QSA reflects on the Commission's recommendations from a frontline perspective.
Back in December, the Charity Commission published its latest charity transparency data research report, meaning the report on its latest research into the general public’s trust and confidence in charities, which the Commission has been tracking since 2005. In its preamble, the Commission notes that “Levels of trust in charities declined before plateauing in 2016 (in the midst of high-profile scandals 2014-2018) until very recently. The most recent research suggests that trust in charities has increased.”
Key priorities for building trust
The Commission identifies that people’s perceptions of charities’ trustworthiness are driven by charities themselves providing the following key areas of information / demonstrating the following characteristics:
- "where the money goes: That a high proportion of charities’ money is used for charitable activity
- impact: That charities are making the impact they promise to make
- living their value (the ‘how’): That the way they go about making that impact is consistent with the spirit of ‘charity’
- collective responsibility: That all charities uphold the reputation of charity in adhering to these"
From QSA’s perspective – as an anti-poverty charity providing frontline services as well as working to have an influence on wider social justice issues – there is nothing to disagree with here. Of course charities cannot take trust for granted, or expect to be trusted simply because they are charities. For context it’s worth noting though that many registered charities, including QSA, are also incorporated as companies, and so are regulated by both the Charity Commission and Companies House. Annual reporting to the Charity Commission is not only financial; all charities must also provide information “to help the user understand how the charity’s aims fulfil its legal purposes, the activities it undertakes and what it has achieved”.` All of this information is publicly available (external link).
"QSA aims for a posture of walking alongside people rather than doing things to them."
QSA's Peter Christmas
The first three trustworthiness points above are directly within the control of an individual charity and they are a good reminder and challenge to ensure that we demonstrate appropriate use of funds, are able to articulate the different types of impact that we have, and can show that the way in which we carry out our work supports (and does not detract from) our charitable aims. For QSA, the key point about how we provide services is enshrined within part of our mission statement: supporting people living on low incomes to seek solutions to the issues affecting their lives. Their lives, their issues, their solutions. In order words, QSA aims for a posture of walking alongside people rather than doing things to them. We talk about people living on low incomes as being the real poverty experts. Putting this into practice means that, whilst QSA’s frontline staff and volunteers undoubtedly bring relevant expertise to their work, the search for solutions must be a shared endeavour and certainly not a one-way flow of knowledge and skills.
Collective responsibility
Charities’ collective responsibility is an interesting challenge: clearly the conduct of the charity sector as a whole is not within the control of an individual charity, but the Commission asserts that we can all be affected by trends in how charities are perceived: “When the public suspect charities are not showing good stewardship, living their values, and having a demonstrable impact, then trust decreases.” This presents a double challenge to QSA or any other charity: how can we play our own small part in upholding/improving the reputation of the charity sector; and how can we mitigate the impact upon our own work of broader trends in how charities are perceived? Many aspects of our work can influence QSA’s reputation, as well as being crucial in and of themselves – for example maintaining robust processes for safeguarding vulnerable people, ensuring sound financial management, and then communicating to the outside world (where necessary) that these things are in place.
Part of the answer to ‘sheltering’ QSA, or any charity, from external ups and downs in the reputation of the sector as a whole, also lies in good communication. In its latest research the Charity Commission identified that “an overarching theme driving levels of trust was that of connection and a sense of ‘knowing’ a charity”.
"We should be brave enough to tell people about things that didn’t go so brilliantly, as well as our successes."
QSA's peter christmas
We need to ensure that we are helping people to get to know QSA as much as they want to – this includes people who participate in our services, supporters and funders, other stakeholders and those who are interested in our work or concerned about the issues we’re seeking collectively to address. Within this we need to keep making the case about how our Quaker values – of equality, simplicity and truth – are relevant to anti-poverty and social justice work, and how they infuse our work in practical terms. Keeping in mind the mantra of transparency, we should be brave enough to tell people about things that didn’t go so brilliantly, as well as our successes – and in turn trust that people will understand these realities.
Charity finances and evidence of impact
In its latest research in 2022 – with 12 focus groups and a follow up online community – the Commission drilled into the types of “transparency data” that people want charities to provide, and which types of information are seen as most important: “Views about four types of charity data were explored: financial accounts, activities, staffing and salaries, and inclusion and diversity data.”
Whilst people involved in the Commission’s research thought all of these four types of information were important, financial information and evidence of impact were prioritised as most valuable to the public when making decisions about supporting charities. This was because research participants “wanted to be able to trace and be reassured about where their money would go and what difference it would make to their cause.” A key point was that “Whilst participants understood that not all support would make it to the front line, they wanted to know that the amounts being spent of salaries, management, administration and marketing were appropriate and not ‘wasteful’.”
"Charities whose benefit is provided through staff time need to make it clear that this is the frontline where people are being helped and where the ‘cause’ is being addressed."
QSA's Peter christmas
Public interest in charities’ staffing costs, whilst entirely understandable, perhaps presents a particular challenge for the many charities whose aims are met by providing services in which staff - often supported by committed volunteers - interact with people using or participating in the service. For example these are likely to include specialist medical or therapeutic charities, organisations providing a wide range of information, advice or guidance, or indeed any staffed charity where the focus is not on delivering items with monetary value directly to a ‘beneficiary’. Charities whose benefit is provided through staff time need to make it clear that this is the frontline where people are being helped and where the ‘cause’ is being addressed. Articulating this seems more accurate than statements claiming that all, or a certain proportion, of donated income ‘goes straight to beneficiaries’.
In the end, the validity of a charity’s approach will be shown in evidence of its impact, which the Charity Commission’s research identifies as the other most important type of data for trust in charities. Impact measurement and evaluation is a huge topic in itself, and excellent resources (external link) exist to help charities think all of this through. At QSA we try to remember to show impact through both numbers and stories. Numbers can give an idea of scale – how many people have been supported and in what ways – whilst this is all brought to life by those people participating in our services who choose to share their experiences. You can read our latest impact report here.