Perspectives on giving
The green paper on giving1 should have become a white paper by 31 March 2011, but the deadline for responses was only three weeks before the White Paper’s publication date – 9 March.
It has aroused a good deal of controversy and the Cabinet Office received over 400 replies.
It is unclear whether enough time has been built in by the government to consider these in any kind of depth but, as Jay Kennedy of Directory of Social Change (DSC) observed, “For us it is about showing what is important – it’s an opportunity for organisations to make connections on shared priorities”. Many organisations are using the response mechanism to articulate key issues, whatever ends up in the final legislation.
- How to increase a culture of giving. The Institute of Fundraising (IoF) and NCVO make the point that people give to causes, not charities and that “the link between asking and giving needs to be made”. Both the IoF and the DSC note the lack of clarity on the different motivations for giving time and money. Withers LLP note that “the giving green paper is… too heavily focused on encouraging low-value charitable giving and does not attend adequately to the great potential of encouraging high-value philanthropic giving”. This ties in with one of the points in the Funding Commission’s Funding the Future report2 that “the rich are getting richer but their giving is not keeping up”.
- Tax incentives. The IoF notes that the green paper is silent on the issue of tax and calls for the tax reliefs system to be simplified to encourage the wider use of Gift Aid and Payroll Giving. CFDG takes this further and expresses surprise at this because of the “comparisons made with the United States, where such incentives are a foundation of the giving system”. NCVO calls for the government to “use tax returns and P60s to signpost the importance of giving”. The Cabinet Office has confirmed for sometime that it is working with HM Treasury at reviewing tax incentives, but Withers are not convinced that tax relief is an incentive to give: “…philanthropists do not give in order to obtain tax relief…donors tend to be genuinely interested in making the donation – at their own net loss – because they want to put their assets to work for something they believe in”.
- Trusts and foundations. There was unanimous opposition to the suggestion of a five per cent payout rule for trusts and foundations and DSC calls for the Charity Commission to be resourced properly so it can regulate them effectively. Quite apart from the general indignation of the very suggestion that this cash is some sort of untapped resource to the sector that foundations have ‘locked’ away, Withers clarify that the legal, fiscal and regulatory landscape in England and Wales make this “unnecessary and unsuitable”.
- Volunteering and participation. NCVO and DSC both note the barriers highlighted in the green paper to participation such as; lack of money, time, confidence and skills and call for a more proactive approach from the government. According to NCVO, the government needs to accept that volunteering is not a ‘free good’ – volunteers require support, training and management and because of this there has to be a role for “paid, qualified staff in this process”.
- Corporate giving. It was generally agreed that corporate giving was very important to the giving culture as a whole and that the government should promote or ‘nudge’ this in all sizes of business. The DSC proposes that shareholders are involved in giving decisions and policy adoption and calls for customer giving and staff giving to be accounted separately from what the company actually gives.
1. www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/ files/resources/Giving-Green-Paper.pdf
2. www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/sites/default/files/ A4_Funding_Commission_Final_Report.pdf
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