Danny Kruger says more private philanthropy is needed to help charities through the pandemic
The MP in charge of reviewing the sector’s role in the UK’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic has said that business has a big role to play, and that more must be done to encourage giving among the super-rich who “give peanuts”.
Danny Kruger, the Conservative MP for Devizes and former charity leader, was being interviewed on Times Radio about the role of business, and how to encourage more giving.
Kruger said the sector was facing a huge crisis in charity fundraising as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and more needed to be done to encourage giving.
“The answer is encourage more private philanthropy, I think the wealthy could give a lot more,” he said. “The super-rich, I’m afraid to say, give peanuts if you spread it out.”
On whether the wealthy should be just taxed more to fund public services, Kruger said:
“By all means but that’s not my responsibility.
“I’m interested in how we can get people directly supporting their own neighbourhoods, and projects close to their heart… and I don’t think it’s appropriate to say the only resource for communities must come through the Treasury.”
Kruger said he thought it was appropriate for people to give directly to their communities and people who wanted to, super rich or not, should be helped to do so.
“Increasingly we are looking at more innovative models, crowdfunding for civic projects, getting people to buy community shares in a local asset that is then owned by the community, match funding or match trading, where if you support your social enterprise there is a scheme where the government will back it with money as well.
“So there are ways public policy can support both philanthropy, and a more entrepreneurial social enterprise approach to supporting the sector.”
The role of business will also be crucial in the post Covid-19 recovery, said Kruger, who called for a much greater emphasis in corporate life on how companies could support local communities, and in a way that was more than just lip service.
“[Businesses should] become proper parts of their community, both through giving in their philanthropy budgets but also by procuring and getting their supplies from small business and charities, and making sure their employees can play a proper role in local communities.”
Kruger spoke of a new theme of purpose that is running through the business world and of the need to back that up with financial action.
“Businesses are recognising they don’t just exist to pass profits up to shareholders, or remote investors, but they should be embedded in their communities, and the prosperity and future success of the company depends on being responsible for their environmental and social impact”.
Almost 60,000 voluntary sector jobs could be lost by the end of the year because of the Covid-19 crisis, new figures show.
Latest results from Pro Bono Economics’ Charity Sector Tracker, which involves research with more than 450 voluntary sector organisations, found that 19 per cent of respondents had already made job cuts and that 23 per cent expected to make further redundancies when the government’s furlough scheme was withdrawn at the end of October.
Pro Bono Economics said 5,400 job losses had already been announced in the charity sector since the start of the pandemic, but it believed the true figure was closer to 25,600 and that a further 34,100 charity sector employees might lose their jobs by the end of the year.
The research, which was conducted in partnership with the Charity Finance Group and the Institute of Fundraising earlier this month, found that while slightly more than two-thirds of charities expected demand for their support to increase over the next six months, 58 per cent said they would be forced to reduce the services they offered over the same period.
More than 70 per cent of respondents think it will take more than a year for income to return to pre-crisis levels and about a quarter said it would take more than two years.
Matt Whittaker, chief executive of Pro Bono Economics, said:
“With the recession biting and unemployment rising, the social sector has never been more needed.
“But an alarming proportion of jobs in the sector are now at risk. That means many of the charity workers who have provided vital support to millions across the country since the start of the Covid-19 crisis are facing a very uncertain future.
“Navigating this period rests in part on getting more resources into the sector, from government, from existing funders and from members of the public.
“But it also rests on reversing the public policy neglect the sector has suffered from over many years.”
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Promoting The Essex Map
As you know; in 2019 we created The Essex Map to help residents discover the groups, services, and activities in their area which focus on community instead of profit. During the coronavirus outbreak we have widened our listings to include organisations which are offering home deliveries of goods and services to people self-isolating in Essex.
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Have you heard of The Essex Map? It’s a free tool designed to help you to find the services, groups, and activities in your area that focus on benefiting the community rather than on making profit. www.EssexMap.co.uk
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More than 5,000 charity workers have already been made redundant due to Covid-19, with arts and health charities taking the biggest hit, new research shows.
The New Philanthropy Capital redundancy monitor collates publicly announced national charity redundancies as a result of the crisis.
The charity think tank hopes to identify which areas are finding it toughest to maintain a fully staffed team as pandemic-related pressures mount up.
The launch of the online tool follows a recent NPC analysis that Britain’s largest charities still face a daunting financial black hole, even with the government help they’ve received, and despite the difficult cost-cutting decisions already made.
The tool shows that more than 3,800 redundancies were made in July alone, with health charities and the arts facing the biggest challenges to keep serving their beneficiaries.
NPC hopes that philanthropists will be able to use the redundancy monitor to target their giving, and allow policy makers to better understand where the sector is really struggling.
Tom Collinge, policy manager at NPC, said the findings were particularly worrying for cancer research and theatres:
“We designed this redundancy monitor to track where the sector is hurting the most. So far, it looks like health charities and the arts are taking the biggest hit, especially cancer research and theatres,”
“We will continue to monitor as new information becomes available, but if this trend continues it will mean less pioneering research which could undermine the fight against cancer, and a major hit to the cultural life of the nation.”
The charity’s three-year strategy also revealed it would have to reduce its spending on research by £150m over the next four to five years.
A number of other major charities have announced in recent weeks that they are anticipating having to make significant redundancies because of the pandemic, including the National Trust, which is cutting up to 1,200 jobs, Oxfam, the British Heart Foundation and the RSPCA.
A third of charities believe they will need to make redundancies over the next year but the figure could be far higher, new research indicates.
Research carried out by the charity leaders body Acevo and the Centre for Mental Health shows 33 per cent of the 85 charities surveyed said they expected to have to make job cuts in the next 12 months.
But a further 36 per cent of respondents said they were unsure if they would have to make redundancies, meaning at worst almost seven in 10 charities could be cutting jobs over the next year.
The results come from polling that the two organisations have been carrying out each month with 85 charities in England and Wales since the coronavirus pandemic began to affect the voluntary sector.
Charities were asked about potential redundancies for the first time in the latest poll.
Kristiana Wrixon, head of policy at Acevo, said:
“It appears that the huge number of redundancy announcements we have seen over the last few weeks are just the tip of the iceberg.
“The Chancellor has said he wants to protect as many jobs as possible, but with only three in 10 respondents saying they do not think they will make redundancies over the next 12 months, it is clear a lot more support is required to protect jobs so that charities can be there for all of us as we feel the impact of what is predicted to be the biggest global economic crisis for almost 100 years.”
The data was collected between 28 July and 3 August.
As organizations like yours race to adapt activities in response to an increased need for your services, we wanted to share a few ways Facebook may be useful in your efforts. In this webinar you will learn: – Ways to fundraise on Facebook and Instagram – How to access Facebook and Instagram Fundraising Tools – Recommended Best Practices We look forward to having you join our session. The Facebook Social Good Team
Charities should take advantage of relaxed laws around board and general meetings, or enact compliance measures, as soon as possible to ensure there are no future governance issues when the provisions end next month, a legal expert has advised.
Speaking to Third Sector, Nicola Evans, charities counsel at the law firm BDP Pitmans, warned organisations must not “bank on the government deciding to extend the 30 September deadline” for postponing AGMs and relaxing rules around general meetings.
The act allows some charities to hold board and members meetings virtually, even if the organisations’ constitutions do not permit it, and includes a relaxing of some corporate governance laws to help organisations deal with the challenges of meeting during the coronavirus pandemic.
It applies to charitable companies, charitable incorporated organisations and community benefit societies, but not to unincorporated organisations.
As well as letting members to attend meetings virtually, flexibility under the act allows for meetings that do not have to be held in a specific physical location, even if a charity’s governing document says that they should be.
It also permits votes to be placed electronically or in a way different from that set out in that charity’s constitution.
In addition, any organisation that was required by its constitution to hold an AGM during the crisis would be able to postpone the meeting until as late as September if necessary.
In June, Third Sector reported that the Charity Commission had updated its guidance after the act received royal assent.
“Coronavirus is having a major impact on charity events and the government’s health advice may lead to some charities having no choice but to decide to cancel or postpone their AGMs and other critical meetings… [temporary changes] make it lawful for charitable companies and charitable incorporated organisations to postpone members’ meetings or to hold them remotely, even if this is not allowed by the charitable company’s articles of association or the CIO’s constitution”
Charity Commission
Some charities that have clauses in their governing documents that allow them to meet virtually or over the phone, are advised to record any decisions made in this way “to demonstrate good governance of your charity”.
“[trustees should] check their governing document and see if they can make amendments themselves to facilitate changes as to how or when meetings are held”
Charity Commission
The guidance applies to any AGMs that were due to be held between 26 March and 21 August, temporarily overriding the timing requirements in a charity’s governing documents.
However, the measures under the act expire on September 30, unless the government believes an extension is necessary.
Evans is concerned that charities who have not yet made use of these provisions should check and review their constitutions as soon as possible:
“There are so many unknowns at the moment, including how long we will need social distancing and where or when any wider lockdown may be put in place.
“We also cannot bank on the government deciding to extend the 30 September deadline for postponing AGMs and relaxing the usual rules for general meetings.
“Charities that can take advantage of these provisions should review their constitutions now to see if they need more flexibility in there to help them operate in the months ahead.
“If so, they can take the opportunity to put changes to the members now in compliance with the relaxed regime. If they wait, the risk is that they lose that chance and give themselves governance problems further down the line.”
During the Learning Technologies Summer Forum 2020 our Project Lead, Emma Wardall, attended a webinar on making online learning accessible to all. Although the focus was on learning, the lessons within this webinar could be applied to any online form of communication.
Below, you can find the presentation from this webinar as well as some useful documents and links:
