The chair of the Charity Commission will lament the Directory of Social Change’s (DSC) closure and urge funders to increase their support for the sector’s infrastructure bodies.
Julia Unwin will speak at the commission’s annual public meeting to warn of the knock-on effects for charities of DSC’s closure, after the 50-year-old organisation announced it would cease to run yesterday due to “huge financial pressures.”
“DSC has been a fixture in the voluntary sector for over half a century, providing practical training, governance guidance, research and campaigning on behalf of charities,” she is expected to say. “It, and its work, will be greatly missed.”
Unwin will reflect on a wider trend of charitable infrastructure bodies closing in recent years, including Getting on Board, the Foundation for Social Improvement, the Small Charities Coalition and Children England.
“The loss of these organisations is not a footnote in the history of the charity sector,” Unwin will say. “It is the tremor ahead of what might be a quietly destructive earthquake.
“We are seeing the gradual impoverishment of the organisations that provide charities with volunteers, trustees, skills, advice and practical support,” she is expected to say.
“Their loss does not affect one organisation at a time; it weakens the capacity and resilience of the sector as a whole.”
‘Take note and act, as you did for Reach’
Unwin will call on funders to offer greater support to infrastructure organisations, following the string of closures and the recent salvation of Reach Volunteering.
The skills-based volunteering charity, operating for more than 40 years, reversed closure plans after “unprecedented” support from a group of funders last month.
She will appeal to “charities with the ability to pay a subscription fee to such bodies” as well as the government to support such organisations.
“But also to funders in the charitable sector,” she is expected to say. “To grantmakers and foundations, please take note and act.
“As you did for Reach, so please do for other vital organisations that do so much to lay the foundation for a healthy charitable sector.”
