Leading charity professor Gareth Morgan has announced he will retire at the end of the year after more than 20 years in charity sector research.

Morgan is leader of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and professor of charity studies at Sheffield Hallam University. He has led the way in researching a standardised financial accounting system – and most recently a global financial reporting framework for charities.

Last year, the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies published the results of a survey by Morgan and other academics to gauge the sector's appetite for a global charity reporting standard.

The consultation achieved over 600 responses with collective experience of financial reporting by around 35,000 NPOs in 179 countries - with many expressing enthusiasm for the initiative.

Speaking to Civil Society News yesterday, Morgan said progress has been made on "the possibility of international standards for not-for-profit reporting" - such as academic research papers and the CCAB setting up a steering group.

Morgan said the International Accounting Standards Board has expressed an interest in putting it "on its future agenda". And the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants has released a guide for organisations.

"So I think it’s going to be quite a considerable hot potato" for the global "voluntary sector over the coming years", Morgan said. 

The topic of international standars has received less enthusiasm within the UK than internationally, according to Morgan. 

"We did find in our research that support for international standards was not so strong in the UK because we’ve got the Charities Sorp and obviously people think that is working well," said Morgan.

"The UK can’t impose the Charities Sorp on the whole of the world. There needs to be a process of concessions.

"It’s moving. There isn’t any one-off major development to report yet but it’s certainly not a case where the report is just  parked."

Charity regulation 'in crisis'

Last year, Morgan provided written evidence to a Joint Committee on the Draft Protection of Charities Bill. 

He warned that charity regulation was in crisis and the Protection of Charities Bill would be little help. 

“If Parliament is minded to make time for a new charities bill, I am surprised that what is proposed by the Cabinet Office is so modest,” he said. “I consider that the state of charity regulation in England and Wales is currently in a state of crisis. Broadly speaking I feel the draft bill is simply ‘tinkering round the edges’.

“There are many other reforms to the framework of charity regulation which could usefully have been included in a Bill, including other significant recommendations in Lord Hodgson’s Review of the Charities Act 2006."

Final lecture

Morgan will deliver a final valedictory lecture at Sheffield Hallam University on 9 December, which will draw on a range of his research over the years.

In a statement yesterday, Morgan said: “I will be asking whether the challenges we now see to charitable status will amount to an ‘end of charity’ in the sense that the term is generally understood in the UK.”

The lecture entitled The End of Charity, will be open to the public.

Morgan said he will continue to advise on charity regulations in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and spend more time on voluntary charity commitments. 

Leadership at CVSR will pass jointly to Tracey Coule and Chris Dayson.