Originally published by charitytimes: www.charitytimes.com
Written by Lauren Weymouth
13/03/19
There must be a revolution in the charity sector to ensure it is fit for the 21st Century, feminist activist Esuantsiwa Jane Goldsmith has said.
Speaking at ICSA: The Governance Institute’s annual Charity Governance Conference on Friday 8 March, Goldsmith, who is the director of Anona Development Consultancy, claimed “business as usual won’t do anymore”.
“We are doing our best; but is it fit for the 21st Century?” she told delegates, calling for boards to “be the change we want to see”.
Goldsmith urged boards to be diverse and more inclusive, as well as participatory and active. She said added value and shared leadership are also essential is the sector is to improve.
She added that in order to meet the challenges of the 21st Century, the sector must “respond with imagination and creativity, transformatory leadership, new structures and new ways of working”.
“We have inherited a very special space, very precious, essential to democracy and for citizen’s empowerment, and we should guard it with our lives. Expand it, share power and leadership, champion a new generation. Make it fit for the 21st Century. To do this, we have to be clear about our rootedness, our role, and what we stand for. We need a new narrative, new purposes, different language and fresh concepts.”
She suggested the sector needs to change in the following ways:
• Ditch the notion of ‘charity’ dispensed by the great and the good – and the rich
Become part of an international solidarity movement, of equal partners, led by our values, and by people with lived experience of diversity, poverty and disadvantage.
• Share power
Become powerful by making those around us feel empowered and respected. Seek power with others instead of power over others.
• Diversity literacy
Representative, participatory board members reflecting the societies in which our organisations work.
• Build new relationships
Tear down the distinction between donor and beneficiary; we are all beneficiaries of a better world.
• Speak truth to power
Be bold. Reconnect with our roots. Big up our sector and the people who work within it, build on what we have, standing on the shoulders of giants and amazons.
She also claimed a different vision should be created for the board, which would include not calling it ‘a board’.
“It should be more of a citizens advisory group of critical friends and activists, user-led, accountable, inclusive; a sounding-board if you like,” she said.
She added that sounding-boards will be ‘leaders of change’, playing a strong leadership role in achieving social change by what they do, who they are, what they represent, and their relationship to their organisations.
Furthermore, Goldsmith said there should be new ways of working, such as emphasising teamwork, collaboration and activism. This would incorporate self-care, collective care and self-awareness about the impact we have on others.
Diverse board members is also essential to building better boards, she said, which should be “connected to activism in the local community, reflecting the societies in which we are living and working.”
“Social justice organisations should pay board members an honorarium – otherwise how can ordinary people afford to serve?” she added.
Finally, she stressed boards must “lead by example”, which means being less hierarchical and more responsive, with systems and structures that recognise, respect and work alongside the power of communities.
Originally published by charitytimes: www.charitytimes.com
Written by Mark Evans
12/03/19
Trust in charities is highly variable between different countries, with the US currently possessing high levels of trust, while the Netherlands and South Korea have much lower levels.
Not only is trust geographically effected, but trust can rise and fall rapidly, an example of which is Ireland, where trust has gone from very high levels to comparatively low, dropping from 74 per cent to 48 per cent across only six years.
In the UK, trust resides at 52 per cent, joint second with New Zealand to the US (56 per cent), and ahead of Australia (51 per cent), Canada (49 per cent), Ireland (48 per cent), Germany (45 per cent), Netherlands (46 per cent) and South Korea (26 per cent).
These are some of the key findings in a report from nfpSynergy and Australia’s More Strategic that analyse the global attitudes towards charity. The report, Fundraising Around the World, considers the factors affecting public support for charities and fundraising across nine countries, finding patterns of similarity as well as differences.
The impact of different causes varies greatly between countries, with environmental charities standing out as being more prominent in non-Anglophone European Germany and the Netherlands, where trust is in general also lower.
However across all countries, one repeating pattern is that women and higher social grades tend to be stronger supporters of charities, while men are likely to be significantly more annoyed by fundraising tactics. Likewise, older people and higher value donors are in a place of dynamic tension, with high enthusiasm for donating and high levels of giving, but often also feeling hugely under pressure and overwhelmed by the requests they receive.
Particularly considering the UK, where trust in charities has been highly volatile over the period considered (six years) in contrast to high-trust institutions such as the armed forces or low-trust ones such as political parties.
Trust remains a vital indicator of fundraising success. An overwhelming majority of those from the US (79 per cent) reported that donating made them feel good, compared to around half in Germany (47 per cent) and the Netherlands (50 per cent). South Korea appears to be an outlier here, with a high percentage enjoying giving, but with low trust levels.
However in most countries there is a feeling that donors are overwhelmed by the number of requests – with Australia, the UK and New Zealand donors likely to be most sensitive to this and representing over half of the respondents. Only in Germany and South Korea is this less than a majority.
A part of the trust issue might also appear to be linked to communication, with a significantly higher proportion of those from the US likely to say that they feel charities respect them and keep them informed about where their money goes when compared to other countries. This would imply that charities around the world can learn from the example of US charities in their treatment of donors and in their communication of their impact.
Of course, controversies will have an impact upon trust. Take Ireland, for example, which has had a striking drop in trust in recent years and is a reflection of the confidence that Irish people have in how charities themselves are run. Just 30 per cent of respondents in Ireland believe that charities are ethical and honest, compared to over 50 per cent in the US, Australia and New Zealand.
Causes will, naturally, have an impact, and this too varies geographically, but to a far lesser degree than might be predicted. There was a substantial level of similarity between countries with cancer tending to be the most popular cause in most countries (with the exception of the US and especially South Korea and Germany), while children/young people was often the second most popular cause for favourite charities, with animals also tending to be high on the list.
Equally interesting is how armed forces are very popular in the US and the UK, but not Canada, New Zealand or Australia, despite the shared military history in many of the twentieth century’s major armed conflicts.
Trust is vital, it might vary, but achieving it is not only about possession of ethics and efficiency, but also an issue of communication. Although there are differences between the structures in the countries surveyed, there are similarities that allow each to learn from each other.
Originally published by charitytimes: www.charitytimes.com
Written by Lauren Weymouth
11/03/19
Charity chief executives work an average of three months a year for free, a new ACEVO survey has revealed.
The ACEVO annual Pay and Equalities Survey 2019 has revealed CEOs work on average 10 additional hours per week, equivalent to around three months a year.
ACEVO chief executive Vicky Browning claims this can “seriously impact wellbeing and even lead to burnout”, highlighting the need for trustees to ensure they take seriously their duty of care to the CEO as well as to beneficiaries.
“Most CEOs in our sector see leading their organisations as a privilege. Long hours are often accepted as a symptom of limited resources facing unlimited demand. But working an extra one and a half days over the standard five can seriously impact wellbeing and even lead to burnout,” she said.
Many CEOs are also being paid less than when the survey first began, with the average salary standing at £52,000, compared to a high of £60,000 in 2013.
Furthermore, the survey found over a third of charity CEOs (35%) have no regular appraisal. This improves as the organisation size grows, with only 16% of large charities but 44% of small charity CEOs having no appraisal.
However, 68% of small charities offer flexible working compared to only 46% of charities with an income of over 15m, results showed.
Diversity continues to be an issue among charity leaders, with BAME respondents accounting for just 6 per cent, despite one quarter of respondents residing in London, which has a higher percentage of BAME residents than the country as a whole.
The number of disabled CEOs was also under representative, and despite the number of female respondents having increased, the data indicates this is broadly limited to white, non-disabled women.
The survey found there still remains a gender pay gap of 13.8%. ACEVO said It is not possible to identify a reason for this but cumulatively slightly more male CEOs in large charities, in older age brackets and with post-graduate qualifications may be having an effect.
“It is positive to see the percentage of female CEOs better reflect the voluntary sector workforce. But as in previous years the percentage of female and male BAME CEOs is too low, as is the number of disabled CEOs,” Browning said.
“The Pay and Equalities survey shows us that more needs to be done ensure all charities are supportive and inclusive workplaces that enable CEOs and staff to thrive and better meet their charitable mission.”
The UK will leave the EU on 29 March 2019. If there is no deal in place, this would impact how organisations exchange personal data.
Although the UK’s own data protection standards would remain the same (the GDPR will come into our domestic law), there would be changes to how personal data transferred from the EU/EEA to the UK. This could affect your organisation.
It is important for organisations, as a priority, to review whether they would be affected. For those that would be affected, practical advice and support from the ICO is available here, including ‘Six Steps to Take’ to help you understand the implications and prepare.
Other information on how leaving the EU may affect your organisation, and what you can do to get ready, is available gov.uk/euexithere.
Originally published by charitytimes: www.charitytimes.com
Written by Peter Lewis
05/03/19
Values are the bedrock of what we, as charities, do. Every charity is set up for public benefit, to make a positive difference to the lives of communities and individuals, whether here in the UK or internationally.
Our organisations are founded on the principle of doing good and that drives us to deliver the best we can for the causes we serve. But values for charities aren’t just an expression of what we do. They have to guide how we do it, the culture that our organisations adopt, and the way we work with our beneficiaries, supporters, staff and volunteers. Being values-driven and taking an ethical approach is not about just achieving an outcome – it’s about a way of working that demonstrates and embeds the values and behaviours that we know are important.
We rightly set out our ethics and values as higher than those of the private sector, and this means that when our behaviours fall below these standards, our approach and practices are justifiably put in the spotlight.
The safeguarding failures which came into sharp relief in 2018 has led to a huge amount of work, at all levels across the sector, to reflect on how we need to do better.
The Charity Ethical Principles published by NCVO in January, which I was pleased to contribute to on behalf of the Institute of Fundraising, was an interesting process to agree a common vision of the ethical principles that should be at the heart of how all charities work.
In the fundraising community itself, following the poor practices that were brought to light in 2015, I’ve seen charities all across the UK taking steps to think carefully about their approaches, revising and refreshing their policies, and taking real action to ensure their values are at the heart of everything they do.
But sometimes we can look at the charity sector in a bit of a bubble. We should remember that at least some in the business sector are seeing values and ethics as increasingly important for their future success, with some even giving heads of ethics a seat in the boardroom.
The Institute of Business Ethics, reporting on the biggest issues of concern in 2018, found that those relating to treatment of employees, behaviour, and culture were by far the most reported areas of ‘ethical lapses’ over the course of the year. The recent Edelman Trust Barometer research also reflects just how important trust and values are, not just to the external world, but also to your employees themselves.
Through our work at the Institute of Fundraising in equality, diversity and inclusion, we have found that in many ways the private sector is ahead of the charity sector. This is true when it comes to reaching out to diverse communities, creating inclusive workplaces that attract the best talent, as well as retaining and developing people based solely on merit.
Inevitably, there are always going to be questions we need to keep asking of ourselves within the charity sector. What kind of organisations do we aspire to be? How do we want to be embedded in our local communities? How representative are we of the communities we serve? How can we make our fundraising teams as diverse and inclusive as possible? How do we care for and support our teams of staff and volunteers? And of course, how do we continue to deliver excellent fundraising for our supporters and beneficiaries?
The key is to never think we found the answer and stick to it. We have to continue to pay attention to how society is changing around us and challenge ourselves, not just in relation to our vision of what we want to achieve but also how we want to get there.
That is the same for us at the IoF, as it is for one of our largest charities in the UK or for a small local charity. The continued restlessness to always do better for our causes should be equally applied to the way in which we pursue those objectives.
Peter Lewis is chief executive of the Institute of Fundraising
Essex has been awarded a “game-changing” National Lottery grant of £10.68 million from Sport England to increase activity levels across Essex. The three-year plan will tackle the inequalities that prevent 391,600 people in Essex from enjoying the physical, social and mental health benefits of an active lifestyle.
The successful bid was made by the Essex Local Delivery Pilot (Essex LDP), which is led by the Essex Health and Wellbeing Board, Active Essex, and more than 20 partner organisations.
It is accepted that previous approaches to tackling stubborn inactivity have had mixed results and not been sustainable, so the Essex plan focuses on doing things differently and challenging the root causes of inactivity.
Essex’s exciting plans include:
Getting local passionate people involved, who want to create activities in their areas
Creating active parks, coastal paths and new walking and cycling routes
Easy access small grants and support for community projects
Investing in successful voluntary groups and charities to scale up their activities
Training people in voluntary as well as paid roles, creating thousands of new volunteers, leaders and coaches
Brightening up buildings, streets and parks to make them attractive places to be active
World class measurement and evaluation which will be shared UK-wide
Free resources to help charities promote and engage with donors in the digital world
Social platforms, media networks and your very own website are amongst the most popular and effective ways of raising awareness of your charity, whilst allowing users to engage with your organisation, with ease. There is an abundance of digital solutions to help maximise your online potential, but knowing where to start can be confusing. It can be difficult to get an overview of what’s effective. We investigated and found notable services that are useful and free for charities for you to tap into.
Google Ad Grants gives charities up to $10,000 per month for in-kind advertising on Google, allowing your advertisements to be seen by your target audience. The creator of the ad then has complete control of where it can be seen, whether that’s locally or internationally.
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are still some of the top social media platforms when it comes to amount of users. Being present on social media is becoming an increasing crucial thing for your charity. Using social media connects with your donors and beneficiaries easily and helps promote your cause. You can post updates for your donors and let them know where and how their donations are being spent. Facebook introduced a range of Charitable Giving tools, like a donate button which allows users to make donations through their platform. It’s also free (for now). Charities using Facebook’s payment platform to process donations pay no fee. Facebook also offers courses through Facebook Business, which teaches you how to be more successful with their platform (much of the learning they offer is transferrable to the charity world).
Instagram is also working on introducing a donate button via their Instagram stories function that appeared in the last year – so watch that space.
Read this NCVO blog on how to make the most out of Twitter to promote your cause and increase your income from online fundraising.
Pressat
Press releases can give your cause instant exposure to the media, increase the effectiveness of your marketing plans and drive traffic to your website. Pressat is a commercial press agency, but it allows charities to send out press releases for free. Simply sign up with them and submit your press release to be distributed.
Media Trust
Media Trust is a communications charity that works with the media and communication industry to help other charities. They connect industry professionals with charities around specific projects through skills-based volunteering. They also provide media and communication training courses for charities. In addition with capacity building programmes for marginalised communities and empowering young people from diverse backgrounds to work in media.
CAST
CAST works with non-profits when it comes to anything digital. They support you in building your organisation’s digital capacity. Their 12 week Fuse programme helps charities to develop digital products or services to take to pilot. They also help charities develop their own digital solutions through their Design Hop workshops. CAST also offers training on how to learn more about your audience; testing ideas to end-to-end service plans, and uncovering financial value and sustainability of your digital services.
Check out our training courses on fundraising here.
As the digital world keeps advancing, charities need to be able to reach potential donors through different platforms
Technology seems to be advancing every day. Charities are aware they need technology to keep going. This applies more so to fundraising activity. The increased use of contactless payments via cards and phones also has an impact on charity fundraising and how donations are processed. The world is going more and more ‘paperless’ and ‘cashless.’ But this also provides new options for people who want to donate to your charity.
With so many areas affected by digital change, it can be a daunting task to start. Having someone be a digital lead, either on the board of trustees or among charity staff can help. But here are some affordable solutions which can be quickly applied and help you ease into the topic.
Setting up our own online fundraising page
One obvious way for smaller charities is to include a donate button on their website or any social media platform they use. This button transfers people to a ‘make a donation’ page. You can add this feature to your charity’s website by using nowdonate.com, which is completely free for charities. They help charities process donations through the tools they provide.
Consumers can donate to you when making purchases online
A significant example that made headlines recently was AmazonSmile. Users can select from a list of charities that have enrolled in the programme. Amazon will donate 0.5% of the net purchase price of purchases to the selected charities. Since its start, over 2000 charities have signed up to it.
There is also a range of apps that allow users to donate to various charities when making everyday purchases. ‘Give as you live’ works with registered charities and is completely free for those charities. They offer charities their own join page, marketing toolkit to help spread awareness to supporters, and a personal account manager. ‘Pennies’ is a completely free way of collecting donations that works online. They allow donors to top up any purchases they make and having the difference be donated. This allows donations to be made anywhere whether online or in a store that has partnered with your charity. It’s a simple check box when people are making a payment that is completely optional for users. ‘Virgin Money Giving’ gives you tools to create fundraising, in-memory, and campaign and appeal pages, as well as donate buttons for websites and allows you to manage your own data. However, it is not free. It charges a £100 + VAT set up fee and 2% commission on donations, as well as credit/debit card fees.
Crowdfunding and match funding for smaller charities
Platforms like The Good Exchange and Localgiving can help many smaller charities to raise funds online.
The Good Exchange connects projects requiring funding with funders via a transparent matching system using a single application form. Each project can also receive crowdfunding and some of the donors offer match-funding grants which allows charities to receive double the number of funds. Their services are completely free. You just need to fill out an application.
Localgiving is an online fundraising platform especially for local charities. This platform offers a range of services, such as setting up a fundraising page, match funding campaigns, crowdfunding for projects and help with setting up local business partnerships. It comes with some additional benefits for small charities. It is the only online giving platform that allows unregistered charities and community groups to benefit from Gift Aid. They also offer free training workshops, webinars and resources such as teaching online fundraising and digital marketing. Joining the Localgiving network costs £80 + VAT and there is a 5% commission on online donations.
Text donations
DONATE allows charities to send texts with a key word to donors which can text back to make a donation from £1 to £30. It’s completely free for charities to use as there aren’t any monthly charges and donors can do it as a one-time option or opt for a monthly donation.
Donr offers text donations and secure donations via smartphones by using your debit/credit card or via Apple Pay and Google Pay. It offers support for charities to help promote their cause get donations. There are no joining fees or monthly fees but they do charge 5% per donation (plus card processing fees).
Online fundraising platforms that offer integrated online payment systems
KindLink is an online payment platform that shows donors the impact of their donations and allows charities to organise supporters, donations and beneficiary records in one platform. It is a free online payment system for charities which only charges 1.3% flat in bank fees and no other cost for managing your donations.
Charity Checkout helps is charity payment solution that enables small and medium size charities to accept donations online. It has over 3,000 registered charities and allows for building your own website with your fundraising in mind and collecting donations online. They offer up a two-thirds discount for small charities, however, they do have a fee starting at £20/month plus 5% on donations.
Researching for funds online has become easier
Funds Online is also a good place to go when seeking places to receive funds. With combining the four previous websites into one, it makes it easier to find the funds you are looking for. Up to 8,000 funders giving £8 billion, all on one website. Funds Online combines data from four previous funding websites – Trustfunding.org.uk, Governmentfunding.org.uk, Companygiving.org.uk and Grantsforindividuals.org.uk – all into one website.
Essex’s first ever Fire and Rescue Plan was officially launched on Friday 1 March, setting out the vision and priorities for the delivery of fire and rescue services in Essex.
The plan runs from 2019 to 2024 and is the basis on which Roger Hirst, the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) holds Essex County Fire and Rescue Service to account for its performance. The document mirrors the Police and Crime Plan, which sets the priorities for policing in Essex.
It is not only a first for Essex, but is the first Fire and Rescue Plan in the country produced by a Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.
Roger said: “I have developed this plan with input from all of those groups and individuals who work in, alongside and with Essex County Fire and Rescue Service. The priorities in the plan reflect what the people of Essex expect from their fire and rescue service.”
The eight priorities are:
• Enhance prevention, protection and response
• Promote a positive culture in the workplace
• Develop and broaden the roles and range of activities undertaken by the Service
• Help the vulnerable to stay safe
• Collaborate with our partners
• Be transparent, open and accessible
• Improve safety on our roads
• Make best use of our resources.
Originally published by charitytimes: www.charitytimes.com
Written by Lauren Weymouth
18/02/19
Charity leaders’ membership body ACEVO and Centre for Mental Health have partnered to research bullying among leadership in the third sector.
The project, Leading safe cultures: eliminating workplace bullying in charity leadership, aims to understand the conditions in which bullying occurs in the charity sector, its effects on individuals and why bullying can continue for significant periods of time unchecked.
It has been funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as part of a wider programme called ‘Protecting people from harm’, which was launched in response to reports of sexual exploitation within the third sector last year.
The project calls for people who feel able to share their experiences to complete a confidential online questionnaire, and are also seeking to conduct in-depth interviews with individuals who have experienced bullying in the sector.
It will focus on bullying that has taken place within the last five years, with a specific focus on the role of leadership and culture in bullying behaviour.
“Bullying unfortunately occurs in all kinds of workplaces; it is not a problem specific to the charity sector,” ACEVO chief executive Vicky Browning said.
“However, in order to address it effectively within our sector we need to shine a light on it. This self-reflection will not always be comfortable but it is necessary to build a stronger sector, and more importantly to ensure the wellbeing of the staff and volunteers without whom charities would be unable to achieve their mission.
“We are pleased to be partnering with Centre for Mental Health, which is an expert at conducting high quality, impactful research in a way that is supportive of participants’ emotional wellbeing.”
Centre for Mental Health CEO Sarah Hughes added: “Bullying in any setting is a major cause of poor mental health as well as undermining an organisation’s performance. We are pleased to be working with ACEVO to bring about a greater understanding of what puts people at risk of bullying and what can be done to change this. Facing up to this sensitive topic is essential to support charities to prevent and tackle bullying at work in what are often difficult circumstances.”
You can respond to the survey here. All responses will be treated confidentially.