The Prince Update - February 8th
Our writer Richard Prince shares his regular horizon scan of the sector news, flagging up developments, new funding and opportunities in the social sector for portfolio careerists and others to be aware of.
2020 was a difficult year for charities and not-for-profits and 2021 clearly still holds great challenges, but we will continue to bring you round-ups of news that may be helpful to you in your work in the sector.
Information about post-Brexit government funding delayed until the summer
Charities will have to wait until the summer for information about applying for post-Brexit government funding, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said yesterday. The statement, made during a webinar hosted by the Charity Tax Group, suggests that the timetable for releasing details about the Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) has been delayed.
The SPF will replace European Union structural funding, which distributed money to charities and other organisations addressing regional inequality. Those funds are unavailable now Britain has left the EU. But charities will have access to a £220m “bridge fund” during this financial year to help local organisations prepare to make applications to the SPF.
Charity Commission has not seen anticipated increase in charity mergers
The Charity Commission has not seen the increase in mergers that it expected to see as a result of the pandemic, according to its chief executive. Helen Stephenson. She was asked whether she would like to see more consolidation in the sector, and said: “We thought initially that there might be more consolidations, that there might be more mergers, and so worked on making sure all of our guidance was up to date.” However, this has not yet come about. Stephenson added that “we would not as a regulator opine on who should merge with who” but noted where she has seen positive examples of mergers, organisations have put beneficiaries and purpose at the forefront of their decision making. These organisations have remained in a strong place during the pandemic, where they “may have struggled as individual organisations”.
New report on collaboration and partnership working
Rebalancing the Relationship is a new report from NCVO, ACEVO and Lloyds Bank Foundation, which highlights ways in which larger and smaller voluntary organisations can support each other in the competitive commissioning environment and collaborate to achieve greater impact for the communities they serve. It is the result of an 18-month research project that collected evidence of good and bad collaborative practice from over 200 larger and smaller charities.
The commissioning and procurement environment is competitive and frequently does not reward or facilitate meaningful collaboration. Yet when larger and smaller charities work together in partnership, they can offer and deliver significantly greater impact for the people and communities they serve than by acting alone. But partnership working is rarely easy.
Comment: A lot of good stuff in this report, including some case studies
REMINDER - EP Good Merger Index 2021
On February 10th Eastside Primetimers will launch our latest Good Merger Index, providing new data on not-for-profit sector mergers for charity managers and trustees. This will include a look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on charity collaboration in 2020, as well as the previous year. Sign up for the launch: https://ep-uk.org/publication-launch-good-merger-index-2021/
NPC - Interactive Covid-19 data for charities and funders
NPV has updated their interactive databank, which is designed to help charities and funders see the places most affected by Covid-19, and those that have underlying factors—such as age, health, ethnicity, economic indicators, and multiple deprivation—which may put them at risk. The databank also includes dashboards which show charity demand data, allowing us to better understand what charities are experiencing on the ground and to set that against the official Covid-19 cases and death figures.
https://www.thinknpc.org/resource-hub/update-interactive-covid-19-data-for-charities-and-funders/
NPC also has a useful article showing how one charity has used the databank to help target outreach areas:
https://www.thinknpc.org/blog/driving-data-led-decision-making-with-the-local-needs-databank/
NCVO to close its Funding Central service and wind down Trusted Charity programme
NCVO is closing its Funding Central service and ending its quality assurance programme, as part of its new strategy. Funding Central will close on 31 March, although NCVO is directing charities to other similar services. The Trusted Charity programme will be wound down over the course of this year and finish in March 2022. The membership body is also considering options for how to evolve its Civil Society Almanac research. Like many charities, NCVO’s income has been hit by the pandemic and is projecting a £1.3m deficit in each of the next three years.
Comment: funding Central and the Civil Society Almanac are really good sources of information – it will be a shame if they are lost
Martin Lewis calls for bailout for charities at risk of collapse due to Covid
Martin Lewis, the MoneySavingExpert founder who is giving away more than £10m of his fortune, has warned that many charities are at risk of collapse as a result of Covid-19 and has called for an urgent government bailout.
Lewis highlighted the increased focus on health charities, such as the NHS-linked fundraising efforts by Captain Tom Moore, as contributing to an “existential risk to other charity sectors”. “The huge rise in demand for services, especially for those in the areas of mental health, poverty relief and domestic abuse, is coupled with a substantial drop in their incomes, as donations dry up and charity shops close, leaving a possible £10bn shortfall for the UK charity sector,” he said.
Comment: useful to have a respected advocate, but we’ll have to wait and see if any more support for charities will come