A change in how charitable giving is described is needed to boost philanthropy in the UK, a government minister has said.
Culture minister Chris Bryant said at an event in London yesterday that the UK could learn from the US, where there is more of a philanthropic culture.
Bryant said: “I don't really like the word philanthropy because I've talked to trustees who are trustees of long-standing foundations and many of them go: ‘I have no idea what you're talking about. Do you mean giving?’”
He said that in the US, “lots of people” give as part of their national or local duty on a monthly basis to a variety of different causes.
“We haven't got that in the bloodstream at the moment in the UK, and that's the thing I would most dearly love to do,” he said. “And we need to think about the language to enable that to happen.”
Bryant was speaking at the launch event of the Centre for Social Justice’s (CSJ) Supercharging Philanthropy report, which estimates that billions could be unlocked for small charities in the UK through measures including matched donations schemes and dormant assets.
£8bn of donations ‘could be released’
CSJ’s report estimates that new matched funding initiatives using £3.2bn of dormant assets could release £8.22bn of philanthropic support because of appetite from wealthy donors.
However, it warns that philanthropy risks tailing off without a clear leadership and that grants and corporate giving have declined in recent years.
It calls on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to lead other government departments to create a national, cross-government strategy on how to increase domestic philanthropic giving.
The strategy should include a specific approach to increase philanthropic giving to small and medium-sized charities with a numerical target for national giving in the next five years, it says.
It suggests that funders should publish previously successful grant applications, anonymising them, to give prospective applicants an indication of what givers are likely to fund.
Funders should also provide stability and longevity in their giving by committing to multiyear funding projects where appropriate, with a preference away from contracts of under one year, it states.
It also suggests that the Financial Conduct Authority should establish an accredited professional certificate in philanthropic advice available to various professionals including solicitors, financial advisors and accountants.
‘I’m going to call it philanthropy’
Cath Dovey, co-founder of the Beacon Collaborative, said in response to Bryant’s comment: “I'm going to call it philanthropy because if you sit and think about how you can make a difference, not just putting pennies in the pot or putting a direct debit in place that you never think about again, you are doing something different from just giving.
“You are trying to make an incremental difference for people's lives, and you're doing it in a way that works alongside the government because a philanthropist will always get to places where the government can't reach.
“These charities exist because there are places the government can't reach and there are news [reports of] where the government isn't supporting. So it is additional and it provides fuel for charities.
“So I will use the word for that because it matters a lot to me and that we understand that this activity is incrementally important to our culture and beyond what happens with government funding.”
Dovey said that using the dormant fund and assets is not a cost to the government but rather an investment.
“Every pound that the government puts in, more money will come out in the places that need it. That's the bottom line,” she said.
Government urged to set out bold vision
Also speaking at the launch event, Charities Aid Foundation's chief executive Neil Heslop said: “We know that Britain is a generous country, but we also know that there's probably never been a tougher time for charities than right now with the long-lasting legacy of the pandemic crisis.
“Many, many of these organisations, which are absolutely central to our social framework, are dealing with that triple binding of higher demand, increasing costs and real pressure.
“Many of us as citizens are getting out of the habit of giving and that ecosystem where charities are in a position where they are increasingly relying more and more on fewer and fewer people.”
He added: “We do need a long-term, serious effort to turn some of those long-term trends around.
“And I do believe that now is the right time for the government to set out the bold vision such that philanthropy or giving actually extends to all different parts of the country.”
Rory Brooks, commissioner of the Charity Commission, said at the event: “Having been in financial markets for a lot of my life, the business of getting big money to small places is one of the worst intermediated markets I have ever seen.
But Brooks said he was “very encouraged” by this report, he said.
“We've all got our shoulder to the wheel. The commission will obviously study these recommendations and figure out what is within its capacity.”
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