Creating resilient charities – what have we learnt and what should happen next

There is no debate about the extent to which the pandemic has impacted on the charity sector. Charities have had to try to remain strong through some extraordinarily difficult challenges. No wonder the Chancellor of the Exchequer called them “unsung heroes”.

Nor can there be a debate about whether charities are important to our society. As Helen Stephenson, the CEO of the Charity Commission said in her introduction to their annual report a couple of months ago: “The unequivocal lesson of the past year is that a resilient, vibrant voluntary sector is not a ‘nice to have’ – charities and community groups are integral to the healthy functioning of our society and must play their full part in the long-term recovery from the crisis”.

‘Resilience’ is an interesting word. For many it is a reactive word that describes the ability to keep standing whilst blows are falling. For CAF, however, it has always been a more proactive word, encompassing the ability to see challenges coming and adapt with agility to avoid them. It is not an insurance policy against the worst happening but a sensible business plan to ensure the best does.

Much has been written about the difference between businesses, ostensibly driven to maximise income, and charities, driven to maximise impact. Of course the best businesses have sought to deliver the most positive impact on society whilst maximising their income, and the best charities strive to be as efficient and ‘business like’ as they can whilst maximising their impact. To our mind, however, an important difference is that many businesses and their shareholders will invest money into the long-term strength of their organisations, devoting time, energy and focus on improving operations. But almost no one funds charities to do likewise. Most donors expect the charities they are supporting to be efficient and effective in their operations but still restrict their donations entirely to delivering impact. The end result is as obvious as it is predictable – brilliant charities, doing amazing work, using organisational plans, structures and processes that are barely coping.

This is what Hans and Julia Rausing saw amongst the small charities they were supporting and so they came to CAF to ask what could be done to help resolve this.  With their seed funding, CAF was able to bring together other funders who shared these concerns and, with their combined support, devise and run a piece of action research that looked into how charities can best become more resilient. Download the Creating Resilience report for findings from that programme.

As you can see from the report, developing positive resilience is not easy. First and foremost it takes time. Charities are led by some astonishing, committed individuals who are driven by a passion to help improve things in our society but they need time to be able to focus on this area and plan for the future. They also need advice and support where there is specialist work to be done and then time, again, to absorb the learning and implement improvements. 

As David Robinson says in his foreword to this report, if we care about the impact that charities are having in our society, then we need to start caring about the charities themselves.