Gareth Davies argues 'charity is an investment like any other'

Howard Lake | 9 March 2006 | Blogs

Gavyn Davies aruges that “charity is an investment like any other” in his backpage column “Gavyn Davies does the maths” in The Guardian today.
He accepts that this might raise hackles, but counters “why shouldn’t donors expect their money to be used wisely in the interests of those in need? My contention is that donors are entitled to expect nothing less.”
He explains that this is one of the tenets underpinning New Philanthropy Capital, which he founded in 2001.
Indeed, he argues that some charities can generate a return of 2,500% to investors, citing the case of the Swansea branch of Age Concern: “for every £1,000 given to them, they can help the poorest pensioners claim £25,000 of extra benefits.” Based on this, he and New Philanthropy Capital believe that “the government would need to ‘invest’ only £160m to boost pensioner benefit uptake to 100% via such programmes.”

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.