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| CHARITIES
MUST GET HOUSE IN ORDER TO SEE CULTURE OF GIVING |
19/04/04 |
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Charities must develop better fundraising techniques and increase transparency
if they ever want to see a culture of giving take root amongst the wealthy,
according to research by the Giving Campaign released last night.
The research was launched to coincide with last night's debate hosted by
the Giving Campaign, A wealth of opportunity: persuading the better-off
to give more. While panellists such as Lord Phillips of Sudbury urged
charities to help promote a change in culture, interviews with current and
lapsed donors conducted for the Campaign suggested more mundane steps would
yield significant returns.
NCVO director of policy Campbell Robb, chairing the debate, outlined the
key findings, which showed:
- The rich often do not feel as affluent as they are perceived;
- donors want to know that their money is well spent; and
- that the "ask" from the charity is crucial. "If you ask for £3 a month,
that's all they will give," said Robb.
Lord Phillips of Sudbury opened the debate pointing to various factors hindering
giving, including the "rise of rabid materialism" and decline of religion.
These should be addressed, he argued. "It's plain to me that in a very simple
way giving is a learnt process. We take it in on our mothers knee," he told
the audience. "We mustn't be sanctimonious but I do believe that there is
an obligation to give something back – particularly on the rich."
Joe Saxton, driver of ideas at non-profit sector think-tank nfpSynergy,
urged charities to look closer to home, however. He argued that the quest
to instil a "culture of giving" amongst the nation's wealthy was doomed
to failure and the key to increasing giving was better marketing techniques.
"The real way to develop a better 'culture of giving' is to help charities
to get better at asking," he said. "If you ask better, you get more money;
if you don't ask at all you get very little."
There was much else the charity sector could do to help itself, according
to the panellists. Director general of Help the Aged, Michael Lake called
for greater cooperation and mergers in the sector, arguing that its diversity
both confused the public and led to a perception of inefficiency. The sector
had become, "too diverse and too self indulgent in its growth," he said.
"Surely an argument exists here for getting charities to work together more
routinely and to merge where a case can be made for it." Better reporting
and greater accountability brought about by initiatives such as Guidestar
would also help.
Entrepreneur and philanthropist Dame Stephanie Shirley, meanwhile, urged
charities to look to their performance, warning that she was looking for
evidence of both innovation and effectiveness in deciding which projects
to support. "I never just write a cheque, because I believe doing so demeans
both me and them."
Yet incompetence and complacency remained widespread, she suggested. "As
a grant giver, I try to be effective, but some of the charities are totally
ineffective," she told the audience. She later revealed that she was
"still smarting from a casual postscript" from one charity thanking
her for her cheque – following a donation of £100,000.
Click on our "Research" to follow a link to the full report
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