The director of human rights organisation Liberty has urged charities to ensure they retain a diversity of opinions as they face accusations of being “woke”.
Akiko Hart told an audience at the Conservative Party Conference on Monday that staff at “many” large charities had “progressive” views, potentially contrasting those of donors and beneficiaries.
Speaking as part of a panel at the event in Birmingham, Hart cited 2025 research by think tank More in Common on “progressive activists”, which stated that such people are particularly likely to work in fields such as the charity sector.
Hart said that having most staff hold similar views risked endangering charities from a business perspective.
“In order to make good decisions you need a host of opinions in the room, you need a diversity of opinions,” she said.
“You need to create the environment for people to be able to discuss things well and if you look at boards, that’s how good boards make decisions […].
“Having a monoculture in an organisation of whatever stripe – that is not going to lead to healthy decision-making.
“If you don’t understand who you’re talking to, whether that’s donors or your beneficiaries because you’re so far removed from them and there’s not that internal check and balance around it, you’re going to do your job less well.
“So, from a business perspective, I think that’s something that we need to address.”
'Element of truth’ to woke accusations against large charities, Liberty director says
Several charities have been accused of holding “woke” ideologies in recent years, with sector figures pushing back against this.
In 2023, former Charity Commission chair Orlando Fraser said that accusations of charities being “too woke” were unfair.
The following year, then-RSPCA chief executive Chris Sherwood said the sector was in fact woke, if that meant “being alive to the most pressing injustices of the day”.
At the event on Monday, Hart said: “Charities have become accused of being the centre of woke ideology. If I step back for a moment, often there is an element of truth to these accusations.”
Referring to the More in Common research, she said: “In many larger charities […] the vast majority of staff will map onto a more progressive activist position.
“[This] is at odds with the wider demographics of the country but certainly often the wider demographics of their beneficiaries or their donors.
“Anyone who has worked in the charity sector will know this is the case.”
Hart emphasised that not all charities were this way and said that open discussions were needed to safeguard against all organisations being labelled as woke.
“Charities have entered the culture wars and I think it‘s really important to pay attention to this,” she said.
“This is the danger around allowing charities to move into that space because we‘re going to get locked into a ‘for or against’ position on charities.
“It’s going to be the entire sector that falls because of this,” Hart said.
