It feels as if the sector has taken a real beating in the last couple of weeks. It’s not so much a matter of big individual hits as of death by a thousand cuts.
Each day seemed to bring a new closure. The educational charity Red Kite, which works with ex-offenders, was sunk by the demands of payment by results. Sharp, another charity for ex-offenders based in Shrewsbury, was looking for a miracle after failing to win funding from trusts. Wiltshire Mind was unable to find the money for its core costs any more. London Civic Forum foundered, citing a lack of political support. Coastnet, which works in deprived coastal areas, went into administration. More than a quarter of charities polled in Norfolk said closure threatened.
Since the downturn and the spending cuts, many charities have struggled along by downsizing or using their reserves, but such measures are of course proving not to be tenable in the long term. Those who have been unable to find new income or other means of survival seem now to be letting go and dropping off the cliff. One depressing aspect is that many of the casualties are in cause areas that find it hard to raise funds from the public but are vital to a healthy and compassionate society – mental health and offending.
The upside is harder to find. Some organisations are attaining long-term viability through collaboration, and there is a certain amount of merger going on, especially at umbrella level – the NCVO and Volunteering England, for example, and Navca and Community Matters. There is a great deal of churn, turmoil and change going on in the sector.
I think there are two things we can count on. The first is that there is going to be more of the same. The shake-out and the re-shaping of the sector is still at a comparatively early stage. Even a change of government in three years or sooner is unlikely to make a great deal of difference.
The second is that whatever happens, civil society is never going to die. People will always find ways of coming together and raising resources for mutual help and community benefit, and the drive to do that becomes stronger and more inventive in times of economic hardship.