30 June 2024
Incentives to get charities working in the right areas a key part of delivering new government’s agenda, according to social impact specialists NPC.
Encouraging donors and philanthropists to give in the poorest areas of the country could help the new government deliver successful social change by boosting charitable activity where it’s needed most.
Measures such as Gift Aid reform, tax incentives, and matched giving (where government matches charitable contributions from private funders) should be part of a national philanthropy and social investment strategy to maximise and effectively target giving.
Reforms to reduce regional inequality
Gift Aid reforms recommended include regional rates across the UK and automatic collection, which could raise £564 million each year. The extra funds should be targeted to the places and people most in need, say NPC – an independent think tank focusing on charities, funders, and the social sector.
They are calling on the next government to redirect existing government funding streams into a new ‘Social Growth Fund’. This fund would support social programmes that improve people’s health, get people into work, and tackle inequality.
As part of reducing regional inequalities, NPC are also calling on major charities to consider moving their operations out of London and into more deprived areas. Back office jobs could boost local employment and opportunities.
Make Whitehall and local government publish plans on how they’ll work with charities
NPC is calling for government departments to publish a strategy for how they’ll work with the voluntary sector. To make sure these have bite, a responsible Director from each department would report progress to a council chaired by the Prime Minister.
To support this structure, ministerial responsibility for civil society should be taken out of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and moved into a powerful central department, like the Cabinet Office, to create change across the civil service.
Similar structures for charity-state partnerships should be created at local level, including a requirement for public services and ‘metro Mayors’ to publish charity partnership action pans and a role for charities in NHS Integrated Care Systems decision-making.
Government needs to give charities better data for more impact
These strategies should be part of charities and funders reviewing how they maximise their impact – are they doing the right things in the right places?
To support charities boost their impact, government should set up more platforms to share data. Building on the success of the Justice Data Lab and the Employment Data Lab, NPC are calling for government to set up Data Labs in other priority areas such as education and health.
Government should also support charities to share data on the groups they’ve helped locally and require charity trustees to report more substantially on their impact and how they intend to improve it.
NPC Head of Policy and External Affairs Leah Davis said:
“At the moment, giving and charity work aren’t happening where they’re most needed. We can fix that with incentives on things like Gift Aid and matched giving, and bringing together existing funds to support health and jobs.
For a new government to deliver successfully, we will need a new partnership between charities and government. This needs to include formal, permanent structures to give civil society a strong voice in Whitehall, local government, and the NHS.
Charities need to stay focused on maximising their impact, supported by high-quality data from government. We’d also challenge larger national ones to consider what parts of their organisations they could move to boost local jobs and growth.”
