2013 – The year charities strike back…
Howard Lake | 8 January 2013 | Blogs
For the past few years charities have stood by as government cuts have decimated their income, and often brought them to the point of collapse. That is ‘stood by’ in the sense of not engaging or investing in fundraising for growth.
In our experience, until now boards have been deeply reluctant to sanction new ventures and to put new money into fundraising at exactly the time this was needed and, sad to say, many have suffered a steep retraction in the services they deliver as a result.
Just waiting for government to hand out more money has always been an idle pastime, but though this year is barely a few days old we have seen the number of charities approaching us to help grow their income pick up enormously over previous starts to the year. This could be just us, but i hope it is a trend and not just for our sake.
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This could be the year many charities strike back and create their own income streams, and more importantly the independence to decide just how their funds will be spent.
The scariest sentence in the English language is said to be “Hello, I’m from the government and I am here to help you!” Perhaps, when finally government seeks once again to find more charities to carry out its role the doors may remain firmly closed.
John Baguley
CEO IFC
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.