FROM THE EDITOR
(Richard Blausten)

The riots – not alienating public opinion

The general public has almost unanimously condemned the rioting and looting which have afflicted many of our cities out of hand. They have swept aside the excuse of social deprivation with considerable anger, pointing the finger at criminality. This response has come from right across the social spectrum and from most community leaders. So those charity representatives who have been on the television trying to push the social deprivation argument have been completely out of tune with public opinion, and have done their charities no favours. The public is not interested in the “causes of the disturbances” approach.

Charities always want money – they need it to exist. And more often than not they depend on some level of public donations. Charities either directly or indirectly connected with remedying social deprivation could find themselves facing a donor backlash. After the student riots earlier this year there was some evidence that alumni donations to universities were adversely affected.

A group of leaders of national volunteering organisations have written to the Prime Minister offering assistance, saying their “combined experience of working with young people and communities can feed in to the understanding of what may have caused these young people to take such extreme action, and, crucially what needs to be done to prevent it happening again”. Unfortunately there was no outright condemnation of what happened anywhere in the letter – and not right at the beginning where it should have been..

Charities in this area are not going to get anywhere in the face of public opinion unless they take on board certain realities – and the biggest one is that those on the front line in the riots – those whose shops and even homes were broken into, looted and set on fire, and those who were physically attacked – are not going to be impressed by anything which doesn’t begin with such outright condemnation.

The mass of people who came from all parts of their local communities to clear up the mess with their brooms want to hear a better message from the charity leaders who appear to have completely ignored them in favour of their own agendas.

It’s all very well trying to improve ways of getting a charity’s message across to the public, but if the message is starkly missing the point then the sooner certain leaders in the charity sector think again, the better for their charities.


Shocks for charity investors – what future?

Charity investors could be forgiven for being somewhat shell-shocked by current financial market fluctations and wondering if there is any sustainable way forward. The chief investment strategists in investment houses and stockbroking firms must be feeling a bit under siege at the moment. This is not due to the fact that they weren’t factoring in what has now been happening, because they did. Indeed the have been pointing out the potential market flashpoints for a while now – namely, the American economy, the American debt situation, the eurozone problems and the global economy. No, in effect they are under pressure to come up with something positive to say about future investment.

If charity investors look at what these investment strategists have been saying and compare this with what they are now saying – or will be saying – they should be able to spot consistency. The strategists generally like equities because they offer good yields. Companies are on the whole producing good results, partly because they have cut costs, and these are being reflected in dividend increases. Just think how good those yields were before the latest collapse in stock market prices – and how they are even better now.

Suddenly bonds aren’t in favour – but there are tactical buying opportunities out there. Indeed, whatever the overall asset allocation decision, there will always be tactical buying opportunities in unfavoured areas. And in the long term, well, there is bound to be global recovery at some time – maybe very patchy, slow and with setbacks – but it must come eventually. Remember too that the economies of Asia and Latin America are not the same as those of the US and Europe and so offer different opportunities (and risks).

Charity investors are in it for the long term so they should be listening hard to their investment advisers. Yes, one commentator has said “there is no longer any such thing as long term investment”. But perhaps a better way of putting it would be “don’t be afraid to be a bit more tactical at the moment when the right opportunities arise”.

There is life in the charity investment scene yet.


Surviving challenging times

With financial pressures increasing relentlessly it is no wonder that some senior charity staff and trustees must feel under siege, particularly if their charities depend to a significant extent on local authority or other public service contracts. 

Less senior employees right down the line may quite understandably feel threatened by what they feel will be an inevitable requirement for redundancies. Also they and volunteers may well feel depressed at how they perceive the operations of their charity to be under threat. One way or the other, their world in the charity sector must be looking very gloomy.

So senior management and trustees need to try and take control of the situation by reasserting their leadership to safeguard their charities’ operations and raise morale. They should take a hard look at unnecessary expenditure and unnecessary people, including consultants when these are just “nice to have”. Indeed, anything which is “nice to have” rather than key to the operation of charities should be jettisoned.

Over generous salary levels and benefits should be looked at too. In today’s straightened circumstances the argument that charities have to pay big salaries to attract the right people should be put in the dustbin where it belongs. 

Nowadays people coming from the public and commercial sectors to the charity sector should be made to accept more affordable and proportionate levels of remuneration, or be shown the door. The same goes for senior personnel moving around within the charity sector. If recruitment consultants don’t get the message then they should be shown the door too.