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Invest £12.2m to make £11.3bn concludes Funding Commission 1

Finance | Niki May Young | 7 Dec 2010

The sector could increase income via individual giving, trading and commercial sector donations from £20.7bn to £32bn per annum by 2020 if it invests just £12.2m, the Funding Commission concluded in the publication of its final report last night.

Funding the Future, commissioned by NCVO, is the culmination of two years of consultation with sector and governmental organisations throughout England, compiled by several key sector figures including Philanthropy UK interim director Fiona Ellis (pictured) and former Futurebuilders chief executive Richard Gutch.

The report makes 12 recommendations for future funding of the sector, but it claims that just three could increase annual giving by £11.3bn with a sector donation of £12.2m.

The first of these recommendations asks for the key fundraising authorities to collaborate and secure funding for a ‘Better Asking’ campaign to improve efficiency of all forms of fundraising, promote the importance of work carried out by civil society organisations (CSOs) and develop innovations in asking in an effort to achieve “millions giving more and more giving millions”.

“We hold out particular hope of increased income from personal giving, we don’t live in a poor country even if it sometimes feels it,” stated Fiona Ellis at the publication’s launch last night, highlighting statistics from the Telegraph that the UK now has 280,000 millionaires with a combined fortune of £1.28 trillion.

“If some of that money can come into philanthropy it can make a very big change. They too are members of civil society, it’s in their interest that society works. We think if they are asked better, and if they are helped to understand how their money can make really interesting and significant change, they may well be amenable to investing money in the sector,” she added.

More corporate support

The report also calls for the sector to tap the “considerable potential” for more commercial support to the sector. Civil society organisations, however, often lack the experience to make the most of opportunities, the report states and asks NCVO, CAF and Business in the Community to remedy this by creating a working group with specialists such as the Institute of Directors to generate a business case and promote building partnership between sectors.

The third investment which could contribute to the significant rise in sector income is better support for trading by charities, with the goal of encouraging all CSOs to develop trading activities, Funding the Future claims.

A further £105.2m investment exists in the remaining recommendations for “wider, harder-to-quantify benefits, including increased capitalisation, investment and borrowing, reduced running costs and transaction costs; and increased impact for beneficiaries”.

Fund for impact reporting

This includes a call for major funders such as BIG to develop an Increasing Impact Fund of £5m per annum for three years open to all CSOs to develop expertise in measuring impact. This in turn would lead to a requirement for CSOs to publish impact assessments in annual reports and on their websites.

The government too is called upon to invest by providing a Restructuring Fund and Big Society grants. The former would comprise a £20m per annum investment for three years to fund the one-off costs of restructuring the sector’s infrastructure. The latter would build on the government’s proposals for match-funding donations and its Communities First plans to provide “micro light-touch” grants for community projects.

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Directory: National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
Who's Who: Richard Gutch | Sir Stuart Etherington | Fiona Ellis