One of my pet hates in fundraising was Charity of Year bids. The time and energy it took to win the competition was extraordinary and having to prove how much more deserving we were than all the other charities was something I dreaded. And, let’s not forget, even if you won the bid, you knew that you were going to lose it in 365 days time and you would have to start all over again. It’s a poor use of charity time and rarely generates significant income in relation to their expenditure. The most fulfilling and productive relationships with businesses are where they lend their brand and PR machinery to promote and publicise the charity on a longer-term basis. YCR’s partnership with Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) was a game-changer. For two years YCCC gave us high profile partnership status alongside all their corporate sponsors, we took supporters and volunteers to high profile matches and had tremendous support from household name players and senior management. They supported us by letting us run sun protection and education programmes for junior cricketers at local clubs and their enormous influence helped to spread the word about the charity. It worked brilliantly and was the catalyst for inspiring another partnership delivering cancer rehabilitation programmes with specially trained coaches at Leeds Rhinos Rugby League Club.
I do not believe in charity consolidation. In my view, this goes against the whole basis of what charities are there for. We must not fall into the trap of thinking that one mega charity can or should provide all medical research funding for cancer, or heart disease or diabetes more efficiently. Without smaller charities we would become a much poorer and less responsible society so we should find ways to help make running these charities easier (and therefore less corporate) so that they can provide more even services to their beneficiaries. You have said in the past that there are untapped opportunities for creating meaningful partnerships between businesses and charities? How do you see business and the third sector coming together? It’s really important to recognise that it’s not just about money! Businesses can work with charities in many other different ways and most of them are more valuable than small amounts of fundraising from coffee mornings or fun runs. Low level fundraising is helpful because money is always in short-supply, especially for local charities, but realistically, it’s not enough.
It’s a sad fact that criticism of charities in the media has damaged the reputation of the sector and made it increasingly difficult to raise funds. Charity-fatigue is a real problem and mass marketing campaigns will suck money out of local communities and into national charities leaving local charities struggling to make ends meet. These small local charities do phenomenal work on a shoe-string, the ratio of staff to volunteers is completely different and they are heavily reliant on grant income or small fundraising events. They cannot afford to be “more corporate” and yet, they are governed by exactly the same rules as the very largest charities. And it’s not just charity regulation either, they are also subject to laws and regulation relating to health and safety, employment, tax, the environment and many fall under the Companies Act as well. It is a very difficult job running a charity and the Trustees and Management Team deserve a lot more credit than they get. Are they all going to become more corporate? No, the very biggest will have to, but most of the rest cannot afford to and don’t have the staff or expertise to go down this route. The risk is that the biggest charities will get even bigger and there is a constant clamour from red-top newspapers for consolidation and for smaller charities to merge into a larger one. Health research is a common example and one that I saw and felt many times especially from government officials and national institutions.
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