Intelligent Giving may yet be consigned to the history books as New Philanthropy Capital struggles to secure funding to revive the charity comparison website.

In an interview with Civil Society, to be published in Fundraising magazine next week, NPC chief executive Martin Brookes said it was proving difficult to secure funding for Intelligent Giving, which he estimated would cost around £100,000 a year to run.

Asked whether he would consider killing off the charity, which was transferred to NPC last summer after it finally fell victim to funding difficulties, Brookes said he would.

“You’ve got to be brutal. Putting it on ice essentially is putting it to a point where it doesn’t cost any money. The intellectual capital is there to be dusted off and brought to life as and when, but you’re not committing resources to it,” he said.

“I think there are almost not enough charities dying. Generally speaking I would rather Intelligent Giving doesn’t die, but if we can’t bring it to life I can’t really do artificial resuscitation.”

Brookes told Civil Society that there had been some interest in funding Intelligent Giving before its transfer into NPC hands, but some funders had been concerned about its tone and behaviour. Now, he says, the funding effort is being hampered by a generally difficult funding environment.

He added that there was a disappointing lack of commitment to funding such ventures among UK major donors and trusts.

“I don’t know why UK foundations don’t get this. I also don't know why government doesn’t get this. It should be in government’s interest to promote independent analysis and scrutiny and public debate around charities and their performance.

"But if you look at the way the Office of the Third Sector has run things, it’s much more inclined to help things that are owned by the sector and representative bodies of the sector, rather than independent scrutiny of it,” he said.  

• Subscribers to Fundraising magazine and civilsociety.co.uk can read Celina Ribeiro's in-depth analysis about Intelligent Giving and other sector watchdogs here.