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Charitable Giving
Every year in the UK the government provides more than half
of all the finance that is afforded to charities. At the last
count more than £13bn was given in the form of grants,
infrastructure loans and services for contract.
It is the last of these which makes up the largest proportion
of government spending in the third sector. Charities are
lightweight, they are run on extremely tight financial guidelines
and they are not looking to make a profit (usually) accordingly
they are in the perfect place to offer key public services
at lower cost than if the government were to do so itself.
That only tells half of the story, however, the smaller half
of charity funding comes from the private sector. This is
in the form of donations from individuals, fundraising efforts,
and even things like corporate bonds and stocks and shares
which the charities can hold and then sell when the time is
right.
The problem for many charities is that 0.2% of all charities
in the UK (that is, the biggest dozen or so) get an enormous
three quarters (or more) of all donations made by individuals.
For the small charities that do lots of excellent work in
the community it’s extremely difficult to attract the
attention of donors, and when it comes to the internet they
have practically no presence at all.
If these charities are to secure the long-term, sustainable
funding that they need in order to survive, there needs to
be a different way of raising money. The internet is a wonderful
tool, massive institutions (often through Google) can provide
a lot of financial support simply by offering advertising,
but again, these companies want return for their advertising
and, therefore, are going to gravitate towards the charities
that receive the most attention and traffic.
Another way that companies help is by having Corporate and
Social Responsibility partners, Legal & General, for example,
are partners with Shelter and their staff do a lot to raise
money and awareness for Shelter. Legal & General are just
one example of thousands of companies who have charity partners.
Without this support, the third sector simply could not survive,
but a lot more needs to be done to ensure that the individuals
and groups who do so much to keep society working behind the
scenes, don’t simply disappear due to lack of money.
Take a look at the Legal & General website for more information
on their Corporate and Social Responsibility policy and to
view their range of investment options, such as corporate
bonds.
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