It is no secret that the charity sector is facing a tough economic environment. Two articles in this edition outline just how tough it is and give some suggestions for what needs to be done to help ease the situation – one for the sector in general and the other for the women and girls subsector specifically.
In this environment, news of redundancies, cutbacks, closures and strike action have become more common. It is easy to see only doom and gloom.
Yet, as has been noted many times before, charities are resilient and adaptable. One only needs to consider how they responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns to demonstrate just how resilient and adaptable they are.
However, charities do not exist in isolation and they need other players around them to step up and take action that supports charities and allows them to respond quickly to changing circumstances.
The recent spending review was viewed by many as a missed opportunity to provide some government support to the sector. Time will tell whether the forthcoming Civil Society Covenant will outline more positive steps in how the government will work with the sector.
Professional services firms that work with charities also have a crucial role to play. However, within financial services there have also been news stories about how this relationship is not working well at the moment.
One of the buzzwords of recent years among charities has been “debanking” – the withdrawal of banking services, often with little or no warning. At the same time, there are tales of auditors turning down work with charities.
These services are crucial to a thriving sector and in our cover theme section, we look at what is being done to help overcome these obstacles. There seems to be some steps being taken to improve the situation but the question is whether these are moving fast enough and will go far enough.
In the meantime, individual charities and sector bodies will need to keep making sure their voices are heard and that conversations are taking place with relevant bodies and the powers that be to help create the change that is needed.
Charity finance professionals can, and often do, play an important role in this.
Tristan Blythe is editor of Charity Finance
