The Civil Society Council has been urged to undertake a review of civil society infrastructure following a “concerning” pattern of closures, in a letter to the new charities minister.
The open letter to Vicky Foxcroft, who was last month confirmed as the new civil society minister, also calls for improvements to the charity funding system to reduce bureaucracy for smaller organisations.
The letter was organised by Charterpath CIO and is still collecting signatures, with plans to send to the minister next week.
It comes after the Directory of Social Change recently appointed an insolvency practitioner and began winding up, citing “huge financial pressures” facing the sector.
Reach Volunteering also announced plans to close last month, but was saved by a nearly half a million pound pledge by eight funders and an anonymous donor.
Julia Unwin, chair of the Charity Commission, recently warned that the loss of infrastructure organisations could be a “tremor ahead of what might be a quietly destructive earthquake”.
The letter to the charities minister warns that many smaller local infrastructure organisations are facing the same pressures as DSC and Reach, away from the national spotlight.
“This is starting to look less like a series of isolated closures and more like a warning about the infrastructure supporting our charity sector,” it says.
The letter stresses the importance of infrastructure organisations for a healthy charity sector, saying: “Because one infrastructure organisation can strengthen hundreds of other charities, the multiplier effect can be enormous.
“This is why the recent pattern of closures is so concerning,” it adds.
The letter warns that the loss of infrastructure will put greater pressure on charity staff, weaken governance, create inefficiencies and will mean charities spend less time delivering services.
While it says Reach’s rescue gave the sector “reasons for optimism”, the letter warns that crisis intervention “cannot become our model for sustaining civil society infrastructure”.
The letter says: “We need to get ahead of the problem rather than waiting for the next organisation to reach the cliff edge.”
The submission to the minister proposes three actions for the Civil Society Council to consider, in an effort to improve the landscape for charity infrastructure.
“We are asking the government, working through the Civil Society Council, to undertake a review of civil society infrastructure across England,” it says.
This review should map the national, regional and local infrastructure on which charities depend, the letter says, including examining where vulnerabilities are emerging and where duplication exists.
“It should then make practical recommendations for how critical infrastructure can be made more sustainable – including the respective roles of government, grantmakers, businesses and the sector itself,” it says.
The letter also urges for funding to be made “radically easier” for small charities to access.
It asks the council to explore a “more standardised or centralised approach to core charity information and due diligence”, which would allow trusted information to be supplied once and reused across multiple funding applications.
“For a small charity, reducing bureaucracy is not simply a matter of convenience,” it says. “It gives time back to deliver the mission.”
The letter adds that businesses have a “significant role to play in strengthening civil society”, urging the government to work with employers and professional bodies on a “corporate volunteering challenge”, which would encourage businesses to measure participation, make skills-based opportunities easier to access and recognise relevant volunteering as part of professional development.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has been contacted for comment.