An upcoming fundraising summit has faced criticism from fundraisers and infrastructure bodies over a lack of representation for small and medium-sized charities.
On Friday NCVO announced plans for a meeting with umbrella bodies, the 50 largest fundraising charities and representatives from government.
It will hear an update from Rob Wilson, minister for civil society, on plans to develop new fundraising regulation, and will offer an opportunity to discuss forthcoming plans for fundraising regulation.
John Barrett (pictured), acting chief executive of the Small Charities Coalition, told Civil Society News that small and medium charities were “underrepresented” at the upcoming summit and vowed to be a “loud voice” on the issue.
Barrett said that his organisation had been invited to attend the summit on 4 December, but that he was concerned that not many small and medium charities had been directly invited to attend.
“It is a concern for us that so few small charities have been invited to attend a summit on an issue that so massively affects small charities," he said. "We will be attending and giving feedback from our members.
"We will try to give a good representation for that area of the sector and have a loud voice in any discussion.
“I think it would be fair to say that smaller organisations have felt underrepresented during this whole process.”
Barrett also said he was “surprised” at how little contact that NCVO has had with the SCC on the issue, given how the number of small/medium sized charities invited to the summit was "disproportionate" to the make-up of the sector in reality.
Academics and sector representatives also expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that NCVO had invited only the top 50 fundraising charities when the announcement was first made on Friday.
Adrian Sargeant, director of the centre for sustainable philanthropy at the University of Plymouth, said the decision was “utterly deplorable” and called for small charities to “perhaps reconsider membership”.
Fundraising consultant Adrian Beney also criticised the NCVO and said the process is “straining any form of credibility for appropriateness and legitimacy of any new regulator”.
However a spokesman from NCVO told Civil Society News that the 4 December summit will not be used to make “big decisions” and will instead be just a chance for Rob Wilson, minister for civil society, to update representatives from the 50 or so charities who were approached by the Institute of Fundraising and PFRA to each stand £20,000 toward the setting up of the new regulator.
The spokesman said: “The largest fifty charities between them account for around two-thirds of all fundraising from the public, their actions have the biggest consequences for public trust in charities, and they have been asked to contribute five-figure sums each to the set-up of the new regulator.
“We thought it was important that there was an update on next steps for the charities who will be funding the regulator’s start-up costs, as well as for all fundraising charities, so we offered to host a meeting for the minister and others to explain what is going on. It’s not possible to get everyone from the tens of thousands of charities who might be interested into one room, so we’ll be live-streaming the event online.
“But primarily this is an update with some opportunity for discussion. It’s not a decision-making forum so there is no risk of charities of any type or size being excluded from actual decision-making, which will now be in the hands of the chair of the new fundraising regulator.
“We agree entirely that charities of all sizes must be involved in helping shape the setup of the new regulator, and we’ll be making this clear to the chair as soon as they are appointed.”
