://www.guardian.co.uk/charity-effectiveness, which will be "exploring the key challenges for the charity and not-for-profit sector".

The government's Cabinet Office has an advisor looking at the third sector's role in the design and delivery of more personalised public services.

The Directory of Social Change has taken the online charity database GuideStar UK under its wings, along with subsidiary trading company GuideStar Data Services.

The UK was the only country where GuideStar International owned the local body, and it will now be able to focus further on developing new GuideStar database services around the world. This does appear to be a good fit, given the slightly unstable history of GuideStar UK.