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Partner more with the private sector, say charity experts

Governance | Vibeka Mair | 2 Nov 2011

Charity experts have said the sector needs to explore more ventures with the private sector, in a series of debates at the NCVO Trustee Conference 2011.

The Conference, which hosted speeches from the government’s digital champion Martha Lane Fox and the launch of the second annual Trustees Week by Charity Commission chair Dame Suzi Leather, included much debate on the changing landscape for civil society.

Opening the conference Stephen Lloyd, a senior partner at Bates Wells and Braithwaite, said the charity sector needed to look at ventures with the private sector, saying that many charities talked about collaboration, but few practised it:

“Charities should strive to create a hybrid economy and vehicles for new mixed economies. It may sound like heresy,” he said. “But the creation of hybrids has worked well abroad in countries such as Sweden and Germany.”

Later in the event, the topic was brought up again during a panel debate which featured Lloyd; Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO; Sam Younger, chief executive of the Charity Commission; Lindsay Driscoll, a consultant at Bates Wells and Braithwaite and Katherine William-Powlett, innovation specialist at NCVO.

William-Powlett said charities often didn’t like business, but said there were lots of examples of good mission-led partnerships:

“Take the Samaritans and Network Rail,” she said. “Network Rail loses millions a year for tragic suicides on its tracks. So it is working with the Samaritans to help people who feel suicidal.”

Sir Stuart advised that charity trustees would have to get used to working with large private businesses which would increasingly be delivering public services and taking on charities as subcontractors.

Continuing on the theme of business, Sir Stuart warned that many trading arms and social enterprises increasingly being set up by charities would fail if trustees didn’t have the skills to scrutinise business plans:

“There will be numerous failures,” Sir Stuart said. “Especially if trustees don’t scrutinise what their management is saying about a potential social enterprise. Some will succeed, but if there is not enough scrutiny, there will be failures.”

He added: “There is not much enterprise to go around to sustain the level of voluntary activity.”

Innovate or die

On the subject of innovation, Lloyd warned that it was important that a charity checked its charitable objects before going ahead.

He praised the work done by the sector, especially New Philanthropy Capital, on new innovations such as social return on investment and social impact: “NPC has led the way on this,” he said. “It’s created a way to fight accountants who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

“Recently, Baker Tilly has calculated that getting a child permanently adopted saves the government £1m per child. We need to get more of these numbers.

“SROI is a vital tool to give investors the confidence to buy new tools such as social impact bonds.”

Sir Stuart, however, issued a word of caution on impact saying people should not get caught up on one model of measurement: “I talked with a chief executive of a children’s charity who talked of ‘impact Taliban’,” he said. “There is not one way of doing this. The simple question is ‘what are we trying to do and have we done it?'”

William-Powlett said if organisations innovated for the right reasons it was good but also warned it was dangerous to innovate for the sake of it:

“You always hear much about innovating and doing things differently,” she said. “But sometimes innovation gets a bad name and can seem frivolous – especially when people innovate for the sake of it.”

However, she also added: “Organisations which never innovate will die.”

She encouraged trustee boards to try and make space for “ideas time” at meetings, to focus on strategy rather than operation.

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Directory: Bates Wells & Braithwaite | Charity Commission | National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) | New Philanthropy Capital
Who's Who: Sam Younger | Suzi Leather | Sir Stuart Etherington | Lindsay Driscoll