The charity sector needs to stop giving money to “slow and cumbersome” organisations who should have innovated years ago, Dan Corry, chief executive of NPC, will say tonight.
Corry will deliver a speech this evening to the RSA where he will question whether organisations set up to do good will achieve their goal, and say the sector is in need of some "creative destruction".
He will say that, despite the UK charity sector being worth £60bn, the equivalent of the government’s total yearly budget for transport and defence, little is known about how charities use the money given to them and even less about how effective it is at improving lives of people who rely on charities for help.
Corry will question how much good some “under-scrutinised” organisations are actually doing. He will say: “Hundreds of thousands of organisations sharing billions of pounds each year. Nearly all are fuelled by a passion and mission for doing good –but being driven by good motives doesn’t guarantee that charities always actually do good.
“The charity sector, too long insulated from the forces driving improvements in the private and public sectors, is in dire need of some creative destruction.”
He will call for “fresher, newer thinking from funders and donors” and say that if charities cannot demonstrate clearly that they really do make a difference, then it should be questioned whether these charities should be confident of guaranteed funding in the future.
Corry will compare the public to the private sector, stating that in the latter, under-performing organisations are shipped off. He will say: “To put this another way: if you want to know why no one goes to Wimpy anymore, look no further than McDonald’s and Gourmet Burger.”
However, he will add: “Improving the sector isn’t just about the weak leaving in a sort of Darwinian approach, though. It is also often developed by bold new entrants who smash the previous paradigm by bringing in new approaches, new innovations.
“We need support and encouragement for charities in this mould, the cutting-edge start-ups with big ideas and a commitment to measuring how well they do, and publicly sharing their knowledge of what works and what doesn’t.”
