# Investment banker warns "credit crunch will hit charities hard"

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/10/09/investment-banker-warns-quotcredit-crunch-will-hit-charities-hardquot/
- Published: 2008-10-09T13:01:15+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

![](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/files/images/news/John_studzinski_1223557249.jpg)

John Studzinski of the Blackstone Group, one of Britain’s top investment bankers
and a major donor to charities, warned 1,000 charity leaders at a conference yesterday
that “individuals will panic and reduce their donations as unemployment and economic
recession increase.”

Delegates at Action Planning’s annual ‘Raising funds from the Rich’ conference in
London heard from a range of Britain’s wealthiest philanthropists about the impact
of the credit crunch on giving.

Studzinski forecasted that major donors and grant-making charitable trusts will 
cut their donations as their wealth and dividend incomes fall and that the decline
in corporate support for the charity sector will be particularly marked.

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He also expected that Governments across the world, faced with mounting budget deficits,
would need to hold back on health and social welfare spending, reducing statutory
funding to charities.

He encouraged charity leaders to focus on their core supporters to cope over the
next two to three years. He commented that “your fair weather friends will melt 
away but, if you approach them appropriately, those who care most passionately about
your work will stand by you and see you through this period.”

Now was the time to implement longer-term fundraising strategies, he said. “Glitzy
dinners are out; they will need to give way to a focus on value for money and the
outcomes you achieve. Honesty and transparency from charities will be vital in retaining
support.”

“The real recession is just around the corner” he said. “This is going to be a tough
period for charities but I think that we can learn a lot and emerge stronger.”

Other speakers at the conference included hedge fund magnate, Michael Hintze, and
Richard Harvey, who gave up his role as CEO of insurance company Aviva to work as
a charity volunteer in Africa.

www.actionplanning.co.uk

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