As many English charity shops look to reopen their doors from Monday 15 June, with social distancing regulations and COVID-secure guidelines in place and a likely reduction in volunteer numbers, the VCSE sector is calling for donors to consider the relevance and quality of the goods they donate.

The Disability Charities Consortium (DCC) has criticised the government for failing to represent the interests of disabled people.

In a statement, the DCC members say that disabled people are being forgotten by the government and have been allowed to fall through the cracks.

Public Health England has published its report on the disparity between COVID-19 cases and deaths in the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) population, and in the white or white ethnic population.

Under normal circumstances there are many community organisations that don't apply for National Lottery grants, as the money given away is raised from gambling. However, the National Lottery Community Fund is responsible for distributing the government's Coronavirus Community Response Fund - an important source of emergency funding during the pandemic for small to medium organisations, with £200m available. 

A new report from the Ubele Initiative has found that almost 90% of micro and small community organisations led by people of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds could be forced to close if the COVID-19 crisis continues until June 2020.

Ubele is an intergenerational social enterprise led by the African Diaspora, which works to build more sustainable communities in the UK.  

The makers of Giving Tuesday, a global charity awareness drive that takes place every November, have announced that 5 May 2020 will be taken over by #GivingTuesdayNow: a special extra edition of Giving Tuesday, in light of the challenges that charitable organisations of all sizes face during coronavirus. 

A new social media campaign, #NeverMoreNeeded, has highlighted the increasingly vital role that our Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector organisations play in society during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The campaign, which launched just ahead of the BBC's Big Night In fundraising programme and the UK-wide Two Point Six Challenge, has been driven by leading VCSE sector organisations such as Charity Comms, Third Sector, NCVO, Charity Finance Group, Locality, the Directory of Social Change (DSC), and ACEVO.