Charities operating in ‘protection mode’
Misinformation, online hostility and political uncertainty are reshaping the delivery of charity service, research has found.
A briefing from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and the insurance company Zurich also found charities are growing more cautious about their visibility, as a result of increasing polarisation.
The research draws on work with 50 charity leaders, trustees and staff, carried out in spring this year.
It warns that more charities are operating in “protection mode” amid an environment “shaped by increasing volatility, pressure and uncertainty”.
The briefing suggests a variety of interconnected pressures – including online hostility, political uncertainty, misinformation, rapid technological change and financial strain – are “reshaping” charities’ everyday mission delivery.
Activities once considered routine, such as fundraising, events and campaigning, now require “significantly greater oversight, planning and risk assessment”, the briefing says.
Many charities described balancing difficult tensions between visibility, safety, advocacy and organisation resilience while continuing to meet growing demand, it adds.
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Heart symbols can help increase donations, experts say
Introducing the concept of love and using hearts in donation pathways can help increase gifts given, fundraisers have been told.
At the Chartered Institute of Fundraising’s annual convention in London, Marina Jones, executive director of development and public affairs at the English National Opera, and Meredith Niles, deputy chair of Plan International UK and a former fundraising director at Marie Curie, spoke about the psychology of giving and how small changes can help increase donations.
Jones gave the example of an experiment by the behavioural psychologist Robert Cialdini, who found that introducing the idea of love and romance into interactions with people made them more generous or willing to help.
She said using heart-shaped logos or items can help increase the amounts people give, according to Cialdini’s findings.
“If you have a tip jar that is heart-shaped at the end of the meal, you give a bigger tip,” Jones said, “because the heart is priming us with love and with thinking about the best self and being more altruistic.”
She said: “Simple things like adding a heart within a donation pathway can increase the donations you give because you are priming people to think about love, about being more altruistic, about their better selves.”
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Homelessness charity reveals new name after dispute
The homelessness charity Julian House has changed its name to Alongside after a longstanding row with a similarly named organisation.
The charity’s former name was inspired by its founding homeless shelter in Bath, but Alongside said its new name would avoid confusion and protect its charitable resources.
The organisation announced the decision to rebrand in April, saying it had been in dispute with another charity with a similar name for “quite some time”.
A homelessness charity in Bristol called Julian Trust has since confirmed to Third Sector that it was the other organisation involved in the dispute.
Alongside said it had taken the decision to rebrand to “avoid confusion and in the interest of protecting our charitable resources”.
The charity said it has carried out due diligence and is confident that its new name “will not pose a challenge” in relation to similarly named organisations.
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