GoodCharity website aims to increase transparency in Irish charity sector
Howard Lake | 13 November 2014 | News
A new website, GoodCharity.ie, has been launched in Ireland to increase transparency in the charity sector by providing information that will help the public evaluate charities before they donate money or volunteer their time.
The launch of the website follows a series of negative news stories over the last year about some Irish charities which has hit fundraising in the sector in general. The bad publicity has also prompted the Irish government finally to move on establishing a regulator for the charity sector.
GoodCharity.ie has been developed by a coalition of organisations in the voluntary sector and private fundraising bodies. The founding partners are Dochas, Fundraising Ireland, Total Fundraising, the Wheel and Whitebarn Consulting.
The website attempts to answer the question, ‘What makes a charity good?’ by posing a series of questions and suggested answers. The questions posed include:
* What problem is the charity trying to solve?
* Does the charity’s approach to solving the problem make sense?
* What has the charity achieved to date?
* Is the charity signed up to any professional standards?
* Does the charity make information on its finances publicly available?
In addition, the website addresses the questions of charity salaries, expenditure on overheads and how to find financial information on charities. Many of these questions are linked to key articles on charities and fundraising.
Anne Hanniffy, CEO of Fundraising Ireland, said the new website addresses many of the public’s concerns with regards to how charities are managed and provides donors with some insight into how their funds are spent. She said:
“This is a very positive step to enhancing public trust and confidence in fundraising. The more transparent and open we can be as a sector, the more willing the public will be to donate.”
Similar initiatives have been established for UK donors, include Professor Adrian Sargeant’s now defunct CharityFacts.org, and work by the Impact Coalition.
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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.