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Egos and a lack of planning damage collaboration, say charity leaders

Governance | Vibeka Mair | 16 Jun 2011

Egos, bad planning and tension around competition are stopping effective collaboration in the charity sector, according to a panel of charity experts who discussed the issue at a Knowledge Peers event last night.

The lively debate saw moderator Gill Gibb, managing director of the Charity Employees Benevolent Fund; Lesley-Anne Alexander, CEO at RNIB; Rosamund McCarthy, a partner at Bates Wells & Braithwaite; Ian Charlesworth, commercial director of the Social Investment Business; and Debra Allcock Tyler, chief executive of the Directory of Social Change discuss their experiences and views on collaboration in the charity sector.

Charlesworth, also founder of 3SC which brings together charities to compete for statutory contracts, said not having a clear mutual goal, and a lack of trust in the charity sector, hindered effective collaboration. He also blamed egos for damaging working partnerships:

“The sector is full of egos at board and executive level who are looking to protect the organisation and only understand collaboration when they are in the lead,” he said. 

Allcock Tyler added that discussions around collaboration often failed to take into account human nature, saying: “If you don’t like the person you won’t have a cat in hell's chance of making it work.”

The panel all agreed that careful planning was essential to effective collaboration, saying charities had to be clear on their roles, and also make sure an exit strategy was understood at the start.

Charlesworth said: “Having a common goal and being clear about roles will make it work. If there is hidden resentment, and an organisation thinks they should be in the lead, for example, it won’t work.”

McCarthy added that the key was also an honest exit strategy: “Organisations need to be clear it won’t go on for ever. So it needs to be decided, if they part, who will take what at the start, including intellectual property and brands. Organisations should anticipate all of this at the start.”

Lessons from private sector

McCarthy also said there was a tension in the charity sector between co-operation and competition.

“The private sector is better at competition,” she said. “They have clarity about when they are competing, and when they are collaborating. If this is not clear, and unconscious sabotaging occurs, a partnership can get derailed.”

However, McCarthy said it was incorrect to use language from the private sector to describe mergers in the charity sector, after a member of the audience asked whether it would be more honest to describe a larger charity merging with a smaller charity as an acquisition.

“I don’t think we could use acquisition as the public benefit of the charity sector advances the interests of beneficiaries, while the private sector is driven by shareholder value. The word acquisition is not right. It suggests something which is not the case.”

Allcock Tyler agreed, warning that if charities allowed language to creep in that didn’t represent its values, the sector could become distorted.

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Directory: Bates Wells & Braithwaite | Directory of Social Change (DSC) | Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) | The Social Investment Business
Who's Who: Rosamund McCarthy | Gill Gibb | Debra Allcock Tyler | Lesley-Anne Alexander