The new culture minister has suggested that civil society could be strengthened by more mergers and collaboration between charities.

While conceding that “the full weight of the department is not yet behind” the idea, culture minister Ed Vaizey said he was struck by the number of registered charities in the UK.

“I do wonder whether there might be scope to strengthen the sector by more co-ordination or possibly mergers,” he told the Action Planning conference in Westminster yesterday.

Saying that he wouldn’t want to “throw the baby out with the bathwater”, Vaizey insisted “it is legitimate to examine how public benefit can be maximised”.

He said there are numerous examples of successful mergers between charities and told the audience that “no idea is sacrosanct”.

Emphasis on philanthropy

Vaizey also said he was determined to build fundraising capacity and standards within the arts and among charities as a whole.

Emphasising the importance of donor stewardship and cultivation, Vaizey said the sector and government have to get better at thanking donors and offered that himself and Secretary of State for Culture Jeremy Hunt would pen letters of thanks to major donors to the arts when asked to by recipient organisations.

He also called on large organisations to provide fundraising support and mentoring to smaller organisations and said that trustees must be taught to have responsibility for raising money. “There is a huge amount of scope to promote best practice across organisations,” he said.

Vaizey, who also has responsibility for digital technology within his broad portfolio, said he wanted to see an increase in giving through the internet, promote legacies and encourage the building of endowments at charities and arts organisations. Increasing philanthropy, he said, is viewed by the government as a 20-year project.

Organisations should consider allowing earmarked endowments and offer major donors the opportunity to have endowments named after them, much in the way buildings are named after key sponsors.

But, he was quick to emphasise that his belief in the importance of endowments “is not a secret plan to get the arts off government’s books”.

Arts funding cuts

“The DCMS is bearing its share of reductions,” he said, but promised the government would be “thoughtful” in how it implements cuts to culture.

On local funding cutbacks, Vaizey was all the more pessimistic. “If you don’t get together and present a coherent front to local councils you’re going to be in trouble,” he warned.