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'Charity facing closure' - the journalist's quandary

Finance | Niki May Young | 8 Dec 2011

Niki May Young has witnessed a changing sector over the past two years, but today she is faced with a particularly difficult challenge.

Entering a new sector as a journalist means familiarising yourself with a whole new world. When I entered the charity sector less than two years ago, from the far-flung lands of World Architecture News, I had quite the uphill challenge learning about all of the issues faced from various different angles – the governance, finance, fundraising and IT aspects of the sector. But I came in at an interesting time, on the cusp of a new era for the sector, of which I was only mildly aware at the time.

Back then I was writing about £3.8m youth worker training schemes, expensive charity rebrands, and a constant slew of new senior appointments. The abundance of news at that time was positive. The sector seemed almost oblivious to the difficulties it would face, despite the signs of financial turmoil standing in clear sight. Dame Suzi Leather even warned charities against their ‘unrealistic’ optimism. And wise she was to do so.

A key task in journalism is to as accurately as possible portray the tone of events and their surrounding community at the time you report them. Journalists face the daunting responsibility of becoming rolling historians. But far from the accusation oft-flung at the journalism profession, that it creates society’s mood, shapes movements and decisions, my experience has been quite the opposite. The daily torrent of news releases is particularly restrictive to any such behaviour, it’s challenging enough to keep on top of covering the news as-it-happens, than to attempt to create tomorrow’s headlines. But that’s not to say that decisions aren’t made on a daily basis about what to cover, and how to cover it, that will undoubtedly influence your readers – it’s an inevitability of the job. And not always welcome. Particularly, for me, when it comes to one of the sector’s trending phenomena: “Charity facing closure”.

It’s a phrase that has trickled through the wires over the past year or so, but like a reservoir buckling under pressure, cracks in the dam of the sector are widening, and a daily gush of prospective closures now flows.

October 2010, not six months after I started at civilsociety.co.uk, and the mood of the sector was severely jolted by the coalition’s Comprehensive Spending Review, funding was being axed and charities reliant on government funds were forced to find new income streams, or go under. Pessimism reared its ugly head, and the talk turned to job cuts, governance reviews and calls for support. The first “Charity facing closure” stories were an almost immediate consequence of the Review.

But it’s only in the last few months that the full consequences have started to be felt, and I am faced with the daily quandary – do I, or do I not, report this charity’s call for help, knowing that it is but a solitary echo of many charities existing in equal sufferance? I know first-hand as a former trustee and active charity member of a small charity raising funds for small educational projects in Africa, the difference that the smallest of charities can make to a huge amount of people. But although truly heartbreaking for all involved, charity closures are no longer a rare occurrence, quite the opposite. In reflecting the mood of the sector, it is important that we do not ignore these closures, but that we find new ways to portray these events that do not engulf the news agenda, but do still convey their importance.

This is the challenge I will be meeting in the coming days, weeks and months as a journalist. But for now, I offer my support as an individual. If your charity has a call for support, send it to me at nikimay.young@civilsociety.co.uk and I will share your message on Twitter @NikiCivSociety or my page (Niki May Young) on Facebook.

Who's Who: Suzi Leather