Blogs/Vlogs

New chair of charity commission gives first major speech

25 April 2018

Baroness Stowell gave her first major speech since her appointment to delegates at the annual conference of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) in London on 16 April.

She spelt out the importance and value of all the good charitable work in the UK but highlighted the major issue of losing trust with the public.

Major research has recently been undertaken that shows that people now trust charities no more than they trust the average stranger they meet on the street.  Other research suggests that the public are now 25% less likely to donate, following the recent high profile problems at Oxfam and Save the Children.  Just as some big businesses have failed the reasonable expectations of the public, so have some charities and she highlighted that expectations of charities are even higher than general business because charities are expected to provide public benefit.

The public want to be able to trust that, no matter how you slice a charity, what you’ll find is a relentless focus on its charitable purpose.  And that means demonstrating that the way charities priorities, behave and conduct themselves is focussed solely on delivering the right results for the people they say they support.

So what do we all need to do about this?  Baroness Stowell is in no doubt that the Charity Commission has a key role in rebuilding public trust in charities as vehicles for charitable endeavour.  She plans to 'raise the bar' to enhance charity standards.

As well as the investigation regime when problems arise, she wants to help charities head off issues before they become problems.

If you would like to discuss this further, please contact me or your local UHY charity adviser.  Alternatively, if you would like to read more charity focused blogs please click here.

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