Majority of Tory supporters don’t think charities are too political, poll finds
Melanie May | 17 October 2023 | News
A majority of people who plan to vote Conservative don’t think that charities are ‘too political’ according to a poll for charity thinktank NPC (New Philanthropy Capital).
In fact, the poll of 2,062 people found that only 22% of Tory supporters said that charities are ‘too political’, while 63% said they ‘get it about right’ and 7% thought charities should be more political.
The poll was undertaken by Savanta for NPC ahead of NPC CEO Dan Corry’s call for politicians to take civil society seriously.
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In a speech to NPC’s Ignites conference today, Tuesday 17 October, Corry, a former Treasury official and Head of the Number 10 Policy Unit, will warn politicians that:
“if you want our public services to innovate and progress, in areas from mental health to reducing re-offending, you need to embrace the charity sector – not treat it like a difficult relative to be patronised at best and ignored at worst.”
He will call for the new government to introduce a ‘civil society test’ for all new policies, which would mean assessing all new policies to see if they could be delivered more efficiently by charities and other social organisations.
Pointing to evidence that charities and volunteering increase wellbeing and that higher wellbeing leads to more votes for the incumbent party, Corry suggests that backing charities could help Rishi Sunak ahead of next year’s election.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.