One third of charities say demand for services has exceeded supply
Howard Lake | 4 February 2009 | News
Research published today by the Charity Commission, the independent regulator for charitable activity in England and Wales, demonstrates that over a third (35%) of charities report that demand for their services has exceeded supply.
The report, “A Balancing Act: New perspectives on the charity/beneficiary relationship”, examines the relationship between charities and people they help, exploring public views on what receiving charity services means today.
The survey on which the report was based found that 19% of charities surveyed said that they had been unable to get funding for specific new activities or people, and that 16% had been unable to get funding to maintain ongoing services or activities.
However, it is not just funding shortages that are causing people to miss out on these services. The survey of over 2,000 charities also found that 28% of adults would be ’embarrassed’ to receive charity help, and 16% said that they would feel ‘uncomfortable’ contacting a charity for help.
Yet charities themselves do not always do as much as they can. Although 24%% of charities do refer people to other organisations that can help, 13% say they never refer people to other sources of help.
One in three charities (32%) said that they actively seek beneficiaries out, when asked to state how they identify their beneficiaries.
Dame Suzi Leather, Chair of the Charity Commission, said: “We need to address the issue of embarrassment and stigma attached to being helped by a charity. There is clearly still an uphill struggle to communicate the range and scope of the work charities actually do”.
www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Library/publications/pdfs/rs18text.pdf
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.