Malcolm Kyle

£2 million is only the beginning!

The year 2010 will not be forgotten in a hurry at COCO being, as it has, a year of milestones. Not only has our Chairman, Steve Cram, celebrated 25 years since his ’19 days of glory’ during which he broke three separate world records, but as a charity we celebrated our tenth anniversary in August. Now, as if our donors were giving a belated birthday present, we can bring you the news that last month we passed the notable milestone of raising £2 million!

We will, of course, pause to celebrate but the need for the type of project COCO facilitates is as acute as ever. As such the COCO team are determined that this £2 million is only the beginning. It is only with your help that we will be able to go on to raise even more money, even faster.

We have a number of Newcastle street collections coming up over the next few months but, to be honest, it’s getting a bit cold out there! So in order to get us up and running towards our next million we’ve devised a way to get the money rolling in without our extremities turning blue. All you need to do is click to throw a donation into our “Virtual Collection Bucket”!

Once you’ve done that you can click to read more about COCO’s ambitious fundraising targets for the next five years!

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By Sophie Hudson, Third Sector Magazine, 21 September 2010

Charities will be asked this week to give their opinion on whether will writers should be regulated.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel, which advises the Legal Services Board, will call for evidence from various stakeholders, including lawyers, businesses and charities.

Steve Brooker, manager of the panel, told Third Sector that anyone was permitted to set up a will-writing business. Wills could sometimes be declared invalid if there were technical errors, he said – and if this happened, the assets were distributed under laws written in 1925, which could result in only blood relatives being allowed to receive anything.

But Brooker said that unnecessary regulation of will writing might also present problems for charities.

“Charities may also be involved in providing will-writing services, and regulation could affect their ability to do this,” he said. “It might increase the cost of wills and dissuade consumers from writing them in the first place, meaning less legacy income.”

Iain McAndrew, vice-chair of Remember A Charity and head of legacies at Save the Children, said such regulations were important because they gave consumers confidence that their wishes would be taken into consideration.

Chris Millward, legacy promotions manager at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “We would be supportive of more regulation being put in place for will writers, providing the same level of safeguards as seen with solicitors registered with the Law Society.”

Charities can give their views by visiting www.legalservicesconsumerpanel.org.uk from 22 September.

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Thursday 26th August 2010

On the 18th August COCO reached her 10th Birthday! The previous night the founders of COCO – Steve Cram and Jim Panton were joined by COCO’s staff, Directors and friends as they celebrated this momentous milestone.

Over 60 guests attended COCO’s Birthday Party and enjoyed a drink whilst they viewed a special exhibition of photos from COCO’s projects. It was very special to spend the occasion with so many of COCO’s supporters from the years and to be able to thank everyone who has helped COCO become the organisation we are today.

COCO was founded by Steve and Jim in 2000 after they took part in the Comrades Marathon in South Africa. They both realised the impact that fundraising could have upon improving the lives of children living in poverty and from that realisation, COCO was founded.

Since then COCO has worked in over 13 different countries and on more than 30 projects. Today COCO work predominantly in East Africa in countries such as Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya in addition to South Africa and Ghana.

All of us at COCO are very proud to have reached our 10th Birthday, it’s not been an easy ride but we’ve got here thanks to the help of those who have supported us through the years.

There was a fantastic Birthday cake which was made specially for COCO’s 10th Birthday Party and Steve had the honour of cutting the cake!

Thanks to everyone who attended the party and to all of our supporters who have been with us throughout the years. Here’s to the next 10 years!

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