Charities do amazing work. They reduce poverty, they cure cancer, they save the environment, and a host of other amazing things. But is this both their greatest strength and greatest weakness?   The problem is not whether the quality of their work is good, but the quantity, the scale of it. In other words, no matter how good any individual charity they aren’t big enough to make a difference.  If you want any proof of the diminutive impact of charities, then the fact that we a

I put a post on LinkedIn in February asking who or what the organisations were that helped social entrepreneurs. I got a fantastic range of responses, so I thought I would collate them into a single post. Here they are.  I have put them roughly in the order they came through in the comments, though more regional ventures are at the end. Apologies if I have missed any organisations.   School for Social Entrepreneurs The School for Social Entrepreneurs is one of the powerhouses

Introduction This is a trustee recruitment information pack for the Calypso Browning Trust. We are a small grant-maker that gives away approximately £30k a year to animal welfare and homelessness causes. We have two trustees, Joe Saxton and Vicky Browning, who have both been trustees for a decent length of time, and it's time to plan for succession. This recruitment information is designed to attract a new influx of trustees and initiate the process of Vicky and Joe stepping

Introduction The sad reality of today’s world for UK charities and non-profit organisations is that funding is in short supply. Government funding is decreasing, grant-makers are under increased pressure, and public fundraising has been hit by a range of setbacks. So when an organisation doesn’t have the money, it needs to do the work it wants to do. What are the options? I think there are eight ways to respond, including two that look at increased funding. But the sad realit

For as long as I can remember, charities have worried about what to call our sector. Over the years, I have seen all sorts of variants. Here are some and their flaws: ·      Charity sector – but misses out non-profits that aren’t charities ·      Third Sector – why have we relegated ourselves to third ·      Social Sector – doesn’t really include large chunks of charities ·      Civil Society – hard to add a ‘sector’ to that, without getting tongue-tied ·      Voluntary S

Introduction It's easy to measure the success of a company – profit, turnover, share price – to name but 3 ways. It is much harder to...

If charities and non-profits are to succeed, to thrive, in today’s challenging world, then we need our key stakeholders to see us in the...

Introduction We now have a covenant in place between the sector and the government for our relationship with them. Anybody who thinks...

I am not a fan of the new sector Covenant with the government. I have been trying to work out why it makes me so queasy. I think there...

Charity lotteries are a really important part of the fundraising landscape for charities and other non-profits. Put alongside the money...

Whenever I talk to chairs and trustees there are certain things that set my alarm bells ringing. Things that are likely to mean that the...

Our family started on a journey to de-carbonise our house about 8 years ago. When we redid the roof, we put in 12 solar panels. We were...

I don’t like charities having reserves. I don’t like charities having money set aside for some future ‘rainy day’ rather than using here...

Grant-makers are under pressure. The number of applications are going up while the funds aren’t, and the needs of (smaller) charities and...

I am a fairly obsessive follower of US politics. I listen to the podcasts, read the articles, follow the polls and more. I have always...

This is the first in a series of briefings about how the impact of various changes in the social, technological and economic world will...

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I listened to a charity trustee the other day, saying how we shouldn’t talk about charities being competitors. They should be in...

A few weeks after the UK general election, now is a good time to reflect on what the charity sector can learn from the campaign. This...