How “good” are your charity's suppliers??

How much do you know about where the money your charity spends goes once you’ve spent it, and could it actually be working against you? 

Ethical procurement isn’t a “nice to have” bolt‑on, it’s one of the most practical ways you can serve your mission and avoid causing harm through the suppliers, contractors and service providers you rely on. 

Doing good, not doing damage 

Ethical and sustainable procurement is about choosing goods and services that maximise positive environmental, social and economic impact over their whole life – not just buying on price and quality alone. It means looking at where things come from, how they’re made, who’s involved and what happens at end‑of‑life, as well as how they help you deliver your services. 

For charities, that matters twice over. The Charity Commission is clear that trustees can, and sometimes should, take environmental factors into account where they affect your reputation, the confidence of donors, or the effective use of resources. The same logic applies to wider ethical issues, from labour standards to human rights and community impact. 

Trustees are not under an absolute duty to maximise financial return at any cost; they can and should balance returns against conflicts with their charitable purposes and serious risks to reputation. That shifts ethical procurement and investment firmly into the category of “good governance”, not optional extra. 

Where to start? 

If you’ve not approached your purchasing or supplier selection from this perspective it can feel like a huge job. If you’re a complex organisation with a lot of supplier relationships (and you have the time and resources) it might be a case of working through a comprehensive review process, developing an internal supplier assessment framework that is consistent with your charity’s values and objectives, and then auditing current suppliers against it, compiling a list of alternative providers or suppliers that are a better fit, and establishing an ongoing review cycle.  

If you don’t have the time or resources for a full review, or your organisation maybe has fewer supplier relationships, start with the biggest and most important supplier relationships. Who do you spend the most money with? Start with your top two or three suppliers and look at them through an ethical lens and see how they do or don’t stand up. Something as simple as a quick internet search for news relating to your main suppliers (you can use an ethical browser like Ecosia instead of you-know-who if want to get off on the right foot…). 

Establishing an Ethical Purchasing Policy 

If you’ve done a supplier review or just want to change the way you select suppliers going forward, a reliable framework of questions or principles is the place to start. You don’t need a perfect policy before you start, and the main questions for it to include should be pretty simple to identify. Here are some you can build into your next supplier, contractor or investment review to reduce inadvertent harm and better support your mission: 

• How could this supplier, service or investment conflict with, or actively support, our charitable purposes? 
• What are the key environmental impacts across its lifecycle (materials, energy use, transport, disposal), and how is the supplier reducing them? 
• What do we know about labour standards, human rights and health and safety in this supplier’s operations and supply chain? 
• What organisations are connected to the supplier, as major customers, sponsors, advertisers etc. that could represent a conflict with your mission? 
• How transparent is this organisation about where and how it operates (e.g. published supply chains, modern slavery statements, ESG reporting)? 
• What specific environmental or ethical criteria will we include in the contract or grant agreement, and how will we monitor them over time? 
• Where we invest, do we have clear exclusions (e.g. fossil fuels, arms, tobacco) and a plan for engagement or divestment when companies fall short of our standards? 
• What trade‑offs are we making between cost, impact and risk – and have trustees explicitly signed off those choices? 

And the big one that connects your Ethical Purchasing Policy to your Risk, Communications and Fundraising policies: 

• If this supplier or investment featured on the front page of tomorrow’s paper alongside our logo, would we be comfortable explaining the relationship to beneficiaries and donors? 

You can’t solve every global problem through your procurement and investment decisions. But you can make sure the money you spend isn’t quietly undermining the very change you’re trying to create, and where possible, is helping to drive it. 

If you want some help assessing your current suppliers, producing an Ethical Purchasing Policy or framework, or identifying suppliers that better match your values and mission, get in touch with us at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to chat.  

The best bit? We’re a charity too, so working with us enables us to help even more charities to achieve their aims!