Responsible Giving

Givers should be informed about the characteristics, motivations, capacity, aspirations and needs of the organisations they are giving to. They should consider the impact that their giving will have and the outcome it is meant to achieve.

a) Individuals should consider the impact of their giving

We believe that a considered approach to individual giving is beneficial to both the individual giving, and to the recipient charity. An understanding of the work a charity does, as well as what the funds will be used for helps to build a connection between donor and charity and is more likely to result in regular rather than one-off donations.

b) Grant-making trusts, companies and statutory funders should all have clear and accessible application and monitoring processes

We believe that this is essential for both funders and applicants in ensuring effective use of time and resources from applicants, enabling better quality applications.

c) Funders should implement appropriate term funding arrangements

We believe that there is a place for both short and long term funding, and that funders have a responsibility when setting grants programmes to assess the most effective duration for funding arrangements.

d) Good funding practice should be shared

Relating to 1b, there are funders that demonstrate excellent practice in administering their funds. We feel that funders who have invested time, thought and experience in developing procedures that are effective for both themselves and the organisations they fund, have a responsibility to share their positive learning with funders that do not share their resources/size/age/experience.

e) Funders should understand the environment in which they, and the recipients of their funding operate, and be able to respond effectively to change

Funders’ objectives and agendas should be set by the needs of the end users, not the other way around, and funders have an obligation to ensure that the setting of grant programmes, funding criteria, objectives etc. reflect the needs of the people and organisations they are supporting.

f) Companies should give more

We feel that companies are capable of giving more to the sector than they do at present, and that they have an obligation to do so. We feel that there are unanswered questions around not just the amount that companies give, but also the effectiveness of the ways they do give and the extent to which large proportions of what is labelled “company giving” should actually be considered giving at all.