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Spring 2025 issue of Charities Management magazine – all about running charities, for trustees and senior executives. This is the red livery website edition. To see a sample of the parallel but separate blue livery emailed edition, click on the blue square on the right. To all charity workers at this difficult time: stay well and safe.

Both the magazine via the website and the magazine via email are unsuitable for ordinary people unconnected with the UK charity sector or outside the UK. Please access the terms of use at the bottom of the screen or on the Home page, including for investment articles.

New material this issue includes:

HAPPY VOLUNTEERS. Salvation Army Trading Company Ltd (SATCoL) has achieved a 2 Star Outstanding Employer Accreditation from Best Companies, which measures, improves and recognises great workplace engagement. The paid colleagues survey results reveal that 88% of staff would recommend SATCoL as an employer to friends, 88% believe SATCoL has a clear focus and direction that they understand, and 97% understand and use SATCoL’s values (of Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Equality) within their core roles.

This is the first time SATCoL has engaged with an external provider of colleague engagement surveys, having run the process in-house previously with some success. One of the key aims for partnering with an external supplier was to increase levels of engagement. To this end Best Companies developed a volunteer survey for SATCoL which saw volunteer response rates more than double compared to previous in-house survey results.

The volunteers survey results reveal that 94% feel proud to work for SATCoL, 96% say their team are fun to work with, 93% believe SATCoL is a caring organisation interested in volunteer wellbeing, and 92% state that their volunteering role is good for their personal growth.

Trevor Caffull, SATCoL’s manager director, says: “This independent recognition shows that SATCoL’s investment in its people – including learning and development, wellbeing and improving workplace environments – as well as the investments made that set us apart as a leader in the charity retail and reuse and recycling sectors, are improvements that our colleagues have influenced, embraced and welcomed.”

SATCol is the trading arm (and a wholly owned subsidiary) of the Salvation Army in the UK and Republic of Ireland. It actively encourages the reuse and recycling of donated clothing and other household items through over 250 charity stores, and a nationwide network of around 9,000 clothing banks.