One Bright Idea to Help Charities Recover from the Annus Horribilis of 2020
This year ends with a desperate financial backdrop for many charities. Founder and Chair of Trustees, Dr Nik Kotecha OBE, examines whether strategic partnerships with businesses may hold the answer.
This year has been challenging for us all, but for the Voluntary and Charity Sector it really has been an annus horribilis.
As we rapidly approach the end of 2020 it’s clear that many charitable organisations may not last the winter, let alone into 2021 and beyond.
This bleak picture was vividly summed up recently by the Pro Bono Economics consultancy, which reported that 166,000 charitable and voluntary organisations across Britain have seen vital income streams shrink at a time when demand for their services has surged due to Covid-19.
The ongoing pandemic and lockdowns have severely hampered charitable organisations’ already fragile funding streams, and could lead to the gap between income and expenditure across the sector reaching £10bn due to charity shop closures and the cancellation of fundraisers. On top of this a staggering 60,000 jobs could be lost and vital community services look almost certain to be cut further.
The Government has been very supportive of business, having introduced some of the most comprehensive financial support of any country in the world. This included furloughing almost 10 million workers and 900,000 small business grants.
But what about charities and voluntary groups, which are so vital for society and wellbeing, as business is for the economy and livelihoods?
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