Voluntary bodies and the state have become so intertwined that some charity leaders whose organisations receive government grants see themselves as employees of government, an academic told the audience at the Charity Commission’s annual public meeting.
At the meeting in London yesterday, Frank Prochaska, a historian of modern Britain at Oxford University, gave a lecture entitled the State of Charity.
He said that once on the payroll of the taxpayer charities have less of an incentive to raise funds privately, and some see themselves more as public bodies.
He went on to say that one charity official, who he described as the “leader of one prominent society”, privately told Prochaska he thought charity to be “demeaning”.
This is despite the individual’s organisation enjoying the “tax benefits that charitable status provides”, he said.
Prochaska said: "Many charitable officials think of themselves not as charitable campaigners but as employees of government."
William Shawcross, chair of the Charity Commission, introduced Prochaska’s lecture by stating that it would cause debate and not everyone would agree with what the academic had to say.
In his lecture, Prochaska said: “In an era of partnerships and public service contracts, the state and many voluntary bodies have become so intertwined that it is rather fanciful to think of them as representing two distinct sectors. Greyness pervades the discussion.”
He went on to talk about how, as the state “insinuated itself in the folds of charity”, it is the government, not the voluntary citizen, who has “become the presiding judge of what constitutes charity or public benefit”.
Prochaska said in response to a question from the audience that “the more institutions take from the state, the more they proclaim their independence”.
In his lecture, he spoke about the history of charity and how it has changed from the Victorian era. He described the Charities Act 2006 “as though written by a robot”, saying: "It lacks any sense of the past, and you will look in vain for the words kindness, love, or, for that matter, Christianity.”
