‘Stronger charities for a stronger society’, A Report from the House of Lords

‘Stronger charities for a stronger society’, A Report by the House of Lords' Select Committee on Charities in March 2017

‘Charities are the eyes, ears and conscience of any society’.

 The Report

The timing of this Report by the House of Lords' Select Committee on Charities is poignant, coming in March 2017, the same month as Prime Minister Theresa May invoked Article 50 to allow the UK to leave the European Union after forty four years of membership. The Prime Minister struck a note of reconciliation, calling on Brexiteers and Remainers to ‘come together’. In reality, the country is deeply divided over this issue, although commentators differ over the causes of this division.

Against this backdrop, the ‘Stronger charities for a stronger economy’ Report is timely. You can read the report here. What does the Select Committee say in its Report?

Comments from the Chairman

Chairman of the Committee, Baroness Pitkeathley, said:

"Charities are the lifeblood of society. They play a fundamental role in our civil life and do so despite facing a multitude of challenges. Yet for them to continue to flourish, it is clear that they must be supported and promoted.

"We found that charities lead the way with innovation, but that this is at risk of being stifled by the 'contract culture'. And while advocacy is a sign of a healthy democracy, and is a central part of charities' role, this role has been threatened by Government.  

"We hope that charities will be encouraged by this report; that the Government will respect their role; and that in addition it will value the connections charities have with all sections of society, and encourage the vital scrutiny they provide." 

My comments

I like the positive tone of the Report. Charities are a force for good in this country, but cannot thrive without the support of the public, Government and the regulators, the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland.

The Report raises some important, practical and philosophical questions about charities.

Key points

·      There should be more training and skills development for charity trustees to improve the strength of charity governance. Infrastructure organisations such as the Association of Charity Chairs, ACEVO, Charity Finance Group, Directory for Social Change and NCVO have a key role to play here.

·      There should be more financial support for the core costs of charities. This is an emotive point, as some commentators and parts of the public view low support costs as a proxy for efficiency, which is not always the case.

·      There should be longer-term contracts to help charities to help charities plan for the future. This will be a challenge to local authorities, facing budget constraints at a time of economic austerity.

·      The campaigning and advocacy roles of charities should not be restricted unreasonably by Government or regulators. This may be especially important during the Brexit process.

·      Charities should innovate in their work and embrace digital media. This point is well made by the Committee and does, perhaps, provide a challenge for the sector. Charities do generally lag behind the private sector in the use of social media. The broader public, meanwhile, is happy to bank and shop online and use social media for work and leisure.

In later posts, I’ll look at the points in the Report in more detail and cover the opportunities for trustees and their charities.

My eight hopes and fears for charities in 2016 in a post-truth world

I like this time of year, as 2016 draws to a close. For the usual reasons, obviously. But also for a time to slow down, to reflect, to look back at the year we’ve had and to look forward at the year to come. As a child growing up near St Andrews in Scotland, I remember family and friends meeting up at this time to talk about our lives, our experiences, our stories our hopes and fears going into the new year. My three children are spending this Christmas in three different continents, but at heart, we remain story-tellers and of course we have Facetime.

This time last year, I wrote down my eight hopes and eight fears for charities in 2016. In my next post, I’ll re-visit what I wrote, what I got right, what I got wrong and what I missed altogether.

I don’t think I’ll score well for 2016. I didn’t see the Brexit result coming, nor the Trump Presidential election win. I was expecting another coalition Government when the Tory party won the election in May 2015. I was expecting political change in UK and US to be incremental and, in the event, change was much more radical and fundamental. The UK was more divided than I realised and not across simple left/right perspectives. Scotland voted to stay in the European Union, as did London, the most multi-cultural part of the UK. Parts of the country which have benefitted from EU funding nonetheless voted to leave; the North East, parts of Wales and Cornwall.

I’ve also learned a new word from the Oxford English Dictionary, post-truth which the Dictionary defines as an adjective:

‘Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less important in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’.

The Dictionary gives this example:

‘in this era of post-truth politics, it’s easy to cherry-pick data and come to any conclusion you desire’.

The Oxford Dictionary teams in UK and US both chose post-truth as their word of the year for 2016. Past words of the year were more innocent. In 2006, the UK went for ’bovvered’ and the US ‘carbon-neutral’. In 2009, the UK chose ‘simples’ and the US ‘unfriend’.

In my next posts, I’ll go back to my 2016 predictions and, in a spirit of boldness, set out my predictions for 2017. I’ll also reflect on what a post-truth world might mean for charities?

Fitwilliam College Careers Fair - My flier for charity and social enterprise

Charity and volunteering

‘We rise by lifting others.’ (Robert Ingersoll)

 ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ (Mahatma Gandhi)

A charity is defined in law as an organisation which exists for the benefit of the public. Usually, a charity delivers its services to those it works with, free of charge.

Have you engaged with a charity recently?

Fitzwilliam College is a charity for the promotion of education.

If you’ve been to church, a church is a charity for the promotion of religion.

If you’ve donated or bought something from a charity shop such as Oxfam, Oxfam is a charity for the relief of poverty.

If you’ve stayed in a Youth Hostel, the Youth Hostel Association is a charity which promotes health, recreation and education.

What does this career mean for you?

A career in the charity sector brings many of the same challenges as one in the corporate and public sectors – funding, a strategic and operational plan, an annual budget and risk mitigation. Some of the roles in the charity sector are similar to those in the other two sectors – leadership, management, HR, IT, finance, investment, property.

A career in the charity sector brings the unique experience of front line work with the charity’s beneficiaries, transforming their lives, engaging and bringing hope. Volunteers are as important to a charity as the paid staff.

Social enterprise

’Don’t give poor people a fish and feed them for a day, teach them to fish in the hope of feeding them for a lifetime’. (Thomas L Friedman)   

‘Social entrepreneurs will not rest until they have revolutionised the fishing industry.’ (Bill Drayton)

 A social enterprise is an organisation which works for a triple bottom line, financial, social and environmental. A social enterprise sits in between the charity sector, which is not for profit and the corporate sector, which is fully for profit. The Judge Business School in Cambridge has a Centre for Social Innovation to help social enterprises to grow.

A career in social enterprise brings more commercial challenges than one in the charity sector, but also has the same job satisfaction of making the world a better place.

Paul Gibson 11 November 2016

What does the US Presidential Election mean for UK charity trustees?

As the dust settles after the result of the US Presidential Election, I’ve been reflecting on what the outcome means for charity trustees in this country? This is of course Trustees’ Week in the UK, which runs from 7-13 November 2016.

Trustees’ Week is an annual event to celebrate the wonderful work which trustees do and to encourage people from all walks of life to consider becoming a trustee. The focus of Trustees’ Week in 2016 is on Stronger Charities through Good Leadership. I’ll return to this theme in a later blog. In this piece, I want to reflect on the lessons of the Presidential Election for trustees, in an apolitical way.

For me, there are two key lessons for trustees, which are distinct but linked. The first is that the US (and the UK following the BREXIT Referendum) are deeply divided politically. We mustn’t turn our backs on these divisions or wish them away. Rather, we must celebrate diversity in all its guises.

UK charity trustees have a role to play in that charities have a proud tradition of celebrating diversity, in their work to deliver public benefit. A charity is a safe and trusting environment, where beneficiaries and other stakeholders can explore and address divisions. Division can spring from inequality and a fear of the other. Charities work to address inequality and to emphasise what we have in common, as opposed to what divides us.

The second lesson for trustees is perhaps more difficult. A number of US politicians and commentators (and indeed some in the UK during Brexit) misunderstood public opinion. As a result, policies were developed which didn’t match what the public were looking for and were presented in ways which didn’t resonate with the public’s expectations.

It’s a challenge for trustees to see the world as it is and not as trustees may see it themselves or wish it to be. Trustees need to see the world as it is to be able to develop and deliver plans which are relevant and tailored for their beneficiaries. This can involve listening, stepping back to reflect from time to time and acting with humility.

I’m sure that trustees will meet these challenges, for the benefit of those who they work with. I’m reminded of a comment in the Quaker Social Action Annual Report 2016:

‘What we do matters, but how we do it matters too — our focus is on the person not the problem. We believe that people in poverty are the real poverty experts.’

The Presidential campaign and BREXIT share some common roots, but with key differences too. The common factor seems to me to be concerns about each country’s identity, locally, nationally and globally. I wonder how best to describe and understand the identity of our charities and what this means for our country?

Paul Gibson 10 November 2016

From BHS to Sports Direct, what’s happening to the world of big business?

From BHS to Sports Direct, what’s happening to the world of big business and what does it mean?

This is the title of a talk which I gave to the Arundelles on Saturday 8 October 2016. The Arundelles are a women’s group, who meet regularly in Arundel to hear speakers talk about their specialisms and interests. I chose this title for my talk to explore the current relationship between big business and its stakeholders – investors, directors, staff, customers, suppliers and wider society.

I began by looking at three businesses which have been the lead stories in the media in recent times and the subject of critical reports by MP’s; BHS, Sports Direct and Tesco’s.  I concluded that the covenant of trust between these three businesses and their stakeholders, other than investors and directors, has been broken in recent years.

I then looked at the idea of the sharing economy. The local sharing economy (such as village fetes, street parties and allotment clubs) is strong in most communities and likely to remain so. The impact of the global sharing economy (Trip Adviser, Uber, AirBnB, car sharing and so on) on big business and communities is unfolding currently.  The likely impact is not clear, but is likely to be significant. These new businesses have an opportunity to frame their relationship with all their stakeholders and not just with their investors and directors.

The new sharing economy businesses, alongside more traditional big businesses, need to ensure that they connect with all their stakeholders and wider society to gain their legitimacy and ‘licence to operate’. Staff who are fairly rewarded for their work are better placed to reach their potential in their lives, whether as workers, citizens or customers. Big businesses rely on government to provide schools, hospitals and roads and must play their part in building civil society, alongside delivering financial value for investors and directors.

The recent poor share price performance of Sports Direct and Tesco’s and the collapse of BHS show that good business ethics are good business and good for society too. You can see the slides of my talk below.

Paul Gibson

8 October 2016