Always there to lend a guiding hand
Many of us give to good causes and charities but few of us can claim to make it our specialism.
Accountants and auditors Richard Place Dobson certainly can – aiding more than 100 charity and not-for-profit clients and commanding years of experience in doing so.
For one charity, Crawley Open House (COH), this is “harvest”, a critical time of the year when it collects food to give out to needy people over the next 12 months – and they turn to Richard Place Dobson for help and advice, who are always there to lend a guiding hand.
Founded in the early 1980s, the charity is a gateway to support services for those suffering the effects of homelessness, unemployment, loneliness, discrimination or forms of social exclusion.
TheCrawleyhostel runs 24 beds and a day centre attracting more than 50 visitors a day. The service is manned round the clock by 30 employees, who provide over 100 meals daily as well as copious cups of tea and coffee.
Richard Place Dobson are not only the accountants for Crawley Open House but also sit on the quarterly sub-committee meeting and provide the venue for the meeting at their offices. “We constantly try and look at new ways in which we can help and encourage them to never hesitate about picking up the phone to us.” comments Director Darren Harding.
“We try and offer additional help to the charity by providing useful contacts for marketing and have also produced and further developed tailor-made Sage reports for the charity as well as assisting with grant claims” Darren adds.
The charity specialist supports COH in other ways, reveals Michael Bolton, Crawley Open House Trustee. “Their staff donate food for our harvest, when we try and collect food for the following year, such as non perishable items, tinned food, tea and coffee. This year the food donated lasted from October until June and, in total, more than 150 organisations donated food. Richard Place Dobson are definitely charity experts and are always on hand to guide us.”
Darren Harding adds: “If we are unable to help with a particular matter, we either put them in touch with the relevant party or in some cases have contacted them ourselves.” www.placedobson.co.uk
