Charities on the Frontline

At a conference held in March this year, Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, outlined his view on the opportunities for the sector.

He said that councils knew they must work more efficiently to “maintain services and places that local people need and want to live in”. He added that this commitment would “drive them into partnership with voluntary groups”.

He added that councils needed to offer more work to the voluntary sector.

Meanwhile the minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd, has said that there are going to be major opportunities for the sector to “deliver public services and to shape local priorities”. He has also said the government wants to “enable the sector to reshape and position itself to take advantage of the game-changing opportunities.”

At the start of this year, we at Voluntary Sector North West decided to use our meetings and events to undertake a snapshot survey on some key issues and to see whether government rhetoric is currently in tune with the sector. For the first quarter we decided to focus on the five principles of the Open Public Services White Paper: choice, decentralisation, diversity, fairness and accountability.

The Open Public Services White Paper effectively brings together the notions of big society and localism, and sets the overarching principles for the reforms of welfare, health and economic growth

On the whole our findings don’t make pretty reading for government, but do reflect the conversations we are regularly having with colleagues.

Principle 1: Choice – ‘wherever possible we will increase choice’
On choice, 73 per cent of respondents believe that their service users have less choice about the services they use than they did six months ago – this may be an indication that the cuts are initially leading to services being reduced or removed.

 Principle 2: Decentralisation – ‘power should be decentralised to the lowest appropriate level’
A total of 73 per cent of respondents do not believe that decisions are currently being made more locally – clearly people are not feeling the impact or desired effect of decentralisation.

Principle 3: Diversity – ‘public services should be open to a range of providers’
A total of 18 per cent of respondents believe they will increase the number of contracts they manage over the next few months whilst 26 per cent think there will be a decrease, A third of respondents reckon things will remain the same: these figures are somewhat surprising, given discussions with colleagues, and don’t read as badly as they might. It is difficult to ascertain from this whether this will impact on the diversity of providers the Government aims to attract.

Principle 4: Fairness – ‘we will ensure fair access to public services’
On fairness, 75 per cent of respondents do not believe the resources to the sector are being targeted fairly – though it might be argued that this will always attract a highly negative response.

Principle 5: Accountability – ‘public services should be accountable to users and taxpayers’
A total of 79 per cent of respondents do not feel that decision makers/services are more accountable to the community than they were six months ago – the Localism Act should provide more powers to enable this to happen. Only time will tell!

None of the above will surprise people involved in the sector in the North West. I suspect it is pretty much the same in many other parts of the country. If we are to see the Government’s vision realised, they are going to have to get smarter with their messages. As much as they may hate it, the Government may occasionally need to legislate if they really want to change behaviour – nudging will not be enough.

Charitable giving means different things to different people.

For some it’s a way of life – for others it’s a means of coping with guilt, or they simply want to help those in need. The charitable sector contributes an enormous amount to the National GDP and in many areas of the charitable world roles and responsibilities are being taken on which one might reasonably expect to belong to the government. Nevertheless, charities do it with pleasure and with pride.

Charities do everything that they possibly can to encourage donors to give and to give more each year.  Charities are highly skilled in how to ask for donations and also at valuing, nurturing and recognising their donors. Government plays its part to a limited extent with the facility of Gift Aid – although the benefit of Gift Aid has now been reduced.
There are many further ways in which the Government could help but chooses not to – including exemption from VAT for charities. This has not happened and it is unlikely that it ever will for the simple reason that, as stated earlier, the charitable sector contributes so much towards the economy and thereby to the coffers of the Revenue.

Yet, lo and behold, the government has now decided for reasons best known to itself to put further obstacles in the way of fundraisers and specifically for major donors.  The restrictions on the tax allowance for major donations to £50,000 is, to say the least, unhelpful. It would be bad news at any time and is particularly so in the current climate.
Regardless of any political points that the government may have been attempting to score, and regardless of their ability to ensure that everybody pays their fair share of tax, a decision has clearly been made to penalise the charitable sector.  Charities depend to a large degree on major donors, and removing incentives can only serve to make that task even more challenging. What we need from government at this point in time is more help, not less.

There is always a tendency to believe that we as charities are being taken for granted and, while wishing to minimise any form of hand-wringing and self pity, it does feel very much as if we are being treated as a soft touch. If we are to increase the proportion of people in this country that are making charitable donations – and reach the levels of giving in the United States – far more has to be done to incentivise prospective donors.

Charitable organisations are facing enough challenges at the present time without this added burden.

Leon Smith, chief executive of Nightingale Hammerson, which runs care homes

We’ve decided to charge – for the time being.

I received board approval a few months ago to establish a training arm of Jewish Women’s Aid. This falls under the remit of my role, which is to raise awareness of Jewish Women’s Aid and domestic violence in the Jewish community.

Rather than continuing only to give talks to community and synagogue groups, it became apparent that awareness-raising would have more impact if I provided training for relevant professionals. Training usually comprises a half-day course providing delegates with a tool kit and enabling them to provide better support and signposting to women and children affected by domestic violence. Read More »

With annual accounts to finalise, budgets to set and funding streams to consider, March is a month in which questions of ‘process’ are often at the forefront of charity managers’ minds.  This is especially true for those charities with a traditional focus on service delivery – and even more so in a time of heavy demand from service users mired in difficult economic circumstances. Read More »

I had a meeting the other day in which it emerged that a local clinical commissioning group had set up a community interest company with the primary intention of using it to attract grant funding. Similarly, we’ve seen an increase in public sector bodies going after grants, even in one instance asking us for grants advice. Read More »

In August I wrote a blog ‘Is anyone really listening?’ and referenced two Cabinet Office/Office for Civil Society consultations to which we had no responses.  I continued my push for a response and Third Sector also asked government for comment. Read More »

The most valuable asset that any fundraiser has is their donor base. Names and addresses, particularly of loyal contacts, are gold dust and should be treated with the greatest of respect. The last thing that any fundraiser or charity would ever want to do would be to alienate a donor or friend in any way – either by making an appeal too many times in any given period or by inundating them with materials, thus giving them the perception that money is being wasted on glossy magazines or merchandising items. Read More »

Sometimes your expectations are blown out of the water – I love it when that happens.

I recently met Michael. He was a fellow speaker at an event and blew me away with his humanity, humour and ability to tell his story. Read More »

I’m a serial workshop attender – how to market, fundraise, teambuild, whatever – I’m there. The bacon butties are a draw and it’s a good way to network.

The trendy workshops recently have been on social networks. They’ve helped me; I’m on LinkedIn and Twitter; but recently I went to one that stood out from the crowd. It was practical, recognising that social media can take over your whole life if you let it, with little to show except a superficial knowledge of Justin Bieber, the occupy movement and what everyone’s watching on TV. Today may just have saved me from becoming a disillusioned ex-tweeter. Read More »

In January 2011, Voluntary Sector North West responded to the consultation paper Supporting a Stronger Civil Society under the expectation that this would be the starting point for how Office for Civil Society was going to develop its’ strategy for working with VCS infrastructure in the future.  Knowing that the money available would be significantly less, we know how important it is to get the strategy right. Read More »