The last few weeks have seen me making random outbursts at the television and radio. The reason why? Well I’m afraid the run up to the General Election has seen me get more and more annoyed with politicians of all persuasions who have dodged questions or made grand proclamations.
I do enjoy a good bit of political knock about and was fortunate enough to attend the live broadcast of Any Questions organised by Eden Valley Hospice and hosted by the Rheged Centre. Eric Pickles, Chairman of the Conservative party gave a master class in old style political verbal sparring leaving the Health Secretary Andy Burnham reeling on the ropes.
But despite my anger and frustration I know the value of our democracy and opportunities afforded by the political process. My role allows me some insight into the complexities of the political world and I realise that we need politicians skilled in the art of the game.
Young people’s engagement and commentary in the run up to this election has impressed me. If our communities and our democracy are going to thrive we need people with skills and knowledge and passion and a wish to be leaders. We also need people who are able to question and challenge our politicians and local institutions if they are not doing the best they can for us.
Facing a world with less money after this election means we will need creativity, leadership, and vitality. I’m delighted to say that local and national charities provide young people with many opportunities to develop their confidence and skills. I’ve enjoyed judging the Young Farmers public speaking competition in the past and charities like Raleigh International and the Project Trust give young people real life challenges as well as adventures. The Scouting movement has never been more popular and with the support of volunteers through the Girl Guide movement the Community Foundation runs two ‘Youth Banks’. These are groups of young people promoting and managing their own local grant making programme. They learn to make decisions about spending money, manage meetings and consider competing interests and needs.
Some people are uncomfortable with charities becoming involved in the world of politics. Many national charities have produced their own manifestos in an attempt to promote the interests they represent. Although I have some reservations about the power some charities wield because of their wealth I strongly believe that charities should speak out. All charities were created to meet a need and it is entirely legitimate for them to spend their time and resources promoting that need.
What do you think charities role should be in the world of politics?
To engage in debate visit www.cumbriafoundation.org and log into the Director Blog
Thursday 29 April 2010
April's thoughts - exactly how like business are charities?
I was in conversation with a local businessman recently discussing the economic situation and prospects for both our organisations. He said ‘of course it’s different for us in private business’. His inference was that charities somehow had it easy. Charities are seen in a different light from private business and I agree they are different, but my question today is how different?
Charities don’t exist to make profit but they do have objects they want to achieve and funders who measure their success. Perform poorly and the money stops coming in.
Charities may not have shareholders, but they do have stakeholders, people and organisations that use and fund charities activities. Charities ignore their shareholders at their peril.
Competition is often seen as something that happens in a cut throat way between supermarkets and other businesses. However many charities compete with private businesses in the open market for contracts and against each other for support from the public.
The pound in people’s pockets is being spent with greater discernment as a result of the recession, but successful retailers and successful charities have still been able to increase their income and sales.
Globalization and the growth of multi national companies have strongly shaped the business world, but it also is something that affects local charities. We have a slow increase in national charities winning contracts and providing services in the county. But what happens when head office decides Cumbria is no longer a priority and a service closes (as recently happened with a national children’s charity). Our indigenous charities by their very nature, as with our locally owned businesses, retain a loyalty to the people they serve.
Charities need to build brands, develop the markets they serve and sell their services just as private businesses do. Innovations in social care, education and the environmental movement have all come from charities. Many of our charities are as entrepreneurial and quick on their feet as any modern business. They are able to spot an opportunity and respond accordingly. Their investment capital may not come from a bank or the sale of shares, but rather a grant or a legacy.
Businesses and charities all operate under the same legal framework. Charities quite rightly receive no concessions when it comes to the law and health and safety. Charities are exempt from corporation tax but pay VAT like all other businesses.
One area which charities receive significant scrutiny over and which passes almost without comment in the world of business is that of administration costs. No one wants to see money wasted, especially if it’s being given to a charity. However no one asks the check out operator how much does Tesco spend on administration when they buy their groceries. Very rarely does anyone ask ‘is there enough money spent on the management and administration of a charity’. However a lack of administration can be far more dangerous than too much.
I would like charities to be closely scrutinized to check they are using their money well, but with the recognition that they operate in broadly the same world as businesses.
Charities don’t exist to make profit but they do have objects they want to achieve and funders who measure their success. Perform poorly and the money stops coming in.
Charities may not have shareholders, but they do have stakeholders, people and organisations that use and fund charities activities. Charities ignore their shareholders at their peril.
Competition is often seen as something that happens in a cut throat way between supermarkets and other businesses. However many charities compete with private businesses in the open market for contracts and against each other for support from the public.
The pound in people’s pockets is being spent with greater discernment as a result of the recession, but successful retailers and successful charities have still been able to increase their income and sales.
Globalization and the growth of multi national companies have strongly shaped the business world, but it also is something that affects local charities. We have a slow increase in national charities winning contracts and providing services in the county. But what happens when head office decides Cumbria is no longer a priority and a service closes (as recently happened with a national children’s charity). Our indigenous charities by their very nature, as with our locally owned businesses, retain a loyalty to the people they serve.
Charities need to build brands, develop the markets they serve and sell their services just as private businesses do. Innovations in social care, education and the environmental movement have all come from charities. Many of our charities are as entrepreneurial and quick on their feet as any modern business. They are able to spot an opportunity and respond accordingly. Their investment capital may not come from a bank or the sale of shares, but rather a grant or a legacy.
Businesses and charities all operate under the same legal framework. Charities quite rightly receive no concessions when it comes to the law and health and safety. Charities are exempt from corporation tax but pay VAT like all other businesses.
One area which charities receive significant scrutiny over and which passes almost without comment in the world of business is that of administration costs. No one wants to see money wasted, especially if it’s being given to a charity. However no one asks the check out operator how much does Tesco spend on administration when they buy their groceries. Very rarely does anyone ask ‘is there enough money spent on the management and administration of a charity’. However a lack of administration can be far more dangerous than too much.
I would like charities to be closely scrutinized to check they are using their money well, but with the recognition that they operate in broadly the same world as businesses.
Our grant making ethos - do you agree?
Grant aid is the life blood of many charities. The most successful charities draw in millions of pounds in grants. When local people get together to develop a project one of the first questions asked is ‘can we get a grant for this?’
So how do people set out on the journey to find some money for their project and what experience do they have? I run a grant making trust, so this is a subject close to my heart. I’d like to share some tips and hints for people wanting to be successful in their fundraising.
Many applicants are very humble and some approach the exercise as if they were coming forward with a begging bowl. I would like people to be confident, proud and bold in describing what they want to do.
Some funders seem to give the impression that their purpose is to hold onto their funds like grim death. They make their applicants jump through a thousand hoops before, with one last painful gasp; they apply the signature to the grant cheque.
People just need to tell me clearly why they want to run their project, what problem it will address and why their solution is the right one. What budding applicants need to remember is that trusts and foundations exist to give out money. We want to form positive relationships and partnerships with the groups we fund. My own organisation gives out money donated from individuals, businesses and public bodies and I need to be able to tell the people who gave us the money what we’ve been able to achieve in partnership with the groups we fund.
We want an open and honest dialogue with the groups we fund. If things go wrong we want people to tell us so that we can learn together. We report successes and failures to our Grant Committee. If you let us know why things went wrong and what you’re going to different next time then it is more than likely we’ll give you a second chance.
The Community Foundation recently held a celebration with community groups that had benefitted from the £2.5m Nuclear Management Partners Community Fund. The Fund has given out £850,000 to 63 groups and £70,000 to 69 individuals in less than a year. The range of activities supported is fantastic; from young people experimenting with running their own businesses through the Young Enterprise Scheme to Age Concern recruiting and training volunteers to develop new services.
Some of these organisations have received multiple grants from the Community Foundation over the last ten years. A local business leader leaving the event told me how the evening had a real family atmosphere. I asked him what that meant and he said ‘you know them and they know you. Things are always easy between you, but most importantly you care about each other’. I’m delighted we have that type of relationship with the groups we fund and want it to continue that way.
So how do people set out on the journey to find some money for their project and what experience do they have? I run a grant making trust, so this is a subject close to my heart. I’d like to share some tips and hints for people wanting to be successful in their fundraising.
Many applicants are very humble and some approach the exercise as if they were coming forward with a begging bowl. I would like people to be confident, proud and bold in describing what they want to do.
Some funders seem to give the impression that their purpose is to hold onto their funds like grim death. They make their applicants jump through a thousand hoops before, with one last painful gasp; they apply the signature to the grant cheque.
People just need to tell me clearly why they want to run their project, what problem it will address and why their solution is the right one. What budding applicants need to remember is that trusts and foundations exist to give out money. We want to form positive relationships and partnerships with the groups we fund. My own organisation gives out money donated from individuals, businesses and public bodies and I need to be able to tell the people who gave us the money what we’ve been able to achieve in partnership with the groups we fund.
We want an open and honest dialogue with the groups we fund. If things go wrong we want people to tell us so that we can learn together. We report successes and failures to our Grant Committee. If you let us know why things went wrong and what you’re going to different next time then it is more than likely we’ll give you a second chance.
The Community Foundation recently held a celebration with community groups that had benefitted from the £2.5m Nuclear Management Partners Community Fund. The Fund has given out £850,000 to 63 groups and £70,000 to 69 individuals in less than a year. The range of activities supported is fantastic; from young people experimenting with running their own businesses through the Young Enterprise Scheme to Age Concern recruiting and training volunteers to develop new services.
Some of these organisations have received multiple grants from the Community Foundation over the last ten years. A local business leader leaving the event told me how the evening had a real family atmosphere. I asked him what that meant and he said ‘you know them and they know you. Things are always easy between you, but most importantly you care about each other’. I’m delighted we have that type of relationship with the groups we fund and want it to continue that way.
Thoughts for February 2010
I’ve spent three months away from Cumbria and returned to a county once again rocked by disasters. The resilience of our communities has once again been tested.
The Community Foundation has run the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund and we are close to collecting £2m for the appeal. Over four hundred people have had support from the Fund and more than £650,000 distributed. The generosity of Cumbrian people and businesses has been evidenced again and I’d like to say a huge thank you.
Whilst away I travelled in Morocco and Australia and what we have experienced is sadly not unique. These countries have experienced extremes of weather. Australia has had both drought and floods and communities I visited on the edge of the Sahara had gone seven years without normal rainfall.
The shared theme in all three communities has been people’s wish to help and common humanity. I think this wish to help is in part stimulated by an understanding of suffering and what it means not to have things.
I travelled in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco with a group of University students. It was very interesting to see how these young men lived their lives. All of them were poor by any standard you would use in the UK. However they threw themselves at life with vigour and energy. They were particularly keen to learn and improve themselves. I know University students in the UK have to work hard to earn money to minimize their debts, but I’m not sure I’ve met students here with such zeal for self improvement.
These young men were also imbued with the strongest traditions of hospitality. Any food or shelter was shared. In a country where people have so little, what people do have is shared. People would not consider driving past someone stood by the road if they had room in their car. My student friends told me how they hitch hiked across the country, often being given food and money by the people who gave them lifts.
I think extreme events remind people of what they can do. But in such a relatively comfortable country, where much of the need is subtle or hidden we do not so easily the need or know what can be done.
Barclays Bank supported six awards for ‘flood heroes’. Five of the awards went to groups and organisations and the sixth went to a member of the public who stopped and picked up a wet and disheveled flood victim who was walking home along a busy main road in the dark. This person stopped, picked the person up and kept in contact with them, making sure that all of the help possible was made available to them. The actions of this ‘hero’ were quite rightly praised. But should they be viewed as so exceptional?
We learn how much we need our neighbours and local charities when the skies empty for hours on end and threaten our homes, but do we think about them when the sun shines?
The Community Foundation has run the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund and we are close to collecting £2m for the appeal. Over four hundred people have had support from the Fund and more than £650,000 distributed. The generosity of Cumbrian people and businesses has been evidenced again and I’d like to say a huge thank you.
Whilst away I travelled in Morocco and Australia and what we have experienced is sadly not unique. These countries have experienced extremes of weather. Australia has had both drought and floods and communities I visited on the edge of the Sahara had gone seven years without normal rainfall.
The shared theme in all three communities has been people’s wish to help and common humanity. I think this wish to help is in part stimulated by an understanding of suffering and what it means not to have things.
I travelled in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco with a group of University students. It was very interesting to see how these young men lived their lives. All of them were poor by any standard you would use in the UK. However they threw themselves at life with vigour and energy. They were particularly keen to learn and improve themselves. I know University students in the UK have to work hard to earn money to minimize their debts, but I’m not sure I’ve met students here with such zeal for self improvement.
These young men were also imbued with the strongest traditions of hospitality. Any food or shelter was shared. In a country where people have so little, what people do have is shared. People would not consider driving past someone stood by the road if they had room in their car. My student friends told me how they hitch hiked across the country, often being given food and money by the people who gave them lifts.
I think extreme events remind people of what they can do. But in such a relatively comfortable country, where much of the need is subtle or hidden we do not so easily the need or know what can be done.
Barclays Bank supported six awards for ‘flood heroes’. Five of the awards went to groups and organisations and the sixth went to a member of the public who stopped and picked up a wet and disheveled flood victim who was walking home along a busy main road in the dark. This person stopped, picked the person up and kept in contact with them, making sure that all of the help possible was made available to them. The actions of this ‘hero’ were quite rightly praised. But should they be viewed as so exceptional?
We learn how much we need our neighbours and local charities when the skies empty for hours on end and threaten our homes, but do we think about them when the sun shines?
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