Chartered Institute of Fundraising consults on making 13 staff roles redundant
Howard Lake | 14 October 2020 | News
The Chartered Institute of Fundraising has begun a formal consultation with staff with the aim of making 13 roles redundant. The decision is being made in response to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the national membership body for fundraisers.
Chief Executive Peter Lewis described his colleagues as a “fantastic staff team” and commented that it was “with great sadness” that he had initiated the formal consultation.
He added that he had hoped to avoid making the move, but “like so many of our members across the charity sector”, he said that “we have no choice but to take this action now”. He was aware that all the staff had made considerable efforts over the last seven months to serve the fundraising community and in the period before the pandemic. He acknowledged that every person in the roles at risk had “played a significant part in supporting our members in this time of unprecedented difficulty”.
The roles or areas of activity that are at risk were not publicly disclosed, but they represent a quarter of the Chartered Institute’s staff.
Lewis recognised that making staff redundant at this time meant that the Institute’s capacity to deliver support to fundraisers would be reduced at a time when the need for such support and services was needed more than ever.
He said: “These are not changes we wanted to put forward, but ones that we are forced to, and need to, in order to best be able to serve our members and the wider fundraising and charity sector in the months and years ahead… While these proposed changes are hard, both professionally and personally, for all of us at the Chartered Institute, we believe that they are essential in order for us to be able to continue our work, and best support the fundraising community, and charitable causes more widely, all around the UK.”
He concluded: “I am extremely proud of the work of our team over the last few months, moving all of our support, conferences, events, training and qualifications online and in working in new and creative ways. I have been guided and supported by their expertise and commitment over the past few years, enabling us to gain chartered status for the profession only in March this year, and ensuring we continually and passionately champion our vision of excellent fundraising for a better world.”
In a hugely challenging time, yesterday we started a formal consultation process with staff on a proposed restructure. Read the full statement from our chief executive Peter Lewis here:https://t.co/OaTmix7rR1
— Chartered Institute of Fundraising (@CIOFtweets) October 14, 2020
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NCVO announces consultation on redundancies too
On the same day the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) announced that it too was consulting with staff on making some redundancies.
Chief Executive Karl Wilding said that this “will mean around 13 people leave the organisation”.
If implemented, we think our proposals will mean around 13 people leaving the organisation.
It’s devastating to lose such talented and dedicated people – who all feel passionate about the voluntary sector and the incredible things we can collectively achieve together.
— Karl Wilding @Ka*********@ms***.social (@karlwilding) October 14, 2020
Like Peter Lewis, Wilding emphasised his respect for the skills, talents and commitment of his colleagues, especially over the past seven months following the initial lockdown. Again, these redundancies are attributed to the sharp reduction in income experienced by NCVO.
He acknowledged that other charities, some of them members of NCVO, were experiencing even harder decisions. He also highlighted his concern for all charities, looking ahead to through Autumn to Winter.
So, we’ve begun consulting with staff this week on what a smaller NCVO might look like.
As ever, my @ncvo colleagues are brilliant and I want to put on record my huge respect for them. Their commitment to supporting charities and volunteering is unremitting. Thank you.
— Karl Wilding @Ka*********@ms***.social (@karlwilding) October 14, 2020
You can read Wilding’s full announcement in a Twitter thread:
Thread from our chief executive on changes at NCVO⬇️ https://t.co/ccRHxmNVwR
— NCVO (@NCVO) October 14, 2020
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.