The Charity Commission should “redraft obligations placed on trustees” so that trustees focus less on the survival of a charity and more on “realising its charitable mission”, according to the charity think tank NPC.
The NPC manifesto, A Vision for Change, released today, says: “In the charity sector, the regulations direct trustees to focus more on the survival of the charity than on achieving the charity’s mission.
“We believe the language of the Charity Commission’s trustee obligations should be re-drafted to focus on acting less in the interests of the charity and its survival and more in the interests of its charitable mission and the beneficiaries it exists to help”.
The recommendation is one of a series of proposed changes to the way in which charities, ministers and funders work in the run up to the 2015 general election to create a “more vibrant and effective charity sector”.
NPC said the Charity Commission should also be granted greater powers to “maximise the impact of charities”, including "stricter powers to sanction charities which repeatedly break regulations”.
Other proposals include the creation of a £30m “innovation fund” at the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) to “support charities who want to test their ideas”.
The manifesto recommends a “ring fenced innovation fund – starting with 1 per cent of the BIG budget and growing to 5 per cent over the parliament”.
The think tank also calls for regulatory fines to be rerouted to fund “high impact local charities in deprived communities”.
“These would be charities working to redress the sort of problems caused in those industries, for example future fines against payday lenders would go to local debt relief advisors,” the manifesto said.
And it says that 10 per cent of all new goverment contracting should go to the charity sector.
Dan Corry, chief executive of NPC, said: “Charities achieve extraordinary things for their beneficiaries, and politicians rightly like to celebrate that.
"As we accelerate towards the 2015 General Election, ministers, funders and charities themselves can all change the way they work to make the sector even stronger, from small changes to ambitious reforms.
"If our proposals make progress, charities will be able to be even more effective in serving their beneficiaries."
