70,000 jobs lost in Third Sector – institute of Fundraising – how big is my society now?
Howard Lake | 10 January 2012 | Blogs
Simon Morrison at the Institue of Fundraising today quotes a survey on the results of funding cuts in the Third Sector. Knowing the cuts will bite with more force later this year and next it sounds the death knell for any lingering doubts that Cameron’s talk of creating a big society was anything less than a empty diversion.
The sector has, however, failed to rise to the challenge to develop and implement new fundraising strategies. Instead Gaynor Humphreys of London Funders reports many trust receiving fewer applications and I see a dearth of effective major donor programmes despite the rich having regained their wealth. Instead, organisations across civil society appear to have their heads in the sand waiting for the cuts to fall before building up alternative income streams, and then having spent their reserves on the inevitable redundancy payments instead of investing them early in fundraising programmes. We see many last minute cries for help well past the time when action would have been truly effective.
So, fundraisers now it is up to you to save the day given no investment and no time – I feel for you!
John Baguley
Www.internationalfundraisingconsultancy.com
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.