Two new reports highlight a changed funding landscape
December 2008
‘Charities that are versatile, willing to adapt and consider all the options available to them, should be able to cope with the extra challenges posed by the credit crunch and survive it’, commented Stuart Etherington, NCVO boss on 29 October, a date which saw the publication of NCVO’s sixth annual Voluntary Sector Strategic Analysis (VSSA) 2008/09.
The report focuses on the five aspects of the environment non-profits now find themselves operating in: changing participation, demographic challenges, distribution and consumption, the economy, and national politics. There is also a useful pull-out guide to strategic analysis.
Richard Bennett, former general secretary of BOND, suggested that brand loyalty to individual organisations is declining as a result of what he calls the ‘rise of the global citizen’. He said: ‘UK culture is moving with the issues of international and environmental organisations, but (slowly) away from the individual organisations that promote them,’ and concluded: ‘In an era of rising global citizenship, those organisations best able to suppress the urge for profile and growth are most likely to achieve it.’
The shape of things to come on the corporate giving and charitable trust front also seems to have undergone a sea change, according to Charity Market Monitor (published on 31 October). One key message was that charitable trusts will only be partly protected by their asset bases from the adverse economic climate and, as a result, will be reviewing financial management and grantmaking priorities. It also highlighted that not only are levels of corporate growth and corporate charitable donations inextricably linked, but that corporates are likely to look much harder at the links between business benefit and charitable impact.
Comments
There are no comments on this article. Be the first to comment.