Giving Green Paper
NAVCA response
March 2011
NAVCA (National Association for Voluntary and Community Action), The Tower, 2 Furnival Square, Sheffield S1 4QL
Tel 0114 278 6636 ● Fax 0114 278 7004 ● Textphone 0114 278 7025 ● navca@navca.org.uk ● www.navca.org.uk
Registered charity no. 1001635 ● Company limited by guarantee ● Registered in England no. 2575206 ● Registered office as above
NAVCA is the national voice of local third sector infrastructure in England. We aim to ensure
communities are well served by the local third sector by supporting our members and their work
with over 160,000 local groups and organisations. NAVCA believes that local voluntary and
community action is vital for healthy and inclusive communities.
We provide our members with networking opportunities, specialist advice, support, policy
information and training. NAVCA is a vital bridge between local groups and national
government.
Our specialist teams take a lead on the issues that matter most to local third sector
infrastructure organisations. We influence national and local government policy to promote local
voluntary and community action.
For more details about the full range of ways that NAVCA can help you please go to
www.navca.org.uk or call us on 0114 278 6636.
NAVCA
The Tower
2 Furnival Square
Sheffield S1 4QL
Tel 0114 278 6636
Fax 0114 278 7004
Textphone 0114 278 7025
navca@navca.org.uk
www.navca.org.uk
Registered charity no. 1001635
Company limited by guarantee
Registered in England no. 2575206
Registered office as above
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1.
Introduction
1.1
NAVCA welcomes the opportunity for discussion provided by the publication of the
government’s Giving Green Paper. Our members have long been at the forefront both of
traditional and of innovative new ways of fundraising and promoting opportunities for
giving.
1.2
We find much to commend in the Green Paper, in particular in its emphasis on creating
an environment for social action, giving and volunteering. We recognise that the
government’s role in social action is limited, but believe that there is a vitally significant
role for government in helping to create this environment.
1.3
We strongly urge the government to take into account the highly developed local and
national infrastructure that exists already, and which forms a tried and trusted network of
support for volunteering and giving. The local implementation of public spending cuts in
many places is placing this network under serious threat. Local support and
development organisations are staffed by paid and unpaid people whose long-term
knowledge, experience and expertise is irreplaceable once lost.
1.4
On the broader issue of funding for the sector, NAVCA endorses the recommendations
of the NCVO Funding Commission’s report1. In particular, NAVCA believes that the
Government should establish transition funds for local support and development
organisations facing significant loss of public funding, which would offer organisations
providing infrastructure services some stability as local state funding declines. It would
enable them to develop new business models based on alternative funding and could be
used to provide external support to transform under performing organisations.
Specifically, it would enable providers of infrastructure services to:

become more entrepreneurial by developing earned income from both service provision
and asset use;

downsize in a carefully managed way, developing new relationships with the local
private sector, local councils and the new local NHS structures, particularly GP
commissioners;

develop new types of fundraising including Community Shares, payroll giving, Gift Aid
and 'fiscal sponsorship';

reduce costs and improve support services by collaborating with other local support and
development organisations across local authority boundaries and, in some cases,
mergers with other service providers; and

build the capacity to support many of the initiatives mentioned in the Green Paper and
below.
1
Funding the Future NCVO 2010
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/sites/default/files/A4_Funding_Commission_Final_Report.pdf
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2.
2.1
Great opportunities
Local giving
NAVCA welcomes the Green Paper’s discussion about how to encourage more giving
through a wide variety of innovative methods that tap in to the way people live today,
such as online, point of sale and ATM giving.
2.2
If people are unable to nominate where their money is going then they may be less
willing to donate. Donors will want to know that their money has been well spent, so
there must be clear and transparent accountability around where the money goes and
who decides on the pool of potential beneficiaries and spending priorities.
2.3
However, the methods for applying for the funds raised must be clear and simple so as
not to exclude smaller charities that lack the capacity to undertake complicated
application processes or expensive marketing campaigns. Equally, if the donations are
to be centrally pooled and then distributed, administration costs must be minimised.
2.4
We believe there is some merit in the Pennies Foundation initiative, which allows
participating companies to nominate their own charity alongside a number of charities
identified by the Foundation. However, the main criterion for inclusion is that the charities
supported should have national reach, which, whilst understandable, given the
Foundation’s approach, works to the exclusion of local charities. We believe that this is
inconsistent with the Government’s Big Society vision and, whilst we would support the
concept of credit card ‘top up’ giving, it must be open to smaller local charities. NAVCA’s
members would be well placed to help identify and engage local charities.
2.5
There is a risk that businesses choosing which charities they wish to support may well
choose those that have wide appeal, leaving charities that support less popular but
equally worthy causes at a disadvantage. Unless these issues are addressed then this
method of increasing charitable donations will not necessarily have wide benefit.
2.6
NAVCA believes that the fairest way to distribute funds that are collected nationally
would be through local Community Foundations who have an established track record
and who would be aware of local needs. Strategically, Community Foundations are
essential if we are to tap into private and public donations on any meaningful scale, and
many NAVCA members work very closely with the local Community Foundation.
2.7
NAVCA would like to see more incentives that encourage wealthy individuals to donate
and bequeath to Community Foundations in order to support endowments. This would
direct more resources to good existing local causes. We also the Government should
promote and support http://localgiving.com/, a social enterprise owned by the
Community Foundation Network (CFN) and the Ardbrack Foundation, dedicated to
supporting local charities. In 2009 they distributed £56m to 17,000 local charities.
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2.8
Giving should not be the preserve of national campaigns; there are excellent examples
of local online giving opportunities, relating to both money and time. One such is
Islington Giving which boasts a user-friendly homepage that simply says:
Islington is a place of social extremes, where London’s richest and poorest
residents exist side-by-side, living entirely different lives. Islington Giving – a
campaign for Islington by Islington people – aims to raise £3m over the next
three years to support our community and we need your help.
About us Find out about our mission and read interviews with Islington residents
that our work already supports.
How you can help Find out how you can give money or give time to support
Islington Giving.
Projects we support Find out more about some of the Islington Groups that we
are working with.
Blog Keep up-to-date with all the news from the campaign and tell us what you
think about the work that we are doing. You can also sign-up for our newsletter
and follow us on Twitter@isgiv
www.islingtongiving.org.uk
2.9
Whilst funding is vitally important to the local success of the Big Society, other resources
can be extremely useful to local charities and offer a means to engage local people in
the work of civil society. For example, Ealing Council for Voluntary Services has
developed a ‘community resource bank’ where people can post offers of equipment and
resources that they wish to donate to local groups. This was originally aimed at local
businesses, but soon attracted offers from individuals as well. The Council’s trading
standards department has offered DVD players recovered from people who were using
the equipment illegally, and the local police service has offered unclaimed bicycles.
Local payroll giving
2.10 One approach that NAVCA supports is local payroll giving; a concept which would
develop a long term connection between local ‘givers’ and local voluntary and
community activity. We believe this is vital because the funding of often small groups,
particularly at small geographic levels, is vital to the vision of a Big Society. Large
national and international charities are able to target people in their homes because they
have the resources to do so. Conversely local charities and community groups make
little use of philanthropic giving and gift aid because they lack the capacity.
2.11
Payroll giving has never generated the levels of investment in the voluntary and
community sector that it might have done; a proposal by Voluntary Sector North West, a
NAVCA member, aims to change this.
2.12
The first element of this idea is that people are encouraged to donate, say, £2 a month
to the voluntary and community sector directly from their pay roll; taking into account the
tax advantages of donating, a £2 donation actually costs to individual £1.20 for higher
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rate tax payers and £1.52 for lower rate tax payers. This money would be collected in a
central ‘bank’ and held there until spent by the donor. The second element would be the
development of a Big Society Shop, which would be open to groups to upload details of
their offer: in £2 shares. For example:

A youth club could upload details of a pool table it wanted to buy at a cost of
£500 and ‘sell’ 250 shares. The Youth Club could advertise why it wants the
item, how it will use it and how it will report back to donors.

Once the shop is open, donors could go into their site with a log in and spend
their donations. They should be able to search for organisations based on
location (Within My Square Mile) or based on issue or group of interest, such as
Youth.

Different levels of reporting could be developed that led to the encouragement of
donors to engage with the group; so the youth club may invite donors to an event
who then may be asked to consider volunteering there.

In addition to this, businesses could also be asked to make donations or match
any contributions made by staff.
2.13
Support could be provided by local support and development organisations: this activity
may encourage local authorities to continue to fund such local services and these
organisations will help groups grow, access other funding sources and manage their
resources effectively.
2.14
NAVCA and Voluntary Sector North West would welcome the opportunity to discuss how
the concept of local payroll giving might be developed to provide more resources for the
sector and increase interest in and understand of the work of local charities.
Giving time
2.15 In NAVCA members’ experience, volunteering depends on organisations’ capacity to
advertise for, recruit, manage, train and develop volunteers. Organisations with the
capacity often have waiting lists of people wanting to volunteer, whilst those that do not
have the resources to recruit and manage volunteers effectively are often unable to
make full use of the voluntary help available.
2.16
Our members’ experience shows that, whilst many people contact local volunteer
centres after seeing opportunities on the Do-it website, those who actually make
personal contact by meeting volunteer centre staff face-to-face are more likely to take up
volunteer placements
2.17
The people who would often benefit most from volunteering are often excluded from
doing so, e.g. people with mental health problems, disabled people, lone parents, long
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term unemployed, homeless people and people who lack confidence to make the initial
contact. It needs to be easier for unemployed people to volunteer, for example by
improving the advice available to them so that they can volunteer without affecting their
benefits. This is vital because volunteering is an important route into employment and is
a means of building social capital and helping socially excluded individuals engage with
the wider community.
2.18
People in disadvantaged, marginalised and excluded groups are unlikely to benefit from
internet platforms encouraging them to volunteer; they benefit from the individual support
that can be provided by properly resourced supported volunteering projects and by
volunteer centres through mentoring, help with filling in forms or accompanying them to
interviews. It is also important to work with charities to educate and support them in
finding suitable roles.
2.19
This is intensive work but the effort involved in providing this extra support is worth it in
terms of improved health, improved confidence and skills, enhanced employability,
reduced social isolation, social cohesion.
2.20
NAVCA believes volunteering is best supported by well resourced volunteer centres,
which have a reach into communities that national organisations cannot replicate.
Volunteer centres help local organisations that work with volunteers in a variety of ways:
making sure they are kept abreast of national initiatives; providing training and support in
recruitment and management of volunteers; developing placements and brokering
appropriate and useful opportunities for volunteers; and as a local advocate for
volunteering.
3.
Information
3.1
Whilst national campaigns can be useful in promoting volunteering initiatives,
volunteering is essentially a local activity and the funding of volunteering initiatives
should reflect this. It is vital that national volunteering organisations and initiatives work
with volunteer centres and that government resists the temptation for initiatives that
simply re-invent the wheel. These initiatives always draw on the groundwork done by
volunteer centres but there is often not the funding put in place to ensure that volunteer
centres can continue with this vital work. We agree on the need for easily accessible
information on the range of local volunteering opportunities, and many NAVCA members
already provide this through online and hard copy publications.
3.2
Local organisations supported by volunteer centres and other local infrastructure are
best placed to promote volunteering in specific sections of society. They already have
the reach into local communities and many local support and develpoment organisations
manage projects to specifically build the capacity of certain types of organisations such
as BME and young people’s organisations to provide and promote volunteering
opportunities and as a valuable form of community action.
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3.3
Levels of volunteering are uneven across the country and at their lowest amongst those
most at risk of social exclusion in deprived areas2. Our membership network provides a
vehicle to support work throughout England, including the most deprived communities.
However, it must be recognised that funding would be required to put in place the
support to tackle the problem effectively.
3.4
The work of volunteer centres is therefore crucial for developing the local environment
for volunteering and we believe that the newly announced Volunteering Infrastructure
Programme should primarily focus on supporting and developing volunteer centres.
Stable funding would provide a much firmer base from which to develop and improve
their services and take advantage of new opportunities and new technology. At the same
time many volunteer centres currently are facing the prospect of cuts as the result of
public spending reductions in the short term, whilst others foresee future problems:
Adur is fortunate – it has a funded volunteer centre. But all of its funders are
being cut back year on year. When the funding contract expires in two years
time, how will the finances be found to renew it, when West Sussex County
Council are shedding jobs wholesale, Adur District Council is struggling to
balance its budget, and the new GP Consortium (the PCT is a current funder) is
focussing exclusively on clinical services. We also have the valued support of the
West Sussex Volunteering Hub, funded similarly, and facing similar challenges.
Adur Voluntary Action
3.5
We welcome the proposals for investment in volunteering infrastructure and propose that
this be used to strengthen the existing network of volunteer centres that are best placed
to provide volunteer brokerage through their local presence, national network and online
presence. There is no need to reinvent the wheel by developing new local centres or
online resources.
4.
Visibility
Promoting social action
4.1
NAVCA believes that the existence of well run and properly resourced local support and
development organisations enhances and multiplies the capacity of social action to
produce positive change within communities and in wider society. For example, Boston
Borough Council and South Lincolnshire CVS work together on Boston Placecheck3.
This work focuses on getting people together to create ideas and energy to make local
improvements and protect things of value. In all instances residents are the 'drivers for
change'. In the Community Cohesion indicator (2008/09 Place Survey), Boston had one
of the best improvements in the country.
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3
Helping Out – A national survey of volunteering and charitable giving, Cabinet Office, 2007. Table 3.6, p22
http://www.boston.gov.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=66&Itemid=3829
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4.2
With nearly a million 18-24 year olds now unemployed, we believe it is vitally important
to promote the benefits of volunteering to young people. One example of this is in
Ryedale in North Yorkshire three young people were concerned about the lack of
opportunities and volunteered to look at improving youth facilities in their village. As in
other rural areas, young people are often isolated and find there are few facilities
available. With support from their youth worker from Ryedale 4 Youth they are now
working with the Parish Council to see how they can improve facilities and the lives of
young people in their village. With the support of the local voluntary sector’s networks
they were able to showcase their activity and encourage other young people in
Yorkshire and Humber to address their own rural isolation.
Social media
4.3
Many civil society organisations are well-versed in the use of social media. For those
who are not, as well as those who are, NCVO and its partners on the Capacitybuilders
funded Campaigning and Advocacy Improving Support programme developed the
Louder website – http://www.louder.org.uk/. This provides a one-stop shop for creating
campaigning websites, with facilities for connecting to Facebook, twitter, Word Press
and similar resources, and uploading videos from sites such as YouTube.
Leading by example
4.4
We support the thinking underlying the civil service volunteering initiative, but it needs
careful planning and skilled brokerage. Experience shows that voluntary and community
organisations may find it disruptive to adjust to the presence of short-term volunteers,
and the volunteers themselves may not want to undertake the activities the
organisations most need. There have also been examples of volunteers seeing
themselves as offering ‘professional’ help to ‘amateur’ organisations, which does little to
establish good working relations.
4.5
We would repeat our previous call for ministers and other senior public figures to help by
encouraging philanthropy and volunteering in speeches. We would also like to see the
Prime Minister build upon his call to business leaders4 to support volunteering, by
challenging them to increase their involvement in local voluntary action. This should also
include encouraging their employees to become trustees of local charities – good
trustees provide strong and sustainable leadership and raise the standard of local
voluntary action; offering pro bono support; and using their corporate social responsibility
programmes to support local community action, particularly the long-term bread and
butter work rather than attention grabbing short-term initiatives.
4.6
We believe government can also help by reminding business of the importance of
supporting the day to day work of local charities, focusing on that which makes the
biggest difference rather than looking to support eye-catching initiatives. We believe
The Prime Minister’s speech to Business in the Community, see http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/speeches-andtranscripts/2010/12/business-in-the-community-speech-57805
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government should encourage businesses to be more open-minded and creative about
their corporate social responsibility, so they are more prepared to do what will most help
communities.
4.7
We are committed to promoting volunteering as always voluntary, rather than as
something one is compelled or coerced into undertaking as part of a national
government programme.
5.
Exchange and reciprocity
5.1
The issue of exchange and reciprocity will involve cultural shifts over a long time. Whilst
some of the newer funding mechanisms such as peer to peer lending are attractive to
some people, others might need more assurances. Inevitably creating connections
should mean closer links and hopefully more giving, but this is a slow, incremental
process. There are many good initiatives currently taking place in local communities,
and there are advantages to building what already exists.
5.2
Exeter CVS has tackled this issue through their Time and Talents network, which
brokers innovative and sustainable volunteering partnerships by matching the skills and
expertise of employees with the needs of the community. There are dedicated brokers,
supported by an experienced national team, who utilise their knowledge and experience
of the private, public and voluntary sectors to forge mutually beneficial skills-based
employer supported volunteering partnerships. This means that local charities and
voluntary organisations benefit from technical skills, such as legal, financial and IT
expertise.
5.3
Elsewhere, NAVCA members have experienced difficulties. Voluntary Action South West
Surrey cautions that their experience of being involved in a Time Bank was that it
became extraordinarily difficult to get people to translate their good will into action. Often
it was easier to find people who were willing to give time than it was to find people who
wanted to use that time. It required a full time co-ordinator to run the scheme: matching
people to jobs and promoting membership. There were also issues around safeguarding
and ensuring that vulnerable people were properly protected. The scheme failed
because it was not possible to secure continuing funding for the co-ordinator’s post, due
to the difficulties with meeting outcomes.
6.
Support
6.1
NAVCA members’ knowledge of local charities and voluntary organisations and the
communities with which they work means that they are uniquely placed to match their
needs with support offered by local businesses. Our research5 shows that NAVCA
members provide local public bodies with a considerable amount of information about
5
See http://www.navca.org.uk/news/localbusiness.htm
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the needs of local voluntary and community organisations; however they are much less
likely to provide similar information to the private sector. Addressing this would improve
the access of local voluntary and community organisations to pro bono support.
6.2
A number of NAVCA members are already working on initiatives to promote
understanding and improve collaboration between the private and voluntary sectors, for
example Harrogate Chamber of Trade holds an annual charities evening in partnership
with Harrogate & Area Council for Voluntary Service, enabling local charities and
businesses to explore opportunities for volunteering, corporate support, or trusteeship.
The event also provides an opportunity to explain the benefits of working with local
charities to local businesses.
6.3
In Solihull SUSTAiN employs a business adviser to help voluntary and community
organisations match their needs to the support available from local businesses. This
dedicated support role enables voluntary and community organisations in Solihull to
benefit from practical and useful private sector support that addresses their specific
circumstances.
6.4
Support from government or local business to introduce this type of activity elsewhere
would improve brokerage and pro bono support as well as building links between the
sectors locally. Equally, voluntary organisations and community groups need help to
ensure they get the assistance they need from local business. Business in the
Community (BiTC) has a strong track record of matching the skills and resources of
business with needs of the voluntary and community sector though its ProHelp
programme. Rather than re-inventing the wheel, NAVCA believes that the Office for Civil
Society should require its strategic partners to work with BiTC to ensure voluntary
organisations and community groups throughout England have access to support from
the local business community.
6.5
A major incentive for local businesses to increase their involvement with local charities
and community groups would be to embed social values into all public sector contracts.
Evaluating the added value of a service to the local community at the procurement stage
would mean that any businesses wishing to deliver public services would seek to
increase their involvement in voluntary action. NAVCA supports the Private Members’
Bill of Chris White MP, the Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social Value) Bill, as a
step towards recognising social value in public services contracts. Once enacted, OCS
should require its strategic partners to promote its implementation by ensuring that local
voluntary and community organisations are aware of its implications and understand
how to assist public bodies in its use.
6.6
Whilst we believe that government should promote partnership between the local
business community and the voluntary and community sector, there is always a danger
that these can be seen as extraordinary or unusual. The reality is that many businesses,
especially local businesses, do support voluntary action – the consultation document is
wrong to say that the potential for transferring relevant skills has “barely been tapped”.
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NAVCA has in the past provided many examples of our members and businesses
working together to benefit local voluntary action. OCS should portray businesses who
do not engage with the voluntary and community sector as the exception, to encourage
them to conform.
6.7
Finally, NAVCA welcomes government support for the Banking and Financial Services
(Community Investment) Bill which will, if it becomes law, enable disadvantaged areas
lacking local financial institutions to access a share in the financial and other resources
offered by these bodies.
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