If infrastructure charities are struggling, we should all be worried

The news that Reach Volunteering is staying open is brilliant.

After announcing that it was facing closure, funders have come together to provide the support Reach needs to continue its work. That is something to celebrate. It is a great example of what can happen when funders recognise the value of infrastructure and act together to protect it.

But I also think there is another side to this story.

Reach shouldn’t have needed to get to the brink of closure before that support came together.

For more than 45 years, Reach has connected charities and community organisations with people willing to share their skills and expertise. It has helped thousands of organisations find volunteers and trustees and played an important role in strengthening the sector. And the fact that its future was suddenly in question should make all of us stop and think.

I’ve been thinking a lot about something our CEO, Debra Allcock Tyler, recently wrote on LinkedIn about the financial crisis facing infrastructure charities. She described infrastructure organisations as “the canary in the coal mine, giving an early warning of danger.” This is a really powerful way of looking at it.

Infrastructure organisations aren’t separate from the charity sector. We are part of it. We provide the advice, training, research, connections, volunteering opportunities and support that help other charities do their work. When infrastructure organisations start struggling financially, it can tell us something about the financial health of the wider sector too.

The charity hygiene products

Debra used a brilliant analogy from her work as a trustee at In Kind Direct.

She explained that when people are under financial pressure, they might stop buying hygiene products before they stop buying food. If someone is giving up toothpaste, soap and shampoo, you know things are getting serious.

The same thing can happen with charities.

Much of the income for infrastructure organisations comes not from grants, but from membership fees, training, subscriptions and paid services. So when charities stop buying our “stuff” – the support, learning, advice and resources that help them do their work – it would be easy to think that perhaps they don’t need us anymore.

But what if the opposite is true? What if they aren’t buying because they simply can’t afford to?

As Debra put it:

“If they’re not buying our stuff – the charity ‘hygiene’ products of support, learning and advice – it means that they are cutting back because they’re struggling too, not because we’re not needed.”

If charities are cutting back on the things that help them strengthen their organisations, develop their people and improve their work, it could be a signal of a deeper crisis.

Reach’s recent experience shows just how quickly an infrastructure organisation can find itself in a precarious position. Although it’s now been saved by so many brilliant funders acting quickly, this “fire-brigade” response isn’t a sustainable solution for the long-run. What happens when the next infrastructure organisation calls out for help?

So, what can funders do?

There isn’t a simple answer to the financial pressures facing the sector. Funders are under pressure too, and every organisation has difficult decisions to make. But I do think we need to have a bigger conversation about how we fund the infrastructure that supports charities.

As Fozia Irfan has argued in her recent LinkedIn post, perhaps we need to think differently about how we fund the infrastructure the sector relies on.

It could be a mindset change, a gear shift or just a starting of a conversations around how to go further with supporting a charity’s success.

Here are a few tips to get the conversation started:

See infrastructure as part of the impact

Infrastructure can sometimes be overlooked because its impact isn’t always immediate or easy to see.

• A charity adviser might help an organisation improve its governance.
• A training course might give a fundraiser the skills to secure a vital grant.
• A volunteering service might connect a small charity with a trustee who transforms its board.
• A research organisation might give charities the information they need to make better decisions.

None of these things are necessarily the end result we see in an impact report.

But they can make all the difference to what happens next.

If we want charities to be strong, sustainable and effective, we need to invest in the things that help them get there. Like for example, training, resources, fundraising support… all those brilliant things that keep charities running.

Think beyond the grant

This is also where I think Funder Plus or Grants Plus has an important role to play.

A grant is incredibly valuable but sometimes money alone isn’t enough.

A small charity might receive funding for a new project but need help with project management. A team might need training to build its skills. A charity might need specialist advice, resources or connections to make the most of the opportunity in front of it.

So what if funders could give their grantees more than money?

By working with infrastructure organisations, funders can connect the charities they support with the practical help, expertise and learning they need to succeed.

And in doing so, they aren’t just supporting individual grantees.

They’re helping strengthen the wider charity sector too.

That’s what we’re talking about when we talk about Funder Plus at DSC. It’s about recognising that sometimes the support around a grant is what helps turn funding into lasting change.

We’ve made the process really simple. Our Funder Plus system has been streamlined and is ready for more funders to join. We’ve already worked with a number of funders who want to do more to help the charities they support build the skills and confidence they need to succeed.

Your funding can help a charity today. The right support can help make it stronger for tomorrow.

We’ve written more about this in our article Why “Funder Plus” is no longer a nice-to-have. Read Ben’s article here or contact us at [email protected].

Give infrastructure room to breathe

There is also something to be said for longer-term and unrestricted funding.

Infrastructure organisations need to pay their staff, maintain their systems, develop new services and respond when the needs of the sector change.

But we can’t always predict what the sector will need two years from now.

And we certainly can’t build resilient organisations if we’re constantly having to focus on what happens when the current funding runs out.

Longer-term funding gives organisations a chance to plan, adapt and build sustainable income rather than simply trying to survive from one funding period to the next.

It can also mean that organisations don’t have to wait until they are in crisis before funders step in.

Let’s not wait for the next crisis

It’s incredible that Reach is staying open.

It’s a brilliant example of what can happen when people recognise the value of an organisation and come together to support it, but I don’t think we should simply breathe a sigh of relief and move on.

The fact that Reach came so close to closure should make us ask some difficult questions about how we fund the infrastructure that the rest of the sector relies on. Reach isn’t the only organisation providing vital support to charities.

Across the sector, infrastructure organisations are helping charities build skills, recruit trustees and volunteers, improve their governance, access knowledge, develop their fundraising and respond to the challenges they face.

We shouldn’t have to wait until these organisations are at the brink of closure before we recognise how important they are.

Reach has been given another chance. Let’s use it as an opportunity to have a bigger conversation about what the sector needs, how infrastructure is funded and what more funders can do to support the organisations that support everyone else.

The warning signs are there. We need to listen to them now, rather than waiting for the next crisis.