Under-pressure charities face conflicting demands | Letters
Linda Milbourne and Mike Cushman point out that a charity’s priorities are often distorted by the requirements of their funders. Plus letters from Ben Norman, Prof Mike Stein and Sarah MacFadyen Your editorial on charities makes many useful points about their contribution to social life and appropriately highlights the harsh nature of the current funding environment (The Guardian view on hard times for Britain’s charities: struggling to do more with less, 31 December). However, it is overoptimistic about the ability of charities to resist capture by funders when you state that “their priorities are not distorted by the profit-seeking motives of market-based providers”. This is true, but their priorities are frequently distorted by the requirements of their funders. In a target-driven society, funders – state, corporate or charitable – have their own performance indicators to meet. Continue reading...
Linda Milbourne and Mike Cushman point out that a charity’s priorities are often distorted by the requirements of their funders. Plus letters from Ben Norman, Prof Mike Stein and Sarah MacFadyen
Your editorial on charities makes many useful points about their contribution to social life and appropriately highlights the harsh nature of the current funding environment (The Guardian view on hard times for Britain’s charities: struggling to do more with less, 31 December).
However, it is overoptimistic about the ability of charities to resist capture by funders when you state that “their priorities are not distorted by the profit-seeking motives of market-based providers”. This is true, but their priorities are frequently distorted by the requirements of their funders. In a target-driven society, funders – state, corporate or charitable – have their own performance indicators to meet.
Continue reading...