Orlando Fraser KC's speech at #ACEVOFest
In a speech at ACEVO's festival of leadership, Orlando spoke about the pressures facing charities in the UK and his personal project to encourage philanthropy. He also touched on the Commission's social media guidance consultation and charities' role in campaigning.
Hi everyone – I am really pleased to be here amongst such a varied group of charity leaders.
Including of course Jane herself – a sort of leader of leaders of charity.
Jane, a big thank you for inviting us to host this session and bringing us in touch with your members in this way.
Over the past year, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of you distinguished ACEVO members, including on one memorable occasion sharing pizzas, posh lemonade and beer with some of you in a penthouse in London Victoria – you know who you are.
Across the board, I’ve been impressed with the talent, energy, passion and grit that I’ve encountered among charity leaders.
Your roles are hugely challenging, often very lonely, and your shoulders have to be broad indeed.
So, while no doubt the personal rewards are great, your work is neither remunerated as it would be in the private sector, nor do you always receive due recognition for the sacrifices you make.
We come together during difficult times for many charities, as you will know only too well.
There is evidence that the sector overall is facing immense financial pressures.
Earlier this month CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) reported on the findings of a survey of 1,300 charities – over half of those asked say they fear financial collapse. A year ago, that figure stood at a third.
Many are drawing on reserves to meet day-to-day expenditure and less than a third are confident in their current funding.
So, while there is some hope on the horizon for the economy as a whole, I expect the financial outlook for many to darken.
CAF’s findings certainly tally with what charities are telling me.
I have visited many charities since joining the Commission around a year ago, witnessing their work at first hand, meeting volunteers, beneficiaries, as well as trustees and of course CEOs.
And wherever I go in England and Wales, I hear a familiar story of growing struggle.
Foodbanks and other charities providing direct support in kind are most directly impacted. Late last year I visited a charity running several food clubs in Manchester, which has seen a nearly ten-fold increase in visits to their clubs since the start of the pandemic – from 250 a week to over 2,000.
While not all charities are seeing demand increase, few are unaffected by pressures on expenditure as a result of the rising cost of energy and commodities.
Financial pressures in isolation would be challenging enough for you as leaders.
But as you know as well as I, what makes the task of leadership so tough is that the financial outlook brings with it wider complex challenges.
There’s the task of keeping your staff motivated and resilient while they are also seeing the value of their incomes decrease, and stress levels rise.
We know that some charities are facing strikes by staff, over concerns about pay and conditions.
I’m also concerned about the impact on leaders themselves - I hear again and again about the fatigue many executives in charities are feeling at the moment.
Many senior charity staff saw their resilience tested during the pandemic – you had no chance to draw your breath before these more recent challenges began to arise.
Scrutiny on your decisions as leaders is also likely to sharpen as financial pressures mount.
You will have to expect your donors and funders to look ever more closely at how you spend your money, and the difference your charity makes.
Values such as prudence – incidentally also a trustee duty – and restraint are back in fashion.
They will be expected also of charities, as they are required of so many of those who support charities and in turn are supported by them.
What matters is that big decisions are approached with due care and caution.
Looking at risks and potential rewards from all angles, thinking through unintended consequences, preparing for scrutiny.
Preparing to be held to account.
And being led at all times by your charity’s purposes and the best interests of those you exist to help.
The Commission itself is alive to the challenges charities now face, and we are doing what we can to respond.
Alas, we cannot offer direct help - aside of course from our revitalising funds project, which has been very successful, we have no funds we can distribute.
Nor can we directly secure corporate partnerships, or leverage influence over government spending.
Though we have welcomed the £100m announced by the chancellor last week, which I hope will make a difference to local charities.
And we can encourage others to dig deep.
In that respect, I’ve made it a personal priority of mine to encourage the wealthiest in our society to give more to charity.
The philanthropic culture here in England and Wales lags behind those in comparable countries, such as New Zealand and Canada, and far behind what we see in the US.
There was once an expectation that those who were very fortunate – either in terms of inheritance, talent or luck – would share the proceeds of that with others who are less fortunate.
Many still lead by example.
I’ve been impressed to hear, for example, about the work of the Rausings, who have given millions to charity, including recently to the Trussell Trust to support the work of its food banks.
I met the Julia and Hans Rausing Trust recently, to hear about the unique role philanthropic giving can play – free from the strings that can be tied to government and corporate donations, and with an ability to act fast in times of crisis.
I think many more could do a great deal more to strengthen our society and help those who are struggling.
I will keep using my voice to encourage this.
And I will say to you as charity leaders that the Commission will not question your decisions to accept donations – even when they are controversial – unless there are genuine concerns about wrongdoing or unlawfulness.
Later this year, we will publish updated guidance on returning and refusing donations. It will promote lawful philanthropy and will aim to further empower you and your trustees to use their discretion in making the right decision for your charity, starting from the principle that you must have funds to deliver on your charity’s purposes.
More widely – the most we can do for charities during this time of challenge is to regulate in such a way that helps promote the trustworthiness of, and trust in, charities.
Helping to ensure you retain public support and secure the funds you need to do your work.
For my own part, I’m determined to lead an expert Commission that is fair, balanced, and independent.
Expertise and fairness start with providing clear, timely guidance for trustees, including on managing finances.
This is perhaps less needed in the larger, more professional charities which many of you lead.
Your trustees have you and your colleagues to offer expertise, experience, knowledge and know-how.
Not all charities are in this position, and we must be mindful of this.
We must regulate in a way that supports the majority of small organisations that rely solely on the work and oversight of a board of trustees who in turn need the free, authoritative advice we can offer.
Unfortunately, at the moment, too few trustees come to us when they need advice. We want to change that, encouraging trustees to come straight to the source. Our 5-minute guides have been successful in that respect. Our research shows that almost all – 94% - of trustees who use it found it helpful.
Fairness is also about due process. I want everyone who comes into contact with the Commission to feel that they were treated equally with others, and with dignity and respect, even if the outcome of their interaction isn’t what they would hope for.
This applies to trustees of a charity under inquiry as it does to a trustee seeking advice though the contact centre, or a member of the public raising a concern about the charity.
Balance is important especially in the context of our compliance case work. It means that we are committed to proportionality: responding robustly where there is serious harm and deliberate wrongdoing - this is vital to maintain trust - but also showing appropriate leniency where trustees make honest, reasonable mistakes or misjudgements.
In our enforcement work as in our guidance, we must remain mindful that we regulate a voluntary sector, run by largely volunteer trustees.
Finally, we must remain independent as regulator, unafraid of asserting that independence where necessary.
That means we are independent of party politics, independent of the media, and independent of the sector itself.
I want the Commission to forge and maintain strong relationships with sector leaders such as yourselves.
But it is not our role to advocate exclusively in your interests – you, and ACEVO and other bodies, do this superbly already.
Our role is to serve the public by fulfilling our functions effectively, and also by speaking out where we consider this necessary and helpful.
Sometimes what we say will align with your views and perspectives.
But at times our point of view may be different.
My hope is that we can engage in sensible, open dialogue and discussion about the issues that matter, and about the Commission’s own work.
One area in which there has been recent debate - largely civilised and constructive, I’m glad to say - is around the Commission’s response to the last year’s High Court judgment on investments.
Some have raised doubt about the Commission’s expertise in interpreting that judgment in a summary we made available on our website.
I can reassure you that we are confident that our statement in response to the Butler-Sloss decision was an accurate reflection of that judgment, and of the law, and that our upcoming guidance will be too.
I understand those who are keen to promote green investments – but the law is clear that trustees have very wide discretion in making investment decisions that are right for their charities, and the Butler-Sloss judgment has not changed that.
I would also like to comment briefly on our draft social media guidance. The consultation on that guidance concluded last week, and that attracted much interest and discussion within the sector.
I won’t comment directly on the content of the guidance itself, as of course we’re now considering the responses received as we draw up the final guidance.
I’m not going to pre-empt that process.
But I would like to reiterate the purpose of the draft guidance, our motivation in producing it.
The guidance does not change the law or trustees’ responsibilities under the law.
Instead, and quite simply, it is designed to support charities to use social media with confidence, to ensure trustees understand their responsibilities, and remain risk aware. Including in the context of their staff and volunteers – people like you - using social media in their own right.
There’s a clear demand for more advice in this area. 67% of NCVO members polled said they wanted the Commission to offer specific social media guidance. That is a figure which knee-jerk critics of the consultation process would do well to bear in mind.
I’ve heard some concerns from charities that the guidance will encourage or facilitate spurious complaints from those who may want to silence charities they disagree with.
With respect, I think this is to look at the matter through the wrong end of the telescope.
The Commission already receives complaints about charities, and those involved in charities and their public statements.
Some of those who complain misunderstand the law and what is expected from trustees.
At the moment, we cannot point to our own specific guidance in setting these complainants straight.
In the future, we’ll be able to provide reassurance and clarity by pointing those with unfounded concerns to our specific social media guidance.
So, we are grateful to the many charities who have responded to our consultation, and we are carefully considering all those submissions in preparing the final guidance.
I’d also like to say a few words about public discourse more widely, and my view of the opportunities, and responsibilities for charities here.
Every day, we edge closer to the next general election, which must take place by January 2025.
This country faces many challenges, and there are many issues that both divide political opinion AND touch on the work of charities.
These include policy in the areas of education, health, immigration, poverty and opportunity, and many more.
I expect charities to speak out in furtherance of their purposes and in the interests of their beneficiaries’.
Charities often speak on behalf of those who otherwise would have no voice.
That has always been the case and will always remain so.
No-one, least of all me, wants a public discourse robbed of the expertise, insight, and integrity that charities so often bring.
But charities are not political parties.
They are, and should remain, separate to the political fray - not focussed on trashing the motivations of those who think differently, but in engaging on the issues, and the impact on your beneficiaries.
I think often of the inspiring words of Michelle Obama, speaking as First Lady at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. She referred to the challenges of raising her two children in the face of immense public scrutiny and in the context of an increasingly brash, divisive, personal public debate.
She said this: “We insist that the hateful language they hear from public figures on TV does not represent the true spirit of this country. We explain that when someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level. No, our motto is: when they go low, we go high”.
Michelle Obama’s motto represents great counsel for any young person, anywhere.
But her words should also make all of us involved public debate think about the world we shape for those young people.
The tone of debate that they are exposed to, day in, day out.
Charities have the opportunity to model a better, more constructive public discourse.
I stress: I do not want charities to show deference to those in power, or to spare government or politicians embarrassment.
But charities must remain driven in everything they do by their purposes.
Not the personal views or instincts of their leaders.
You as members of ACEVO have a crucial leadership role.
You are leaders IN your charities – modelling the behaviour you want to see among your staff and colleagues.
And you are leaders of charity in the world – representing our better natures, and what is best in our society.
Having, as I mentioned earlier, met many ACEVO members, and many charity leaders over the past year, I have no doubt that you have the talent and passion to make an immense difference to your charities and your beneficiaries.
Please use that skill also to help promote trust in charities more widely, and in the role of charities in our society – as providers of crucial services, and examples of integrity and kindness.
Thank you.