CFG chief executive Caron Bradshaw has warned that the sector’s drive to open itself up to ever-greater public scrutiny risks warping the true picture of what charities do.

In a thoughtful article written for the Charity Finance Yearbook 2015, Bradshaw suggests that less is usually more in the push for greater transparency – that publishing ever-more data and information does not increase public understanding of charities or boost public trust and confidence in the sector.

She said we should “tread with care, exploring trust and transparency with an open mind and with a healthy dose of scepticism regarding the motives of those asking for more”.

She said charities are increasingly being told that transparency is the sharing of more and more information and that because this trend is happening in other sectors “any contrary argument has already been lost and that failure to agree with this version of transparency is ‘anti-transparent’ and not in the public interest. I disagree!

“I fear that transparency, or rather pressure to disclose more and more in the name of it, is a veiled attempt to find ‘dirt’ to throw at the sector.”

Bradshaw argues that there is a massive difference between public interest and public curiosity, and that disclosure must always be weighed against the burden of disclosure, in order that charity resources are not wasted.

“While I agree that we should be willing to answer any questions that a stakeholder poses within reasonable boundaries…I dispute that transparency can be achieved by ‘pushing’ information and data externally.”

She claims that the cry for more and more information can diminish rather than increase the stakeholders’ understanding of charities. Providing audiences with blanket information, instead of pulling out key facts, is an “age-old way of covering your backside and avoiding accountability”, she argues.  Raw data does not provide answers, narrative does.  “It’s about quality, not quantity,” she concludes.

The sector needs to respond to external pressure for more information in a constructive way, by answering questions and supporting knowledge, Bradshaw says. “So let’s get off this bandwagon that is feeding public curiosity and the prejudice and ignorance of a few.”

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