Philanthropists should use their assets to reinvent their relationships with grantees based on trust, equity and fairness, according to new guidance by the think tank New Philanthropy Capital.
NPC has published fresh advice for philanthropists for the next wave of the pandemic.
It comes as charities face an existential challenge from the coronavirus, said NPC, even as the vaccines put the end in sight.
It has published three resources that show what NPC has learned during the pandemic as it engaged with charities and funders to help them adapt to Covid-19.
The body has published an updated philanthropy guide on understanding the sector and a new philanthropy guide on how funders can shift their practices to what, for some, will be a radically different way of working with grantees.
It has also published an updated charity toolkit designed to help charities address immediate and long-term challenges.
The guidance includes a sector-by-sector breakdown of what philanthropists need to know about different types of charitable activity.
The NPC is encouraging charities to get in touch and share their own experiences.
Dan Corry, chief executive of NPC, said: “How philanthropists act now will determine how charities are able to tackle this crisis in the short term, their institutional survival in the medium term, and the resilience of our sector to keep serving people in the long term.”
Corry described how decisions made at this critical point will act as a “defining moment” for charities that will have long-term effects for the entire sector.
“Right now, charities still need emergency support,” he said.
“The crisis has shifted from acute to chronic. But coronavirus has revealed much about charities and philanthropy, how we work, who we work with and where we focus, so we need to start thinking about how we rethink and rebuild our sector.
“However bad the storm, we must not lose sight of where we are heading.”