OxFizz attended the National Council for Voluntary Organisations Annual Conference a few weeks back in the plush surroundings of The Brewery in the heart of the city of London.
The conference marked the 90th anniversary of NCVO and rarely during these years has the charity sector faced a more worrying time. Indeed, while the theme was ‘Civil Society: Building trust in uncertain times’, much of the talk at the conference focused on the uncertain times rather than building trust.
The relationship between ‘trust’ and ‘uncertainty’ is an interesting one: given the economic times we live in, and in the midst of a barrage of criticism at big business and government, will faith in the third sector increase? nfpSynergy’s research late last year (though before the full impact of the recession) suggests:
As keynote speaker Vincent Cable MP said at the conference, demand for services charities provide has increased substantially in the past year. ACEVO and CAF state:
Many of these people have never had to rely on these services before. Perhaps the increase in usage has led to an increase in recognition of the values of these services.
And yet at the same time as demand increases, resources are declining. PWC estimates that:
Neil Parker, an Economist at RBS predicts:
But perhaps it’s not all doom and gloom. Some critics such as Iain Duncan Smith MP at the excellent Centre for Social Justice think the sector, and in particular some bigger charities, have become too bloated. According to the Charity Commission, in 2008:
Perhaps this shock to the system will increase efficiency.
But there is a worry that the charities that will be hardest hit are the smaller community groups. 47% of registered charities (79,183 at the end of 2008) have an annual income below £10,000. Many of these are struggling. OxFizz is passionate about supporting these charities, and we encourage our volunteers to consider supporting smaller, local charities. Some, such as Geraldine Peacock, former Chair of the Charity Commission (who once reportedly said ‘You could get rid of 90,000 charities from the register. Less is more. Having that many confuses the public’) might think the death or merging of some of these charities is a good thing. But one of the beauties of the voluntary sector is its variety, and many charities provide grassroots solutions to local problems, something the Directory of Social Change agrees with.
There may be another benefit to this recession, and the final word goes to Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of NCVO, who ended his conference speech by saying:
More information on the conference can be found here.
All views expressed on this blog are the opinions of their respective authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of OxFizz.