When using software, online tools and apps which will have access to personal data, it’s important they meet the privacy rights of our community to avoid a data breach.

It’s a legal requirement of the UK GDPR to show accountability and document the data protection measures in place. So, at the MS Society, we carry out security and other due diligence checks on the software, online tools and apps that staff and volunteers use. For example, WhatsApp or the apps available within Microsoft Office 365.

Throughout the year, we hold events across the UK to engage and thank our supporters. We want to show them how the vital funds we receive from them are used to progress all aspects of our work — transforming lives now and giving real hope for the future.



The final event of 2024, hosted by our CEO Nick Moberly, will be held at Belfast Castle on Wednesday 9 October. We’ll provide a light lunch for supporters to enjoy while they meet each other and MS Society staff.

At the end of last year, we recruited a Volunteer User Panel to provide valuable input into our new volunteer management system (VMS), Assemble.

You can find out more about Assemble in our previous news article here. The system will take on much of the functionality of both the Portal and volunteer website. These sites will retire once we have Assemble up and running.

In this article, we hear about what the panel has been up to since forming.

Following our successful pilot at the end of 2023, we restarted face-to-face fundraising just over a month ago.

Our paid fundraisers have been predominantly based in Swansea and in and around London areas since the beginning of the campaign.

So far, we’ve recruited 222 new donors, which is amazing – with an average annual gift of £117. The average age of our donor is 46.

Last week, 3-9 June, we celebrated Volunteers’ Week – an annual celebration of the contribution millions of people make across the UK through volunteering.

We wanted to take the opportunity to shout as loud as we could about the amazing contribution volunteers make to our work and community. We shared lots of content throughout the week but in case you missed it, here’s a roundup.

We’ve been contacted by some local groups about their Facebook pages and groups being disabled by Facebook.

Unfortunately, the MS Society can’t challenge Facebook’s decision to disable pages/groups. Your local group’s Facebook admin will have to do this directly from the page/group in question.

Frustratingly, Facebook uses artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor the site. Occasionally it seems to flag pages/groups where there’s no obvious cause for concern.

However, there are certain things you can do to lower the chance of your page/group being disabled.

In May, we let you know we were making some changes and improvements to our MS Society Designs service. We’re pleased to let you know we’ve now launched the updates and it’s all systems go!

MS Society Designs is a free service for local groups to create bespoke branded materials, so together we can build awareness of the MS Society. And promote the fantastic things you do to support the MS community in your area.

The UK General Election is on Thursday 4 July. It’s an important opportunity to get our voice heard, and to make sure MS is on the agenda of every candidate.






If you’re planning any campaigning during this election period, do remember that the Lobbying Act sets rules around what charities can and can’t do. The MS Society is always politically neutral. But we need to take particular care during this time to ensure that any involvement we have with political parties is balanced.