Charities must regain public trust, need to address basic questions of ethics and governance, waste money competing for funding, and are dependent on the "crutch" of government, the civil society minster said today.

Rob Wilson was speaking at the launch of BT's #GivingTuesday campaign this morning.

He said that with money tight, a “new kind of relationship” was needed between the government and civil society organisations.

“Too many charities are devoting huge resources to chasing the same pot of money," he said. "Too many are dependent on a single source of income, always just one cheque away from insolvency.”

He said it was important for the sector to address “basic questions on ethics and governance” in order to regain public trust.

“It’s clear that some big charities lost their way with fundraising practices,” Wilson said. “Frankly, public confidence has been shaken – not just for those at fault – but for the sector as a whole and that is deeply, deeply unfair – especially for the smallest charities with the tightest margins.”

He said the government will become “more of a helping hand and less of a crutch to charities”.

Part of the solution was for the sector to become “more capable, resilient, self-confident and independent”, Wilson said.

“The government has previously had a top-down relationship with civil society organisations," he said. "We make the grants and charities put them to work in communities across Britain."

He said there would be a shift away from government grant support, although there would "always remain" a place for this kind of investment.

"It’s why we protected the Big Lottery Fund in the recent Autumn Statement Review,” he said.

Wilson said the government would help shift the sector away from dependency on local authority grants by providing a broader, “more sustainable” range of funding options and by focusing resources on communities themselves.

"We are opening up a range of financial options – from social investment to public services and contracts, to other new forms of funding. But in return, we need you to make sure that every penny of that is well spent," he said.

‘Public trust must be earned’

He said he believed the sector could regain the trust of the public.

“I believe the sector solves its own problems,” he said. “Public trust has to be earned. It can’t simply be taken for granted any more.”

“While the right values are essential, so too is leadership and long-term planning. It’s more important than ever before when you are thinking of new ways to make money go further – in how to adapt and change to live within your means and how to coordinate your activities with others for maximum impact. The Office for Civil Society is on hand to help with all of this.”

Wilson repeated Chencellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement pledge to pump greater resources into the National Citizen Service and social impact bonds. Some £80m has been pledged for social impact bonds while an estimated £1.1bn will be spent on the National Citizen Service by 2020.