Small charities, large charities and infrastructure: Let’s turn fear into hope

Context

Firstly, I’m not a guru with all the answers. All I can do is talk about what I’m noticing and what I’m actually involved in.

I think it’s safe to say it's been the toughest year of my 26 year career. I work with a deliberately broad portfolio of charities, from some of the largest on the planet to small grass roots community orgs. All of them are facing huge issues.

There is a perfect storm that we are all experiencing at the moment. This perfect storm of rising need and declining funds not only continues this year, but it’s biting even harder. It’s coming in waves and hitting organisations differently at different times.

We could all write a book about this, a dystopian one, but there’s 4 things that are really on my mind at the moment:

1. How that perfect storm is landing

2. How the effects of this are starting to fragment the sector

3. What the role and remit of infrastructure orgs and charity bodies could and should be in this current climate

4. How large charities can work with and for small charities

How the perfect storm is affecting large and small charities.

I really don’t mean to be binary when I say large and small. There has been lots of discussion around what constitutes both, but hopefully you get my gist.

Both are feeling it, but it’s hitting different sized charities in different ways at the moment.

Small charities are on the front line, and the perfect storm hits and continues to hit here first.

These are the orgs that don’t necessarily have broad, robust funding portfolios, don’t have large reserves, don’t have the capacity to invest in change management and innovation. Some don’t even have a fundraiser.

For many smaller charities I’m working with, the strategy has been about survival. Literally, ‘How do we stay open this year?’ And in terms of what levers we have in our control to do that, unfortunately it's around: How do we cut costs? Which projects do we suspend? What staff do we let go.? How do we make our diminishing funds go further?

So it feels like a bit of a race to the bottom, which is heartbreaking and depressing. Many are clinging on, some are closing, some are merging, but some are collaborating their way out of trouble.

It’s with collaboration that I see the future, and where I have actively seen, and been working on successful projects.

So in a nutshell, what I’m seeing with smaller charities is a need to keep afloat, making diminishing funds go further, and collaboration for the future where possible.

For larger charities it’s similar, but different.

This perfect storm is also landing with larger charities, but it's hitting differently. For many it's in the post, but it hasn’t quite landed on the doormat yet.

I’ve been in lots of meetings with larger charities about scoping the financial future. I’ve seen lot’s of graphs showing “If we continue on this financial trajectory the future looks bleak.” I’ve seen lots of bar charts that look like ski slopes.

Some of this is still cushioned by reserves, or what is perceived as some natural fat and waste that can be trimmed. And in many cases the underlying financial issues are hidden by unexpected legacies.

So for many large charities the situation they are in at the moment is about working hard to get a unified organisational understanding of how volatile their future looks. That’s before the tectonic challenge of what they are going to do about it.

Some have done this quickly, and are now thinking about what the future looks like for them. Some are stuck in the weeds. Larger charities find it harder to pivot and change direction.

Also, for many larger charities, growth is such a barometer of success that any different strategy looks like failure. So there’s a culture issue there too that many are facing. Almost an existential crisis, which bruises the old ego and slows down transformation.

But fundamentally most large and small charities are facing the same issue. How do we do more, with less? How do we meet rising need with diminishing funds?

Whilst orgs are grappling with this, a natural byproduct of where we are, is leading to some fragmentation both across the sector and within charities themselves.

Fragmentation in the sector

There is fear in the sector. Focussing on survival makes us insular. Organisations are looking in, rather than up and out. All of this at exactly the time we should be working together.

This is happening at a macro level across the sector, with charities rebuilding walls around themselves, fighting for funding, elbows out, protecting their future. Not looking out past the front door of their charity.

But it's also happening at a micro level inside charities, with departments putting up barriers, fighting for budget, pointing fingers, doubling down. Watching their backs. Fear of redundancy. Siloed thinking.

We need to think about the sector, as much as we need to think about our own charities. We need to think more about putting cause before organisation. But we can’t do it alone.

The role and remit of infrastructure

It’s my personal belief that we may need to rethink and remodel what the sector requires in terms of infrastructure support.

Many charities are in the mindset that the perfect storm is just bad luck and there’s nothing we can do about it. But a lot of this can be challenged, and could potentially be changed.

That’s where we need infrastructure and governing bodies in the sector that really understands and supports charities, especially small ones.

Are we challenging the government enough? What about funders? Are we united enough on what we need?

Does our infrastructure and those that are here to represent us actually have the teeth, the heart and the stomach for this? Will they roll up their sleeves to fight for what’s needed?

Fundamentally, what does the sector actually need, who can affect change and what’s the plan? Where’s the mainstream conversation around the issues we are facing?

If we can see that when some charities collaborate, they are stronger. What would happen if the sector was unified around core asks, demands and strategies?

I think it’s important to recognise that without civil society, this country would crumble, right?

Whilst that’s a terrifying responsibility, it’s also a position of power, we need to collectively lean into that. Our strength is our relevancy.

That’s the space infrastructure bodies should be in, but I’m not sure they are at the moment, and not collectively so. There’s fragmentation there too.

I don’t think a cap in hand, tokenistic, softly-softly approach from any of our governing bodies is the right lens for this.

What about large charities, what can they do to support smaller ones?

I think it’s a unique time for large charities to reevaluate what their role in society is.

There has been talk about this for ages, but now the catalyst for this is the financial imperative. It’s the kick up the arse that we all needed.

Fundamentally many large charities aren’t going to be as big as they were before. So now what?

Different larger charities that I’m working with are grappling with this in different ways. Understandably some are burying their head in the sand. It’s big and scary.

Some are throwing short term money at it. ‘If we throw an extra 10k at the Fundraising Director role we’ll solve this’ kinda thing. 

Some are desperately trying to get back to where they were, even at the expense of other orgs.

And some are starting to think about what their role in future society is. Crucially, that society obviously includes smaller charities, and many other players, and how we all operate together, as an ecosystem.

But some large charities are going even further, which is really exciting me.

I’m working with a very large charity at the moment who are going beyond working alongside small charities. 

They are focusing on how they can use their power, their brand, their money and their infrastructure to enable and support smaller organisations. It’s central to their organisational strategy, not a side project.

They are asking key and uncomfortable questions like ‘How do we shift our power to grass roots and community orgs who know their communities way better than us? How can we use what we have to enable them to do deep and meaningful work?

That’s really exciting, and that’s the future I want to work in.

So, let’s collaborate more. Small charities with other small charities. Large charities with smaller charities. Let’s push for infrastructure, voice and power that reflects what we need and is the catalyst for the changes we deserve.

Let’s come out of the other side of this storm with a more connected, reimagined approach to the role of civil society and our roles within it. Otherwise it might be dictated for us.

It’s easy to write, but monumentally difficult to do. But I’m in. You?

Wayne Murray is the founder of Humanity Squared and continues to believe that collaboration is how we win.

These views were initially aired in a podcast with the awesome Vic Hancock Fell around ‘Small charities: Hope, support and collaboration.’’ by Charity People

Listen here.