Andrea Pappin: There are 24,000 charities in Ireland ... do we really need that many?
THERE'S been much discussion over the last week about whether the charity Goal has the right corporate governance or not. Given that governance is a pretty private sector practice, has anyone done that other corporate sector practice of a cost-benefit analysis to see if we even need Goal?
This is a conversation that we don’t seem to be happy to even broach in this country. Usually when the question ‘do we have too many NGOs here?’ is even posed, you are usually accused of being proactively in favour of both seal-clubbing and children home and abroad catching preventable diseases. So before anyone hits the keyboard to reply with indigence, let’s start with some basics so you can see where this is coming from. Searching for a cure for cancer and other fatal diseases, the protection of the seriously vulnerable in Ireland and abroad and many, many causes in between are all areas that need representation. It’s not only important, it is essential for us as a country to have that third space along state and business for this kind of cause-related work.
So the need for the existence of not-for-profits is not in question here, but what is up for discussion is the sheer number of them. Because here in Ireland, it seems that at the rate we set up charities, we could give amoeba a run for their money.
We’ve got to get over this idea that because an industry handles good causes, it is automatically above reproach and defy the basic rules of commerce. In fact, just as the companies have learnt the benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility, the not-for-profit industry could learn one or two things from business – and in particular, the benefits of mergers and acquisitions.
In classic corporate speak, there are three reasons why more mergers would be good (there’s always three, isn’t there?). Firstly, there’s crowding. Declan Ryan, of the One Foundation, recently estimated that there were 24,000 charities in Ireland. That’s a different charity for every 190 of us – so if you can fill four average coaches, then you can get your own charity.
On one level we can congratulate ourselves that we have a thriving charity sector, which is of course true. But there is another question that does need to be asked – have we ever stopped to consider if we need that many organisations? After all, are there such differences between Goal, Concern, Trocaire, WorldVision and other forty-odd overseas aid agencies that prevents some of them joining together to economise on the inevitable operating costs? Or how about the four separate organisations that support and help children of the Chernobyl disaster? They no doubt do good work, but do we need four? Why?
Recently, I heard that we have a culture here of ‘My Own NGO’ – a habit of setting up a separate organisation rather than joining an already established vehicle. Whether we like that or not, the more separate organizations, the more internal industry politics that needs to be managed. So the hard question needs to be asked – just how much is the politics clouding the cause?
The second reason why more mergers could be a good move is the brutal unforgiving reason of money. Another awkward truth is that the not-for-profit sector here in Ireland has a massive over-reliance on one single funding channel, the state. According the Trinity College’s Centre for Nonprofit Management, who has conducted one of the few studies in this area, of the 3,215 organisations that declared their income to their study, a whopping 67.9% received money from the state. That’s the same state that is radically cutting its funding across all departments.
Not only is the state pool of money shrinking but in the coming years, two other major sources of philanthropic funding in Ireland – the One Foundation and Atlantic Philanthropies – are either changing focus or exiting altogether. So where exactly is the money going to come from for the number of not-for-profits that we have?
There is also a final essential point that can be overlooked. Merging will inevitably lead to a louder voice which could be heard better over the din of internal industry politics and the scrambling for monies from the same jars. A louder, more unified voice for whatever issue, could result in greater impact, holding the state to even better account and showing the private sector that life is more than a profit margin. A cynic would wonder if the state was happy to fund a more fractious not-for-profit sector as it must dilute the protest.
Let’s not sugar coat this - not-for-profit mergers would be hard, sometimes messy and could lead to some job losses. Yet far from it being uncharitable, it could very well be the uncomfortable yet necessary process that is needed to guarantee the sector.
Read Andrea Pappin's blogs www.plaintalking.ie
