I recently read some research which found that the most trusted source of information on the economic situation is not the Prime Minister or even the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but the BBC’s business editor, Robert Peston. This raises interesting questions about trust in institutions and where people get their information about events impacting on their lives. Something to think about for information providers?
The Pre-Budget report published by the Treasury last Monday outlines a number of changes to try and kick-start the economy, and provide a buffer from further misfortune. You can read various reations to the pre-budget report here:
And a bit of a green tint on it: policy think tank Green Alliance’s response has some interesting comments on the implications for fuel poverty and social housing.
If you have read any other reports that analyse the impact, why not add them to the list?
In an uncertain financial climate, the Sector needs to look at existing funding streams and consider what the likely impact of a recession may be on these. One area of interest is the Lottery. Is it recession proof?
Unsuprisingly there is little UK evidence due to the relatively short time the Lottery has operated in this country. However, evidence from the US suggests that Lottery spending may not necessarily decline in a period of hardship. In fact, an article I read recently quotes research by John Mikesell, a professor at Indiana University published in 1994 showing that from 1983 to 1991, lottery sales tended to rise with unemployment rates.
However, the same article goes on to refer to a survey of regular players by Independent Lottery Research, a consulting firm based in Chicago, which found that last month 20 percent of them were already playing less or buying less expensive tickets.
Either way, a combination of this uncertainty and less Lottery money followng the diversion of funds to support the Olympics, makes the need for VCOs to diversify their income streams, ever more important.
Tonight’s Leadership 20:20 discussion is about trust. Trust seems to be an issue that permeates a number of other leadership topics, so we thought it was worth exploring, in particular relation this evening to…
level of trust in charities in a recession, the changing face of charities taking on public service delivery and working with the private sector, and charity mergers and acquisitions.
Our experiences in London totally mirror those Megan described in her post regarding the conversation in Doncaster.
A large majority of VCS training providers have been delivering public contracts to provide education, training & employment services to workless / under employed people for many years. Even organisations with a turnover in excess of £15m pa are struggling with the new procurement & commissioning processes around skills & employment.
I work for an infrastructure organisation for training providers in Central London where this year alone has seen two of our members wind-up & close down. The impact of the move towards larger contracts commissioned through e-sourcing arrangements is set to have a huge impact upon our particular sub-sector.
Collaboration is pretty much a given. Mergers will become a new hot topic & for the first time this year I have witnessed VCS organisations contracting with the private sector to deliver elements of these large public contracts.
If this approach works, the economies of scale it provides will no doubt be so enticing that this approach will have a more or less universal roll out across all service areas.
Campaigning, lobbying and the debate on this issue to one side; it is vital that we all recognise what is happening with the markets and plan and reposition our organisations accordingly
The conversations I have been having with other VCS groups & organisations considering social enterprise as an income diversification tool have been quite interesting.
Helen is quite right with her observation regarding the enterprise being a different entity to the parent. This is certainly what I’m seeing. Most charities don’t have the ability to trade within their Mem & Arts and need to establish a seperate entity (CICs being quite popular) mandating profits back to the parent.
I agree with Helen that this is going to require a paradigm shift in thinking in some organisations.
In response to the question posed at the end of her post; my experience of talking to a wide range of groups & orgs in Central London shows that while there is considerable interest from a wide range of organisations from small local groups to mid size orgs; start up rates are lower than one might expect. I think time required to start up with (if no funding is in place) no guarantees of a short term return on time invested is a considerable barrier.
I remembered seeing Natalie’s post quite a few months ago when I read last week media comments on the latest immigration figures published by the Office of National Statistics.
Andy Travis from the Guardian wrote in the article Immigration falls and set to decline further in recession: A decline in immigration is starting to accelerate as the recession bites, with a 36% fall in the number of Poles and other east Europeans coming to work in Britain recorded so far this year.
Apparently 59,000 Polish people and other east Europeans registered to work in Britain between July and September 2007, and only 38,000 over the same period this year. This is the lowest level since Poland joined the EU in 2004.
I’m really pleased that individualism has been integrated to the 3s4 list of drivers. It’s very helpful to look at individualism when trying to understand how people engage. The new version of the Voluntary Sector Strategic Analysis and particularly the chapter on changing participation shows how individualism is impacting on patterns of participation.
Regarding individualism and the personalisation of services, the debate is open as how things will evolve. The House of Commons Children’s Committee has been trying to find out how personalised learning has progressed over the last 4 years. The BBC article Let’s not get personal that refers to this is telling. It concludes that personal learning “was more of a symbolic gesture than a real turning point in education policy”.
That’s an interesting question Stephen. The ‘disintermediation’ question came up many times when we were working on the ICT Foresight project. In relation to giving we concluded that intermediaries would not necessarily be cut out, but that new kinds of intermediaries would be required. Here is the relevant extract from ICT Foresight: charitable giving and fundraising in a digital world (download PDF)
Future organisational models
This report has explored how the internet can facilitate connections between donors and organisations, and between donors and beneficiaries. It has also explored how the internet can potentially empower donors to make an informed choice about which organisation to support, to choose where to direct their money, and to use their networks to fundraise for organisations. If indeed power does shift away from organisations and towards individuals then this will raise questions about the most effective models that organisations can use to direct donations towards their work on the ground. As Nick Booth and Andy Dearden discuss, some organisations may shift from being deliverers to facilitators and market makers:
Nick: What we’re describing in terms of the network means that charities become a couple of things: firstly a safe place to store money, and secondly a network to distribute other resources, but not much else. In the future you could imagine a model whereby beneficiaries are telling the stories and are nominating a safe place to store donations, so they’re saying ‘if you want to help us please do it through this mechanism’. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a charity, it could be a bank. Obviously there are issues with this model but it could mean that potentially the role of charities is shifting or there’s a gap for a new kind of charity.
Andy: If we go back to the comparison with ecommerce we can learn from what Tescos do. Tescos don’t buy products to sell; they rent out shelf space to their suppliers who then compete. The Tesco brand operates simply to bring people to the market place; they’re the market makers.
Nick Booth and Andy Dearden (roundtable discussion, June 2007)
These new intermediaries already exist. Chipin.com provides a safe place to store money, raised for any purpose. Realitycharity.com connects donors directly to individuals requiring help. In the future VCOs may need to become aggregators of projects and allow donors more choice over who they give their money to, or else risk new intermediary organisations, which may not even be charities, moving into the gap.
Karl has been working hard to gather evidence about what happens to the sector in a recession. You can now read a summary of his findings in this news post.
The Pre-Budget report published by the Treasury yesterday outlines a number of changes to try and kick-start the economy, and provide a buffer from further misfortune. To find out more about these and how they might impact on the economy and on your organisation, have a look at the following links:
And a bit of a green tint on it: policy think tank Green Alliance’s response has some interesting comments on the implications for fuel poverty and social housing.
If you have read any other reports that analyse the impact, why not add them to the list?
I read an article this morning which stated that the most trusted source of information on the economic situation is not the Prime Minister or even the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but the BBC’s business editor, Robert Peston. This raises interesting questions about trust in institutions and where people get their information about events impacting on their lives. Something to think about for information providers?
Since 2004, the ChangeUp programme has increased funding to infrastructure organisations, together with the heavily oversubscribed Big Lottery Fund BASIS fund. The future of infrastructure funding after the current spending round is highly uncertain and will depend on a number of factors including how well the sector and Capacitybuilders can make a case for continued support of the sector’s infrastructure, the state of central government finances, and which political party is in power. In particular, the Conservatives, in their recent green paper, suggested dramatic changes to how infrastructure is funded. Their proposals suggest more direct funding to frontline organisations to enable them to identify and commission the support they feel they need. This remains a very uncertain driver as the proposals are only currently being consulted on.
Caroline’s article outlines a number of interesting developments within the campaigning landscape and raises some important questions for campaigning organisations to think about as they plan their future work.
I would like to pick up on a few key themes:
- Giving is not the same as activism
It is important to distinguish between fundraising campaigns and campaigns for social change. Whereas Children in Need and Comic Relief are ultimately large scale fundraising efforts, Make Poverty History and Stand Up and Take Action are about securing commitments to social and economic change. They are therefore essentially different in what they are trying to achieve and how they are trying to mobilise individuals i.e. whether to give or to act.
The distinction between giving and activism is an important one. In fact, campaigns like Make Poverty History have been premised on the fact that charity in its traditional sense of the word is simply not enough. MPH was a campaign about social and economic justice that demanded wholesale changes in the global economic system in order to address the underlying causes of poverty – not simply throwing more money at the problem.
Whilst there are obviously important links between giving and activism – individual giving can provide a pathway into activism and vice versa – campaigning organisations need to appreciate the differences between the two, be clear what their campaigns are trying to achieve and target activities appropriately.
- Campaigning is not just about awareness raising
A second important distinction to make is between awareness raising and campaigning. Raising the profile of pressing social, economic and environmental issues forms a critical element of any campaign; how can individuals take action if they don’t know what the problem is in the first place? However, informing people and getting an issue on the agenda is not the same as bringing about change: it is a means to this end rather than an end in itself.
Recent large-scale campaigns have made great strides in raising the profile of certain issues, be it global poverty, the Iraq War or climate change. Their messages have reached parts not reached before. However, the ultimate measure of their success, is not based on the number of celebrity endorsements received, wristbands worn or concerts given, but on whether they actually secure the changes they want to see.
-The rise of the globalised individual
The article raises a really interesting issue about the rise of individualism and its impact on campaigning. If recent large-scale campaigns have illustrated anything, it is that there are a lot of passionate, opinionated individuals out there who have a vision about the world they want to live in and a commitment to making it happen. So whilst engagement with formal party politics might be on the wane, political activism in its broader sense certainly isn’t.
These campaigns have also shown it is possible to mobilise a much younger demographic than ever before. This presents huge opportunities for campaigning organisations to engage with this ready-made audience. However, this is not without its challenges. Trends suggest that the modern day activist is more likely to engage in campaigning on an issue-by-issue basis, rather than through formal affiliation with a particular institution or organisation. What this means in practice is that individuals may campaign on climate change in a personal capacity but might not necessarily become a member of an environmental organisation. This more fluid, individualised approach to campaigning could have major implications for membership-based campaigning organisations that rely on an active supporter base – and membership fees – for their existence and success.
Campaigning organisations also need to consider how they engage with the modern day, globalised activist. Local campaign groups may give way to virtual communities on Facebook and Bebo, public meetings to Twitter and traditional marches to flashmobbing. To what extent are campaigning organisations making the most of new communication technologies to reach out to new audiences?
- Size doesn’t matter
Where I think the article slightly misses the point is talking about small scale campaigning in the same breath as individualism. Individualised campaigning may result in more localised forms of campaigning, but it may equally result in large scale campaigns (is not the recent Obama election campaign an example of this?).
Whether you are acting alone, with a small group or as part of a global coalition, is beside the point. The same goes for whether you are trying to change the whole world or your little bit of it: it’s not the size of your campaign that matters; it’s what you do with it that counts!
Or to end with the rather more eloquent words of Margaret Mead,
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
There is still a huge expectation that social enterprise can deliver public services, but there are significant issues for small and medium sized charities in particular venturing into this area at quite fundamental levels, including the issue of charging for services, the cultural changes needed in the organisation and actually being able to make a profit. There’s also an interesting shift now to position social enterprises quite seperately to charities, making a clear business distinction where lines were previously blurred. I wonder what impact this will have on charities wanting to go the social enterprise route?
Economic concerns are slipping into everything these days. At a marketing conference I went on recently, the credit crunch was one of the first things talked about in a session on how charities can get themselves noticed. Not the most obvious linkup? For me, it underlined how vital it is to be aware of changes in the external environment such as economic shifts and to think through their implications for your organisation. I’m not sure I would have immediately considered the recession when thinking how to ‘get my organisation noticed’. If you’re not aware of the potential implications, how can you make sure your organisation comes out on top?
The first question in this driver is about assessing how you communicate and whether this needs to be perhaps changed or evolved to respond to the external changes. At the conference this was definitely seen as important by the delegates. Sarah raises an interesting point above about language changing. Speakers emphasised that campaigns don’t have to be wildly expensive, and the importance of thinking of long-term benefits; Patrick Cox has a wealth of examples of how his charity ‘male cancer awareness’ gets what it wants and needs with a ‘I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine’philosopy. I think this is a fascinating way that charities could respond to possible lower donation levels and tighter purse strings. Have a look at our driver on collaborative working for other implications and ideas on this approach.
Another issue that was floated around the fringes of the day, but which would be a much more central concern for charities generally was trust investments. They’re likely to be feeling the pinch in the marketplace and may respond by reducing what they have to offer or being even tighter in their requirements for funding .We highlight in our credit crunch driver thinking about diversifying your funding. Others are doing it, so make sure you are too!
We are gathering together analysis, views and evidence on the impact of a recession on the sector. You can find all the sources we’ve identified here, on our delicious site (delicious is a ‘social bookmarking’ tool which allows you to collect and share web links)
Though I believe partnership working can have some benefits, I agree that for community organisations the increasing demands on their time and resources means that the activists in those groups are stretched to their capacity but often don’t see the benefit working both ways. This can lead to a breakdown of trust and a cynicism of being used by others to boost the numbers. It can also lead to being regarded as one of the “usual suspects” all partnerships are not always equal – and can sometimes appear to be used as a cover for exerting control by the backdoor.
See newphilanthropy.org if you are thinking of getting someone to deliver this as a seminar—as the interface between donors and charities they have a valuable insight.
I find this a very interesting trend. One need look no further than the powerful Secret Millionaire (Channel 4) to see that new philanthropists do really exist.
My experience over the last 15 or so years working in the third sector suggests that this potential investment stream has not been considered by a large number of organisations. However, perhaps this is another area where there is quite a North-South divide? I’d loved to be proved wrong on this!
Look forward to helping to include a session on ‘21st Century Philanthrophy’ as part of a new post graduate certificate – perhaps we can get one of these ‘new’ philanthropists to help deliver it!
This resonates with many of the findings from the Power Inquiry – people do want to get involved, just not necessarily in formal politics. I think that blogging is another way in which people can and do get involved in the world around them, their communities and wider civil society.
Over the weekend there were many articles and op-eds on this same subject: herehere and here to link to a few.
She has also responded to some of this criticism via the comments on her own blog
There are these charities which are really businesses. I look forward to the application of the ‘public benefit’ rules to public schools.
If the public schools were to lose their charitable status (no appreciable public benefit), not only would Corporation Tax become an issue, but also VAT may be liable on their fees.
What would happen if this were to have a more general impact on the charity sector?
I wonder if the Third Sector is ready for the Long Tail? The Long Tail is all about disintermediation – cutting out the middleman (or woman). In a world in which the Internet enables donors to deal directly with beneficiaries, what is the compelling rationale behind the charity business model?
I would be happy to chair a roundtable on this if any others are interested.
Caroline
Third Sector ForesightI recently read some research which found that the most trusted source of information on the economic situation is not the Prime Minister or even the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but the BBC’s business editor, Robert Peston. This raises interesting questions about trust in institutions and where people get their information about events impacting on their lives. Something to think about for information providers?
Kathryn
Third Sector ForesightThe Pre-Budget report published by the Treasury last Monday outlines a number of changes to try and kick-start the economy, and provide a buffer from further misfortune. You can read various reations to the pre-budget report here:
Institute for Fiscal Studies
Deloitte analysis
PricewaterhouseCoopers
How small businesses have benefitted
What the Pre-Budget means for your region
And a bit of a green tint on it: policy think tank Green Alliance’s response has some interesting comments on the implications for fuel poverty and social housing.
If you have read any other reports that analyse the impact, why not add them to the list?
Louisa
In an uncertain financial climate, the Sector needs to look at existing funding streams and consider what the likely impact of a recession may be on these. One area of interest is the Lottery. Is it recession proof?
Unsuprisingly there is little UK evidence due to the relatively short time the Lottery has operated in this country. However, evidence from the US suggests that Lottery spending may not necessarily decline in a period of hardship. In fact, an article I read recently quotes research by John Mikesell, a professor at Indiana University published in 1994 showing that from 1983 to 1991, lottery sales tended to rise with unemployment rates.
However, the same article goes on to refer to a survey of regular players by Independent Lottery Research, a consulting firm based in Chicago, which found that last month 20 percent of them were already playing less or buying less expensive tickets.
Either way, a combination of this uncertainty and less Lottery money followng the diversion of funds to support the Olympics, makes the need for VCOs to diversify their income streams, ever more important.
Details of the article:
New York Times, September 13, 2008 – Sweet Dreams in Hard Times Add to Lottery Sales
Graham
Tonight’s Leadership 20:20 discussion is about trust. Trust seems to be an issue that permeates a number of other leadership topics, so we thought it was worth exploring, in particular relation this evening to…
level of trust in charities in a recession, the changing face of charities taking on public service delivery and working with the private sector, and charity mergers and acquisitions.
Neil
Our experiences in London totally mirror those Megan described in her post regarding the conversation in Doncaster.
A large majority of VCS training providers have been delivering public contracts to provide education, training & employment services to workless / under employed people for many years. Even organisations with a turnover in excess of £15m pa are struggling with the new procurement & commissioning processes around skills & employment.
I work for an infrastructure organisation for training providers in Central London where this year alone has seen two of our members wind-up & close down. The impact of the move towards larger contracts commissioned through e-sourcing arrangements is set to have a huge impact upon our particular sub-sector.
Collaboration is pretty much a given. Mergers will become a new hot topic & for the first time this year I have witnessed VCS organisations contracting with the private sector to deliver elements of these large public contracts.
If this approach works, the economies of scale it provides will no doubt be so enticing that this approach will have a more or less universal roll out across all service areas.
Campaigning, lobbying and the debate on this issue to one side; it is vital that we all recognise what is happening with the markets and plan and reposition our organisations accordingly
Neil
The conversations I have been having with other VCS groups & organisations considering social enterprise as an income diversification tool have been quite interesting.
Helen is quite right with her observation regarding the enterprise being a different entity to the parent. This is certainly what I’m seeing. Most charities don’t have the ability to trade within their Mem & Arts and need to establish a seperate entity (CICs being quite popular) mandating profits back to the parent.
I agree with Helen that this is going to require a paradigm shift in thinking in some organisations.
In response to the question posed at the end of her post; my experience of talking to a wide range of groups & orgs in Central London shows that while there is considerable interest from a wide range of organisations from small local groups to mid size orgs; start up rates are lower than one might expect. I think time required to start up with (if no funding is in place) no guarantees of a short term return on time invested is a considerable barrier.
Véronique
Third Sector ForesightI remembered seeing Natalie’s post quite a few months ago when I read last week media comments on the latest immigration figures published by the Office of National Statistics.
Andy Travis from the Guardian wrote in the article Immigration falls and set to decline further in recession: A decline in immigration is starting to accelerate as the recession bites, with a 36% fall in the number of Poles and other east Europeans coming to work in Britain recorded so far this year.
Apparently 59,000 Polish people and other east Europeans registered to work in Britain between July and September 2007, and only 38,000 over the same period this year. This is the lowest level since Poland joined the EU in 2004.
Véronique
Third Sector ForesightI’m really pleased that individualism has been integrated to the 3s4 list of drivers. It’s very helpful to look at individualism when trying to understand how people engage. The new version of the Voluntary Sector Strategic Analysis and particularly the chapter on changing participation shows how individualism is impacting on patterns of participation.
Regarding individualism and the personalisation of services, the debate is open as how things will evolve. The House of Commons Children’s Committee has been trying to find out how personalised learning has progressed over the last 4 years. The BBC article Let’s not get personal that refers to this is telling. It concludes that personal learning “was more of a symbolic gesture than a real turning point in education policy”.
Megan
Third Sector ForesightThat’s an interesting question Stephen. The ‘disintermediation’ question came up many times when we were working on the ICT Foresight project. In relation to giving we concluded that intermediaries would not necessarily be cut out, but that new kinds of intermediaries would be required. Here is the relevant extract from ICT Foresight: charitable giving and fundraising in a digital world (download PDF)
Future organisational models
This report has explored how the internet can facilitate connections between donors and organisations, and between donors and beneficiaries. It has also explored how the internet can potentially empower donors to make an informed choice about which organisation to support, to choose where to direct their money, and to use their networks to fundraise for organisations. If indeed power does shift away from organisations and towards individuals then this will raise questions about the most effective models that organisations can use to direct donations towards their work on the ground. As Nick Booth and Andy Dearden discuss, some organisations may shift from being deliverers to facilitators and market makers:
Nick: What we’re describing in terms of the network means that charities become a couple of things: firstly a safe place to store money, and secondly a network to distribute other resources, but not much else. In the future you could imagine a model whereby beneficiaries are telling the stories and are nominating a safe place to store donations, so they’re saying ‘if you want to help us please do it through this mechanism’. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a charity, it could be a bank. Obviously there are issues with this model but it could mean that potentially the role of charities is shifting or there’s a gap for a new kind of charity.
Andy: If we go back to the comparison with ecommerce we can learn from what Tescos do. Tescos don’t buy products to sell; they rent out shelf space to their suppliers who then compete. The Tesco brand operates simply to bring people to the market place; they’re the market makers.
Nick Booth and Andy Dearden (roundtable discussion, June 2007)
These new intermediaries already exist. Chipin.com provides a safe place to store money, raised for any purpose. Realitycharity.com connects donors directly to individuals requiring help. In the future VCOs may need to become aggregators of projects and allow donors more choice over who they give their money to, or else risk new intermediary organisations, which may not even be charities, moving into the gap.
Megan
Third Sector ForesightKarl has been working hard to gather evidence about what happens to the sector in a recession. You can now read a summary of his findings in this news post.
Kathryn
Third Sector ForesightThe Pre-Budget report published by the Treasury yesterday outlines a number of changes to try and kick-start the economy, and provide a buffer from further misfortune. To find out more about these and how they might impact on the economy and on your organisation, have a look at the following links:
Institute for Fiscal Studies
Deloitte analysis
PricewaterhouseCoopers
How small businesses have benefitted
What the Pre-Budget means for your region
And a bit of a green tint on it: policy think tank Green Alliance’s response has some interesting comments on the implications for fuel poverty and social housing.
If you have read any other reports that analyse the impact, why not add them to the list?
Caroline
Third Sector ForesightI read an article this morning which stated that the most trusted source of information on the economic situation is not the Prime Minister or even the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but the BBC’s business editor, Robert Peston. This raises interesting questions about trust in institutions and where people get their information about events impacting on their lives. Something to think about for information providers?
Neil
None of the links in this section are working
Megan
Third Sector ForesightSince 2004, the ChangeUp programme has increased funding to infrastructure organisations, together with the heavily oversubscribed Big Lottery Fund BASIS fund. The future of infrastructure funding after the current spending round is highly uncertain and will depend on a number of factors including how well the sector and Capacitybuilders can make a case for continued support of the sector’s infrastructure, the state of central government finances, and which political party is in power. In particular, the Conservatives, in their recent green paper, suggested dramatic changes to how infrastructure is funded. Their proposals suggest more direct funding to frontline organisations to enable them to identify and commission the support they feel they need. This remains a very uncertain driver as the proposals are only currently being consulted on.
Rachael
Caroline’s article outlines a number of interesting developments within the campaigning landscape and raises some important questions for campaigning organisations to think about as they plan their future work.
I would like to pick up on a few key themes:
- Giving is not the same as activism
It is important to distinguish between fundraising campaigns and campaigns for social change. Whereas Children in Need and Comic Relief are ultimately large scale fundraising efforts, Make Poverty History and Stand Up and Take Action are about securing commitments to social and economic change. They are therefore essentially different in what they are trying to achieve and how they are trying to mobilise individuals i.e. whether to give or to act.
The distinction between giving and activism is an important one. In fact, campaigns like Make Poverty History have been premised on the fact that charity in its traditional sense of the word is simply not enough. MPH was a campaign about social and economic justice that demanded wholesale changes in the global economic system in order to address the underlying causes of poverty – not simply throwing more money at the problem.
Whilst there are obviously important links between giving and activism – individual giving can provide a pathway into activism and vice versa – campaigning organisations need to appreciate the differences between the two, be clear what their campaigns are trying to achieve and target activities appropriately.
- Campaigning is not just about awareness raising
A second important distinction to make is between awareness raising and campaigning. Raising the profile of pressing social, economic and environmental issues forms a critical element of any campaign; how can individuals take action if they don’t know what the problem is in the first place? However, informing people and getting an issue on the agenda is not the same as bringing about change: it is a means to this end rather than an end in itself.
Recent large-scale campaigns have made great strides in raising the profile of certain issues, be it global poverty, the Iraq War or climate change. Their messages have reached parts not reached before. However, the ultimate measure of their success, is not based on the number of celebrity endorsements received, wristbands worn or concerts given, but on whether they actually secure the changes they want to see.
-The rise of the globalised individual
The article raises a really interesting issue about the rise of individualism and its impact on campaigning. If recent large-scale campaigns have illustrated anything, it is that there are a lot of passionate, opinionated individuals out there who have a vision about the world they want to live in and a commitment to making it happen. So whilst engagement with formal party politics might be on the wane, political activism in its broader sense certainly isn’t.
These campaigns have also shown it is possible to mobilise a much younger demographic than ever before. This presents huge opportunities for campaigning organisations to engage with this ready-made audience. However, this is not without its challenges. Trends suggest that the modern day activist is more likely to engage in campaigning on an issue-by-issue basis, rather than through formal affiliation with a particular institution or organisation. What this means in practice is that individuals may campaign on climate change in a personal capacity but might not necessarily become a member of an environmental organisation. This more fluid, individualised approach to campaigning could have major implications for membership-based campaigning organisations that rely on an active supporter base – and membership fees – for their existence and success.
Campaigning organisations also need to consider how they engage with the modern day, globalised activist. Local campaign groups may give way to virtual communities on Facebook and Bebo, public meetings to Twitter and traditional marches to flashmobbing. To what extent are campaigning organisations making the most of new communication technologies to reach out to new audiences?
- Size doesn’t matter
Where I think the article slightly misses the point is talking about small scale campaigning in the same breath as individualism. Individualised campaigning may result in more localised forms of campaigning, but it may equally result in large scale campaigns (is not the recent Obama election campaign an example of this?).
Whether you are acting alone, with a small group or as part of a global coalition, is beside the point. The same goes for whether you are trying to change the whole world or your little bit of it: it’s not the size of your campaign that matters; it’s what you do with it that counts!
Or to end with the rather more eloquent words of Margaret Mead,
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Helen
There is still a huge expectation that social enterprise can deliver public services, but there are significant issues for small and medium sized charities in particular venturing into this area at quite fundamental levels, including the issue of charging for services, the cultural changes needed in the organisation and actually being able to make a profit. There’s also an interesting shift now to position social enterprises quite seperately to charities, making a clear business distinction where lines were previously blurred. I wonder what impact this will have on charities wanting to go the social enterprise route?
Kathryn
Third Sector ForesightEconomic concerns are slipping into everything these days. At a marketing conference I went on recently, the credit crunch was one of the first things talked about in a session on how charities can get themselves noticed. Not the most obvious linkup? For me, it underlined how vital it is to be aware of changes in the external environment such as economic shifts and to think through their implications for your organisation. I’m not sure I would have immediately considered the recession when thinking how to ‘get my organisation noticed’. If you’re not aware of the potential implications, how can you make sure your organisation comes out on top?
The first question in this driver is about assessing how you communicate and whether this needs to be perhaps changed or evolved to respond to the external changes. At the conference this was definitely seen as important by the delegates. Sarah raises an interesting point above about language changing. Speakers emphasised that campaigns don’t have to be wildly expensive, and the importance of thinking of long-term benefits; Patrick Cox has a wealth of examples of how his charity ‘male cancer awareness’ gets what it wants and needs with a ‘I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine’philosopy. I think this is a fascinating way that charities could respond to possible lower donation levels and tighter purse strings. Have a look at our driver on collaborative working for other implications and ideas on this approach.
Another issue that was floated around the fringes of the day, but which would be a much more central concern for charities generally was trust investments. They’re likely to be feeling the pinch in the marketplace and may respond by reducing what they have to offer or being even tighter in their requirements for funding .We highlight in our credit crunch driver thinking about diversifying your funding. Others are doing it, so make sure you are too!
Karl
Third Sector ForesightWe are gathering together analysis, views and evidence on the impact of a recession on the sector. You can find all the sources we’ve identified here, on our delicious site (delicious is a ‘social bookmarking’ tool which allows you to collect and share web links)
Elaine
Though I believe partnership working can have some benefits, I agree that for community organisations the increasing demands on their time and resources means that the activists in those groups are stretched to their capacity but often don’t see the benefit working both ways. This can lead to a breakdown of trust and a cynicism of being used by others to boost the numbers. It can also lead to being regarded as one of the “usual suspects” all partnerships are not always equal – and can sometimes appear to be used as a cover for exerting control by the backdoor.
Judy
See newphilanthropy.org if you are thinking of getting someone to deliver this as a seminar—as the interface between donors and charities they have a valuable insight.
Jonathan
I find this a very interesting trend. One need look no further than the powerful Secret Millionaire (Channel 4) to see that new philanthropists do really exist.
My experience over the last 15 or so years working in the third sector suggests that this potential investment stream has not been considered by a large number of organisations. However, perhaps this is another area where there is quite a North-South divide? I’d loved to be proved wrong on this!
Look forward to helping to include a session on ‘21st Century Philanthrophy’ as part of a new post graduate certificate – perhaps we can get one of these ‘new’ philanthropists to help deliver it!
Dhara
I just read an extract from a speech by Hazel Blears MP, on ‘Tackling Disengagement’ in it, she infers that political blogging fuels cynicism and leads to disengagement.
I think its particularly pertinent given she gave this speech on the 5th November, the day after Barrack Obama was elected and declared President–elect of the USA. Obama’s campaign and eventual victory has been historic for a number of reasons- not least because of the way he was able to mobilize and organise from the grassroots up. This involved the phenomenal use of information and communications technology, and the blogosphere was another arena in which the debates about the US 2008 election.
This resonates with many of the findings from the Power Inquiry – people do want to get involved, just not necessarily in formal politics. I think that blogging is another way in which people can and do get involved in the world around them, their communities and wider civil society.
Over the weekend there were many articles and op-eds on this same subject: here here and here to link to a few.
She has also responded to some of this criticism via the comments on her own blog
Megan
Third Sector ForesightLast week we were up in Doncaster with 12 chief officers and chairs of local infrastructure organisation. One of the discussions revolved around the implications and strategic actions that could flow from consideration of this driver (and the related drivers of increasing role of the sector in service delivery, procurement practice and polarisation of the sector.
Read the participants’ ideas about implications and potential actions.
Stephen
AND …
There are these charities which are really businesses. I look forward to the application of the ‘public benefit’ rules to public schools.
If the public schools were to lose their charitable status (no appreciable public benefit), not only would Corporation Tax become an issue, but also VAT may be liable on their fees.
What would happen if this were to have a more general impact on the charity sector?
Stephen
I wonder if the Third Sector is ready for the Long Tail? The Long Tail is all about disintermediation – cutting out the middleman (or woman). In a world in which the Internet enables donors to deal directly with beneficiaries, what is the compelling rationale behind the charity business model?
I would be happy to chair a roundtable on this if any others are interested.