(Immediate release 19 October 2010)

Sam Younger, Chief Executive of the Charity Commission, the regulator of charities in England and Wales, has urged charities to focus on the opportunities ahead for the sector.

Speaking at the Charity Finance Live event in London, Sam Younger, who came into post in September, acknowledged that many charities would face funding pressures as a result of government cuts. But he said that charities should “focus on what they can do”. He said charities were more flexible than most public and corporate organisations, and were able to innovate their practices and identify new sources of income.

He urged charities to seek partnerships with private sector organisations and to collaborate with one another in order to improve services to beneficiaries and cut costs. He also urged charities to focus on demonstrating clearly the difference they make to their beneficiaries.

Sam Younger, Chief Executive of the Commission, said:

“Your charity, whether it’s large or small, must focus on what it can do. Whether or not you are facing financial difficulties, you must use the opportunity presented by the current climate to establish what you can do better.

How can you adapt the way you do things to the new challenges and the emerging opportunities?

One of the strengths of the sector is its relative flexibility, its agility. Given the right leadership, your charity can innovate and adapt - more easily, more quickly, and more creatively than large public and corporate bodies.

Sometimes, asking big and difficult questions about the way it works, about its strategy and priorities, can help a charity refocus on its objects, its reason for existing.”
[…]

“The sector must move from a grants mentality – the expectation that they will be supported because their heart is in the right place – to a contract mentality. To an understanding that you are going to need to bid for support for certain projects, services, or activities in return for demonstrable public benefit. That’s what is going to win charities support: the ability to demonstrate impact – and, of course, cost effectiveness. A squeezed public sector will be watching every penny they spend even more carefully than in the past, they won’t want to gamble on an unproven good idea.”

Referring to the impact of upcoming spending cuts on the Charity Commission, Mr Younger said it was likely they would require a “radical response”. He announced that the Commission will conduct a thorough review of its approach and activities, including a full public consultation to launch the day after the Comprehensive Spending Review announced.

End.

The full speech is available on our website.  For further information on this story, please contact the press office.

PR70/10

Notes to Editors

1. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. See www.charitycommission.gov.uk for further information or call our contact centre on 0845 300 0218.
2. Our mission is: to ensure charities’ legal compliance, enhance charities’ accountability, encourage charities’ effectiveness and impact and to promote the public interest in charity.
3. Sam Younger joined the Charity Commission as Chief Executive of the Charity Commission in September 2010. He has extensive experience of leadership in regulation, public policy and in charity. His previous roles include founding Chair of the Electoral Commission, Director General of the British Red Cross, and Managing Director of the BBC World Service. After leaving the Electoral Commission he was interim Chief Executive of the housing charity, Shelter, and also held interim roles with the educational charity Bell Educational Trust and with the Electoral Reform Society.
4. The Commission published The Big Board Talk in December 2009 following extensive research. The Big Board Talk is 'the conversation all charities need to have', addressing questions trustees should be asking during the recession. It asks 15 key questions to help trustee boards look at the options, opportunities and resources available to them.

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