Karl Wilding

As we approach the chancellor’s autumn statement and a likely general election in Spring 2010 the debate over public spending levels is in full swing. What’s more, the language of cuts is now official government terminology: it’s no longer if, it’s now when, and how much. Everything is under review, which organisations in the voluntary sector – who are both delivering services to users and fighting for their rights – both fear and welcome. The mood is one of both trepidation and...

Some of you might have come across Nonprofit Quarterly, a thoughtful, in-depth publication aimed at sector leaders that looks at issues ranging from ethics to fundraising. A recent special edition on infrastructure is well worth a look for UK people interested in the subject; if you havent got time to look at the full report (which is 72 excellent pages) then here are a few issues from the exec summary (page 11, if you want to look!):

1. Infrastructure is largely targeted at large nonprofits -...

Great article, Kathryn.

So, you might polarise opionions into two camps: the optimists who believe the recent indicators such as the uptick in the housing market or in industrial production figures, and the pessimists who expect us to hit some quite different big numbers: unemployment of 3 million, which may well be timed with unerring accuracy with a general election, and a government spending deficit of £200 billion for the current financial year. (Incidentally, will anyone actually care if ...

This is an interesting experiment that would be akin to a chair of trustees being elected by a charity's supporter base. Clearly not for all - but these experiments are interesting and collectively it will be worth watching to see if they are more widely mimicked. Many seem to be imported from the US - so for example, reports in the last few days talked about proposals to give local authorities to hold Californian style ballots at the same time as local and national elections. I suppose the...

Thaler’s book uses charitable giving as an example of the sort of nudge that policy makers could engage in. The two examples are very suited to the american tax system (eg a debit card that aggregates donations for your tax return), but its an interesting idea that people are inherently pro-social in their behaviour (to use a current phrase from economics that seems to be gaining some traction). I suppose the difficult question going forward (for NCVO’s funding commission, for example) is...

If you’re looking for insights and help around how to cope in a recession (and who doesn’t?!) then have a look at this presentation from Stuart Etherington, CEO of NCVO: Managing your charity in turbulent times.
It has a look at precendents for the sector in past recessions then puts forward ‘The 5 Ps’: Purpose, Planning, Pennies, People, Partnerships which you should consider. Stuart finishes with an encouraging thought – not all will be equally affected, so it doesn’t have to be you.

I like these quotes from this article:

“We need to be adapting to future needs, not building the same things but bigger.”
“The fact that it worked yesterday does not mean it is going to work tomorrow”

In response to the findings of UK Giving 2008 that cash donations have fallen, some have asked whether small charities will suffer.

The answer is no. The gradual shift from ‘spontaneous’ cash giving to regular, planned giving reflects changes in the broader economy. As more purchases are carried out using credit or debit cards and over the web, donations are inevitably following. Like small retailers, small charities will adapt.

It’s not just large charities that can use the new cashless...

The lead Guardian story last Friday was 2025: the “end of US power”. The quote is taken from Global Trends 2025, the latest environmental analysis by the US’s National Intelligence Council. This is strategic analysis by some of the best, most informed strategic analysts on the planet. So, I thought it might be interesting to have a quick look from a more generic perspective – I’ll leave you to decide whether the Guardian’s headline of choice was representative of the content.

First up, I...

We are gathering together analysis, views and evidence on the impact of a recession on the sector. You can find all the sources we’ve identified here, on our delicious site (delicious is a ‘social bookmarking’ tool which allows you to collect and share web links)

So what exactly does, you are already thinking, the music industry have to do with the voluntary and community sector? Well aside from the obvious that many VCOs are in the business of making or performing music, the recorded music industry is going through the sort of structural changes that seem to be relevant for our sector. Let me explain.

Record companies have traditionally generated revenue from selling content generated by a roster of artists contracted to them. This intellectual...

One of the frequent comments I tend to make on the site is that some of the developments in the US nonprofit sector might be indicative of what the future looks like in the UK. An emerging argument about diversity and foundations is one such example.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently reported that the Californian state assembly has passed a proposal (its not yet been agreed by the Senate) to force the largest nonprofit foundations to disclose the composition of their workforce and...

There have been a couple of replies to the NYT article here.

They both seem to be critical of the original article, standing up for the role of philanthropy, and in one case berating the performance of government. But I thought the original article was a bit more nuanced than that. Anyone got a view?

If it’s about wider funding, then the obvious things that spring to my mind (and I’ve mentioned a couple on the other credit crunch blog) are:

1. Loan finance: obvious really, but loan finance will dry up as institutions holding cash hoard it. Not a great time to be promoting market solutions and quasi-equity.
2. Foundations: likely to be hit by nervous equity markets. I’d be interested to know if anyone in the network knows whether foundations have been investing hedge funds, who from...

Geoff Mulgan’s point about focussing on institutional structures and forms has been echoed elsewhere in academic debates about ‘ownership’ – ie which sector are you in? This has arguably led to what some believe to be futile debates about independence, arguing that we should instead recognize that interdependence is the dominant paradigm in the mixed economy of welfare.

You’ll all know the blurring of the boundaries argument: well, academics like Ralph Kramer argue that the sector is an...

My personal opinion is that there is much more to do around thinking about ICT will change the sector. I find it quite disappointing that so much discussion tends to be around back-office support or, where it is about the wider environment, how we can use websites to get people to click to give.

The focus needs to broaden so that we think about how ICT is changing the institutions and communities around us: this then leads to a focus on what the sector can strategically plan for. The other...

Should umbrella bodies promote the notion of a sector? Or should they instead promote the issues and missions of their collective members that ultimately shape the need for voluntary and community organisations at the centre of a civil society?
Now seems a good time to pose the question about what the infrastructure of the future is for: what with CapacityBuilders taking the ChangeUp agenda to its next stage, and Carnegie UK’s report on the future of civil society highlighting the need for...

One of the questions we are asked occasionally is what level should salary increases be pitched at for the next financial year? Now, this is arguably a financial/business planning exercise rather than a long-term, strategic planning issue, but some analysis of the wider labour market and its drivers should be part of any strategic plan.

The Labour market driver will address this broader issue, but in the meantime a few pointers might be useful. ONS reckons pay settlements (or, technically,...

I’ll start this post by freely admitting that I am not an economist…so these thoughts (opinions?) probably won’t stand up to rigorous analysis. As such, I am trying to stimulate debate.

Private equity funding – those investors who are taking companies private by buying the publicly listed shares and then delisting them in the expectation that they can run them more efficiently and therefore profitably – is a global phenomenon that has been boosted by low interest rates (and in turn cheap...

Now, this might look a bit odd, but I’m replying to my own blog. Or rather I am replying on behalf of an old friend who can’t reply in person. Let’s say they are challenged by the technology.

Anyway, I digress. My friend points out that the survival of ‘unstrategic’ foundations isn’t actually that strange. He argues that foundations will survive even by doing nothing, because they don’t need to do ‘something’. The report does indeed say this too – my friend remarked “there is no pressure on...

I think it’s debateable whether or not this does have direct implications for the sector. Its certainly the case that foundations will be impacted: remember they are in effect savers who live off the dividends and interest from their investments. So, an increase in interest rates will (ceteris paribus) increase their income. Which means they have more money to give to the frontline organisations reading this blog.

Balanced against that is the obvious fact that more organisations are...

Its another US publication, but the Center for Effective Philanthropy recently published a report on how foundations view and design strategy. OK, its about foundations, but put that aside. Its relevant to all of us.

It defines strategy as "a framework for decision making that is 1)focused on the external context in which the foundation works and 2)includes a hypothesised causal connection between use of foundation resources and goal achievement.

OK, nothing surprising, but what it does do,...

There is an interesting quote on Wikipedia’s internet entry from an american writer called N J Slibbert of the Urban Land Institute. He states that “the Internet is fast becoming a basic feature of global civilization, so that what has traditionally been called civil society is now becoming identical with information technology society as defined by Internet use.”

Interesting comment, especially given other drivers on here regarding the digital divide and the critique of Robert Putnam (which...

I agree this is a problem, but is the access issue reaching a tipping point? The Internet World Stats website reports that 62% of the population in the UK now has web access. I think that Ofcom estimates are even higher. Worldwide, an estimated 1.2 billion people have web access.

One of the problems about the debate on internet access is that it is a very PC-centric model. I can’t pin down the research – I think it’s by Gartner – but in essence they argue that shortly more mobile phones will...

I wonder if the answer to this question lays not so much in the implications of a bigger rental market per se, but the implications of some parts of the rental market getting larger. In particular, the private sector is gaining a foothold in the provision of social (i.e. rented) housing as government (specifically the Housing Corporation) creates a mixed economy of providers including the private sector. David Mullins (well worth googling if you are interested in housing and futures) and...