Support for the importance of public benefit for charities?

Support for the importance of public benefit for charities?

Reading Third Sector in the past week I was struck by two items about charities in particular and could not help but wonder whether there might be a connection between the two.

There was a report on a speech made by Sam Younger, chief executive of the Charity Commission, about close working between charities and the private sector and the risk to public trust and confidence in charities, if that should blur the definition of charity.

This is not the first time the regulator for charities has highlighted the risk for charities if they do not demonstrate what it is that makes them distinctive, the significance of public benefit. Perhaps that concern is what we should expect from the Charity Commission.

But there was a report too on the Charities Aid Foundation research on the growing disparity between giving to charity between those over and below 60 years of age. Apparently the over 60s are twice as likely to give to charity as the under 30s. And the over 60s now provide more than half of all donations to charities.

Perhaps those over 60 developed the donation habit at a time when the notion of charity was much clearer: when the charity ‘brand’ was more distinct. Certainly the ‘third sector’ as we know it now is a relatively recent concept.

The growth of different forms of other not for profit entities, has generated a more complex picture where charities are just one type amongst many. Combine that with the increasingly complex environment in which charities operate, funding via contracts for instance, and the move away from the more traditional and towards more ‘businesslike’ arrangements and perhaps the donation picture is less surprising.

Older people may have established connections and developed loyalty to charities at a time when there was less competition between ‘good causes’ and at a time when perceptions of (and realities for) charities were very different.

If the complexity of the ‘third sector’ has anything to do with giving to charities amongst the young then maybe there is something in the message about the need to communicate what it is about a charity that makes it worthy of donation (in kind or otherwise).

The more competitive the ‘third sector’ gets the more important it becomes for charities to demonstrate how they deliver public benefit: what it is that makes them different and what makes them a charity.

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Public Benefit Consultation Blog – what does it say about public benefit?

Public Benefit Consultation Blog – what does it say about public benefit?

The Charity Commission consultation on its draft revised public benefit guidance launched on 27 June and closes on 26 September. For the first time the consultation invites response via blogs.   Bearing in mind that the draft revised public benefit guidance issued as web based guidance, the Charity Commission may have thought that enabling web based responses was a good idea.

But looking at the number of blog postings, will the Charity Commission be disappointed with the response so far? Perhaps, as is the way with these things, response will increase as the deadline edges closer.

If not, does the volume of postings tell us anything about charities’ engagement with public benefit. Have charities chosen to contact the Charity Commission direct with their views about the public benefit guidance, thus keeping their individual responses away from the public eye? Or does any lack of engagement with this process signal a lack of engagement with the subject of public benefit?

It may be that the challenges involved in running charities in the current climate mean that charity trustees just don’t have the time to respond to this type of initiative. Perhaps public benefit – and guidance about that – just does not feature on any list of priorities for charity trustees. Or is it that charity trustees don’t have the inclination to respond to the consultation, because they don’t think public benefit is relevant for them in the day to day running of their charity? Have they been left with the impression that guidance about public benefit is only relevant for charities that charge fees, given that that is the context in which public benefit issues often appear in news stories.

Whatever the blogs might or might not say about participation in the exercise itself, it is to be hoped that charity trustees do engage in the consultation, given their duty to have regard to the guidance in decisions where the guidance is relevant. If as a charity trustee you find the public benefit guidance difficult to digest, or just difficult, take the opportunity to say so: now is your chance.