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Donation box in Trinity Church, Copenhagen.

A Freebox in Berlin, Germany 2005, serving as a distribution center for free donated materials

A donation is a gift given by physical or legal persons, typically for charitable purposes and/or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including cash offering, services, new or used goods including clothing, toys, food, and vehicles. It also may consist of emergency, relief or humanitarian aid items, development aid support, and can also relate to medical care needs as i.e. blood or organs for transplant. Charitable gifts of goods or services are also called gifts in kind. The largest form of gifts in kind is created in many nations by the donation of aging automobiles with the item donated being picked up, sold and the proceeds given to the charity or non-profit (type or named) which was the target of the donor's generosity. One standard way of obtaining donations is the use of raffles for the accumulation of funds.

Legal aspects[link]

Donations are given without return consideration. This lack of return consideration means that, in common law, an agreement to make a donation is an "imperfect contract void for want of consideration."^[1] Only when the donation is actually made does it acquire legal status as a transfer or property.^[2] In civil law jurisdictions, on the contrary, donations are valid contracts, though they may require some extra formalities, such as being done in writing.^{[citation needed]}

In politics, the law of some countries may prohibit or restrict the extent to which politicians may accept gifts or donations of large sums of money, especially from business or lobby groups (see campaign finance). Donations to charities are also usually tax deductible. Because this reduces the state's tax income, calls have been raised that the state (and the public in general) should pay more attention towards ensuring that charities actually use this 'tax money' in suitable ways.

In countries where there are limits imposed on the freedom of disposition of the testator, there are usually similar limits on donations.^{[citation needed]}

The person or institution giving a gift is called the donor, and the person or institution getting the gift is called the donee.^[2]

Donating in the name of others[link]

It is possible to donate in the name of a third party, making a gift in honor or in memory of someone or something. Gifts in honor or memory of a third party are made for various reasons, such as holiday gifts, wedding gifts, in memory of somebody who has died, in memory of pets or in the name of groups or associations no longer existing. Memorial gifts are sometimes requested by their survivors (e.g. "in lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to ABC Charity"), usually directing donations to a charitable organization for which the deceased was a donor or volunteer, or for a cause befitting the deceased's priorities in life or manner of death. Memorial donations are also sometimes given by people if they cannot go to the ceremonies.

See also[link]

• Micro-donations
• Accountable Fundraising
• Charitable contribution
• Fundraising
• Donation (in canon law)
• Money-free economy
• Gift economy
• Audience effect

References[link]

Ken Macintosh MSP
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Eastwood
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 1999
Preceded by	Constituency Created
Majority	2,012 (6%)
Personal details
Born	(1962-01-15) 15 January 1962 (age 50) Inverness, Scotland
Nationality	Scottish
Political party	Scottish Labour Party
Spouse(s)	Claire
Children	Four daughters, two sons
Residence	Busby, East Renfrewshire
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh
Occupation	Television journalist, producer (1987-1999)

Kenneth "Ken" Macintosh (born 15 January 1962) is a Scottish Labour Party politician and the MSP for the Eastwood constituency. He was first elected in the 1999 Scottish Parliament election and retained his seat in the 2003, 2007 and the 2011 elections. He is currently the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth, shadowing John Swinney

Early life[link]

Born in Inverness, Macintosh was educated at the Portree and Oban primary schools before attending Royal High School, Edinburgh. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an History MA (Hons) in 1984.

Both his parents were headteachers. His father Dr Farquhar Macintosh CBE was a Gaelic speaker from Skye, a leading intellectual in Scottish education^[1] and was Rector of the Royal High in Edinburgh^[2] and chair of the Scottish Examination Board.^[3] His mother, Margaret Macintosh, is from Peebles and was head of Drummond Community High and assistant head of Wester Hailes.

BBC career[link]

Before Macintosh became an MSP, he was from 1987 to 1999, a television producer for the BBC News Network.^[4] He also worked on Breakfast with Frost, Breakfast News, and the Nine O'Clock News. He was also worked as a researcher on election programmes for both David Dimbleby and Jonathan Dimbleby.^[5]

Member of the Scottish Parliament[link]

At the 1999 election, he won the Eastwood constituency with a majority of 2,125.^[6]

In February 2002, Macintosh was appointed as a ministerial parliamentary aide (MPA) to Minister for Education and Young People, Cathy Jamieson.^[7] He resigned from this role in September 2002 when he voted against the Labour-Liberal Democrat Coalition Scottish Executive over the closure of the A&E department at the Glasgow Victoria Infirmary.^[8]

In 2005 Macintosh had to resign from his position as Deputy Convenor on the Standards Committee after it was revealed he had failed to declare £330 of hospitality from McDonald's within the required time.^[9]

In 2006 and 2007 Macintosh has proposed a Member's Bill to the Scottish Parliament providing for the tougher regulation of sunbed parlours, which passed successfully.^[10] Since his election in 1999 has been a member of the cross-party group on cancer.^[11] From February 2007 to April 2007, he was a Ministerial Parliamentary Aide to the First Minister Jack McConnell.^[12]

Macintosh was re-elected as MSP for Eastwood at the 2007 election with a narrow majority of 913, where he fought off a strong challenge from the Conservative Party's Jackson Carlaw.^[13] Macintosh was appointed Shadow Minister for Schools and Skills.

Macintosh considered running for the 2008 Scottish Labour leadership election but pulled out and instead backed Andy Kerr's candidacy.^[14]

At the 2011 parliamentary election he once again defeated Jackson Carlaw with an increased majority of 2,012. The swing was 8.7% from Conservative to Labour.^[15] Macintosh had feared losing the constituency following boundary changes^[16] (with the removal of Barrhead, Neilston and Uplawmoor) which gave a notional Conservative majority of almost 3500.^[17] After the party's loss to the SNP, Macintosh was made Shadow Culture and External Affairs Secretary.^[18] Only a week later though, he took over the Shadow Education portfolio after MSP Malcolm Chisholm resigned over an internal party disagreement.^[19]

Scottish Labour Party leadership election[link]

Ken Macintosh launched his candidacy for leader of the Scottish Labour Party on 12 September 2011. MSP colleagues who have so far endorsed his leadership bid include: his campaign manager Michael McMahon, Claire Baker, Mary Fee, Neil Bibby, Mark Griffin, Kezia Dugdale and Jenny Marra.^[20] Macintosh is also supported by East Renfrewshire MP Jim Murphy, co-author of the Review of the Labour Party in Scotland. Murphy and Macintosh together share the same constituency office in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire.^[21]

In an early address to party members, Macintosh said he was a devolutionist, not a unionist.^[22][23]

On 28 October 2011, Macintosh officially launched his leadership campaign at Cumbernauld College in North Lanarkshire. He described the 2011 Holyrood election result as a "disaster", and that the party had been too negative^[24] and if it did not change it "will consign ourselves to steady decline and years of opposition. We need to unite as a party and to start talking positively about our values, what Labour stands for and not just what we are against."^[25]

Miliband gaffe[link]

Despite being widely seen as a frontrunner in the leadership contest, UK Labour leader Ed Miliband was unable to recall Ken Macintosh's name during a TV interview with BBC Scotland, during the September 2011 Labour Party Conference.^[26] After the interview, Miliband telephoned Macintosh to apologise for his mistake. Later, Macintosh tried to downplay the incident saying "I don't think anyone should read anything into it – half the time I can't even remember the names of my own kids."^[27] He added: "What really caught my attention about the interview is that, like me, Ed’s making a strong and positive case for Scotland to remain in the UK."^[28]

Personal life[link]

He and his wife Claire live in Busby, East Renfrewshire with their six children.^[29]

References[link]

External links[link]

• www.kenmacintosh.com (new website)
• kenmacintoshmsp.co.uk (old website)
• Ken Macintosh's Scottish Labour Leadership campaign site "scotlandsfuture.co.uk"
• Scottish Parliament profile

Dharamlal Kaushik is current speaker of Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha and a leader of Bharatiya Janata Party.^[1]

References[link]

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