Navca chief Kevin Curley has sent an angry letter to Charity Commission chief executive Sam Younger attacking his recent exhortation to the sector to “move from a grants mentality to a contract mentality”.
Younger made the remark in his maiden speech to the sector at Charity Finance Live on Monday. He said that in order to make the most of the opportunities presented by the government’s Big Society vision, the sector must “move from a grant mentality – the expectation that they will be supported because their heart is in the right place – to a contract mentality. To an understanding that you are going to need to bid for support for certain projects, services, or activities in return for demonstrable public benefit.”
After the speech, Curley described the comment as “technocratic nonsense” and said the reference to ‘grant mentality’ was out of step with mainstream thinking.
“All major political parties recognise the value of grant funding and support it as a cost-effective means of getting money to where it’s most needed locally,” he said.
In his letter, Curley told Younger that grants remain crucial to the government’s plans to build the Big Society and are particularly vital for small, local charities.
While Navca did not resist the use of contracts for delivering mainstream public services, an intelligent commissioning approach was needed which involves a “robust option appraisal process for determining the most appropriate funding route”, he wrote.
He concluded: “I would urge you to rethink your views on the role of grant funding and to recognise that appropriate use should be made of both grants and contracts to deliver the best outcomes for communities.”
Bubb: Younger was ‘spot on’
However, Curley’s view of the speech was not shared by Acevo chief executive Stephen Bubb, who described Younger’s comment as “spot on”.
Bubb said this was a message Acevo had been plugging for years, before the current cuts crisis. “You need a diversity of funding and income streams. Over-reliance on grants is dangerous,” he said.
A Charity Commission spokeswoman added: "As you can see from the text of the speech, it's clear Sam wasn't passing judgement on the relative merits of different types of government support for charities - he was reminding charities that to survive during the coming period of austerity, they are going to have to focus ever more energy on demonstrating impact and on reporting the difference they make."
