As it's the season of goodwill, we're giving away The 12 Insights of Christmas. They look at some of the key issues facing the charity sector and include research, interviews and advice from charities and from us. Unwrap our 12 free reports just in time for Christmas.

World Mental Health Day was on the 10^th of October, so here is a topical tour of the way mental health charities are tackling stigma and battling some misleading media stories.

The Sun newspaper stormed straight into the spotlight just a few days before World Mental Health Day with the blaring headline ‘1200 killed by mental patients’. It referred to homicide victims who were murdered by so called ‘mental patients over the past ten years.  These figures glared angrily out of newsagents’ windows across the UK, emanating shame and stigma for those affected by mental health issues.

It expressed exactly the attitudes that charities like Rethink Mental Illness and Mind are constantly battling to change; the notion that people with mental health problems are somehow dangerous and unlike the rest of us.

In actual fact, one in four people in the UK live with a mental health condition. Many bear their struggles silently. They are so intent on hiding it for fear of discrimination that you can’t always tell when somebody is struggling.

Before this, I wrote a piece on why it's important to blog. Although I meant it as a few quick notes, it actually turned into a blog of its own and inexplicably mentioned sky diving. Hopefully, it also explained a few reasons why blogging is beneficial and how it’s really easy to get started. So, eager with endeavour and sufficiently seized of blogging’s benefits, you’ll no doubt be chomping at the bit to get some ideas down on paper. So, what's the best way to get started?

Anyone reading the charity news this month will have seen the furore caused by Giles Pegram’s comments about women in fundraising. They were made in response to concerns raised about The Summit, a conference to discuss the future of fundraising that included just one female speaker alongside nine male counterparts.

As a result, The Summit was cancelled and he issued an immediate apology, while almost everyone else spoke in equal measure of their respect for him and disdain for his opinion. This got me thinking, as nfpSynergy’s Twitterer-in-Chief, about the dangers we face using this powerful tool. What is best practice and how can charities tread carefully in this digital minefield?

1. A Hidden Gem - Resilience report from the Clore Social Leadership Programme

I talked to somebody last week from an overseas development charity which was busy preparing for its 40th anniversary. Not 50th, not 25th, but 40th. This is not unusual. Charities seem to be obsessed with celebrating anniversaries. It doesn’t have to be a particularly significant anniversary, but it does have to be celebrated. For me, charities celebrating anniversaries makes about as much sense as hedgehogs celebrating a new bypass.