The recession is over but not for charities
Howard Lake | 26 January 2010 | Blogs
I’m going to state the obvious. The recession is officially over, but that does not mean that charities can start to breathe easily. In fact, my Cassandra-like view is that the recession, or at least its severe impact, has hardly got started in the charity sector.
First, there is the continued increased demand on many charities’ services. That won’t ease off quickly.
Secondly, and more importantly, are the public sector funding cuts that kick in from 2011. If anything, the sector (or parts of it) still have one more ‘good’ year to go. And I accept describing the period 2008-10 as ‘good’ will strike many as odd.
What can we do? Fundraise as hard, as effectively, and with as much innovation as possible. Fundraisers and donors will get charities through the hard years ahead. A daunting privilege.
Some of my thoughts seem to be backed up by John Low, Chief Executive of Charities Aid Foundation, who commented on the end of the recession today.
“We cautiously welcome the news that the UK has emerged from the longest recession since the Second World War”, he said, “yet Charities are far from out of the woods. They continue to experience unprecedented demand from a society under immense pressure and anticipate this will increase yet further as public services are cut back to repair government finances. Meanwhile, the economy and donations remain well below pre-recession levels.
“There are still many unanswered questions. For example, how long will it be until donors start to feel able to give as much as they gave in 2007 or more? What’s going to happen to charities after the election and the inevitable government spending cuts? Will inflation and rising interest rates have an adverse effect on both charities and the recovery?
“With such uncertainty over the coming months and perhaps years, it will be some time before the sector regains its confidence and can truly claim to have seen the end of the recession.
“Charities will need to continue to work hard, to innovate continuously and increase efficiencies as well as ramp up fundraising efforts for some time to come.”
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.