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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.
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 »
I can’t remember when the term “third sector” first came into being – probably long ago. Even before we used this label, it did of course exist. Charities and the concept of charitable giving have existed for many hundreds of years.
For this reason, it’s very difficult to imagine what society would look like in the UK if charities simply did not exist. Would the responsibility of looking after the needs of 60 million people in our country fall solely on government? Taxation would be unimaginably higher for corporations and individuals, and the government machine would need to be substantially larger to take on the incredible range and depth of responsibilities the third sector currently carries. Read more »
It’s true to say that mentality and culture in the third sector are very different from those in the corporate sector. It’s more difficult, however, to define exactly what that difference is. Some see the corporate sector as shrewd, canny, and businesslike. The very purpose of a corporate entity is to provide a return for its shareholders. Although there may be some aspects of the corporate sector that we in the voluntary one don’t like, there is much that chief executives of charities can learn from the way the private sector is run. Read more »
Most charities exist because someone had a good idea, wanted to do good, wanted to help others, or wanted to alleviate poverty. The people that are actively involved in running or supporting charities are good people, who want their client group to genuinely benefit from the work they do.
The government has made much of its admiration for the voluntary sector, with David Cameron repeatedly pledging to help charities, claiming that “we need a government that helps to create a big society.” Unfortunately, from my experience this doesn’t seem to be happening on the ground. Read more »
One of the huge benefits of working
for a charity is meeting a wide variety of interesting and exciting people -
the most important for me being the residents at Nightingale, the care home
which I run. We accommodate some 200 older people, each of whom has a
fascinating story to tell about their lives.
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