The Chairperson of the Charity Commission is forecasting a poor time ahead for charities with donations reduced and even drying up altogether. Dame Suzi Leather is talking about potential reductions of £5 billion as a result of government spending cuts.
Wildlife Trusts like SWT are of course charities as are public schools and many other organisations that are run like increasingly successful businesses. Still it may not be the best of times for SWT to appeal to the public for £1million to help them buy Greno Woods in North Sheffield. In launching their appeal they have sent round a professionally produced leaflet attractively fronted by a picture of two cherubic children in a green space. One wonders if the Sheffield City Council will once again be adding to SWT’s funds despite the cash crisis. Friends of Blacka Moor have received one of these leaflets inviting to contribute. Individuals may of course wish to do so but as a group with more limited access to funds than SWT inevitably FoBM is unable to help. In fact I calculate that FoBM’s total balance at the bank amounts to at most 0.04% of what SWT’s Chief Executive’s earns in a year from his job. Perhaps the appeal should be the other way round. And the accounts for SWT (needs PDF) for the year ending 2009 indicate that their turnover is some £2 million plus.
Lack of the ready may not be the only reason for declining to contribute to this project even though some of the published aims appear laudable. Experience at Blacka Moor furnishes a number of reservations about the way the Wildlife Trust approaches their work and the balance between office work and presence on the ground, giving a quite different picture to the polished presentation in their annual reports and accounts. When SWT took on Blacka we did expect them to actually know what was going on here, but now almost ten years on there are parts of the 450 acre site that they seem to know little about. We thought that if you were taking on the management of this large area the minimum expected would be to have an on-site worker (preferably with senior status) whose role would be first and foremost to actually know the place and be around at key times. Instead they see themselves as a drop-in service, little different to a typical council service such as Streetforce or the police. At weekends and holiday periods they are just not here unless they’ve organised an occasional ‘volunteer’ event such as bashing birch with three or four people. As they grow outwards taking on more and more territory is it likely that they will take their role here more seriously? Not as long as they organise themselves as a 9 to 5 council department.
Wildlife Trusts like SWT are of course charities as are public schools and many other organisations that are run like increasingly successful businesses. Still it may not be the best of times for SWT to appeal to the public for £1million to help them buy Greno Woods in North Sheffield. In launching their appeal they have sent round a professionally produced leaflet attractively fronted by a picture of two cherubic children in a green space. One wonders if the Sheffield City Council will once again be adding to SWT’s funds despite the cash crisis. Friends of Blacka Moor have received one of these leaflets inviting to contribute. Individuals may of course wish to do so but as a group with more limited access to funds than SWT inevitably FoBM is unable to help. In fact I calculate that FoBM’s total balance at the bank amounts to at most 0.04% of what SWT’s Chief Executive’s earns in a year from his job. Perhaps the appeal should be the other way round. And the accounts for SWT (needs PDF) for the year ending 2009 indicate that their turnover is some £2 million plus.
Lack of the ready may not be the only reason for declining to contribute to this project even though some of the published aims appear laudable. Experience at Blacka Moor furnishes a number of reservations about the way the Wildlife Trust approaches their work and the balance between office work and presence on the ground, giving a quite different picture to the polished presentation in their annual reports and accounts. When SWT took on Blacka we did expect them to actually know what was going on here, but now almost ten years on there are parts of the 450 acre site that they seem to know little about. We thought that if you were taking on the management of this large area the minimum expected would be to have an on-site worker (preferably with senior status) whose role would be first and foremost to actually know the place and be around at key times. Instead they see themselves as a drop-in service, little different to a typical council service such as Streetforce or the police. At weekends and holiday periods they are just not here unless they’ve organised an occasional ‘volunteer’ event such as bashing birch with three or four people. As they grow outwards taking on more and more territory is it likely that they will take their role here more seriously? Not as long as they organise themselves as a 9 to 5 council department.
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