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| MACTAGGART
TELLS TRUSTEES TO IMPROVE IMPACT MEASUREMENTS |
25/03/04 |
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Charities
minister Fiona Mactaggart has warned the sector that it must report better
on its social impact in order to successfully diversify future sources of
funding.
Speaking at the 7th annual NCVO Trustee Conference, Mactaggart told more
than 300 delegates that charities suffer from "habits which ought to
change" and that they cannot rely on the upcoming Charities Bill to
solve their problems.
She said: "We have not modernised reporting to sufficiently reflect
the impact we have. Good impact reporting will show you need to invest in
order to achieve ends.
"We should take some risks in terms of the sources of money. One problem
against modernisation is the conspiracy that charities have to pretend that
raising money costs nothing. We should stop that pretence.
"The Charities Bill will build a framework to reinforce confidence,
but it is a platform for you, rather than a solution to the problems.
"The sector is strongest when it is at its most independent, and it
is most independent when it has many sources of income."
The minister also attacked the problems of too many trustees still being
"recruited by word of mouth" and that the majority of them are
"older, maler and whiter" than the communities represented by
the sector.
She commented: "Most of our volunteering programmes do not put emphasis
on leadership and governance. We need to remedy that.
"We do not have the tradition in this country of thrusting young people
having the voluntary sector as part of their career portfolio early on,
as in America. Over here, it tends to become an option later on.
"We want to develop new channels and opportunities, and there are things
we can learn from other sectors and countries."
Earlier, NCVO chair Sir Graham Melmoth told the audience that the voluntary
is facing a "challenging agenda" of change with issues of accountability
and public trust increasing demands upon it.
He said: "It is a tough time and we have to attract high quality leadership
with the appropriate skills. The sector has changed a lot and has an increasing
expectation to fill in the gaps in public service delivery."
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