Benevolent Charities Challenged

 

Do benevolent charities meet the need?

Speaking at a charity event on 27 November 2008, NCVO CEO Stuart Etherington called for grant-giving and benevolent charities to do everything in their power to meet the needs of people in need. He said that charities would only be able to respond adequately to the impact of the current world economic crisis by embracing collaborative working and flexibility in their grant-giving.

The remarks were made at a turn2us event, which saw Benevolence Today's partner charity launch a new intermediary module to their website.

The NCVO chief's challenge was followed by Kate Green, CEO of the Child Poverty Action Group. She also made a call for a radical rethink in benevolent charities to not be content with providing 'sticking plasters' to relief poverty, but to do everything in their power to help eradicate poverty.

Their comments were answered by Fred Payne, Chair of the Benevolence Today coalition.  Drawing on examples from his own charity, the Bankers Benevolent Fund, Fred said that many benevolent charities had for over 100 years tried to respond with focused grant-giving to remedy poverty, adjusting strategies and service-development to need.

Fred acknowledged that the idea of developing a sound best practice framework for the sector was gaining pace. The Benevolence Today coalition was open to look into how it could complement its current work to raise awareness and understanding of benevolent help.

This could well in the near future lead to grant-giving charities looking to increase joint service-delivery with other charities, collaboration and to highlight their policy-work, in a move to strengthen the benevolent sector's ability to help as many people as possible, in the most effective way.