Writing in 2024, and looking back at the last ten years, there have been some clear and strong factors shaping the development of the charity sector. Altruism and voluntarism are alive and well, but the mechanisms for people to translate their altruism and voluntary effort into practice have changed.
Some of the factors that challenged trust and confidence in charities in 2014 were not resolved by the sector, which struggled to find a clear voice. Changes in social media and supporter expectations led to the rise of "pop-up" organisations, focusing on a particular issue and using crowdsourcing (the expression popular in the early years of the 2010s). This challenged charities big and small, and while most charities survived the early post-recession years, they increasingly found it difficult to convince supporters that they could ensure that need was met in a way that satisfied both service user and donor. Supporters wanted simple mechanisms to do good – and they wanted to be able to see what they had done.
Charities, as intermediaries in this process, have survived only if they could clearly show their impact to service users and supporters by offering something that they could not do for themselves. In 2014, the charity sector presented a bewildering array of charities, many of which appeared to the public to be competing with each other for supporters, and service users.
From 2016-2020, there was a shake out in the sector, far outweighing the contraction of the early 10s from the recession. Organisations' collapse, service failures, job losses and volunteer opportunities written off combined to further reduce public confidence, trust and support.
Finally the penny dropped (pennies can now, of course, only be seen in virtual museums). The sector, including the regulators, responded slowly and the rebuilding process was painful. Many of the surviving larger charities actively sought alliances and mergers around common themes in their mission such as development, poverty or health – others had little choice but to be taken over if their work was to continue. Most people were convinced by the argument that big problems need big solutions but wanted to see simplicity, accountability and transparency at the top end of the sector. Once the dust had settled, remaining smaller organisations flourished where they connected directly and immediately with supporters and beneficiaries.
In 2024, the sector is more effective from learning the lessons of a bruising decade. Much great work has continued but the nature of the sector has changed significantly. Impact, transparency and accountability are no longer expressions but essential to the success of a charity's work and maintaining fragile public trust and confidence. And the idea that any charity has a right to exist has been tested and disproved – the organisations that have thrived have clearly demonstrated impact and success.
The lessons finally learned in 2024 were about adaptability and responsiveness to need and expectations in individual charities' work, and the need for the sector to take early action to deal with structural issues that corroded trust and confidence. Successful charity leadership in 2024 is about identifying common ground and building partnerships; charity governance is about looking for the best way to meet the objectives of the charity not seeing preservation of the charity as an end in itself.
Simon Gillespie is the chief executive of the British Heart Foundation.
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