Heart on Fire, Brain on Ice - Charities, Impact and the New Normal

A friend recently reminded me of a famous L. P. Hartley quote, “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” Although the phrase has been bandied about over the years under every context imaginable, I can think of no more appropriate time to use it now.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently. Not just about the day-to-day of recruitment during a pandemic; not just about how I can spice up my daily walk along the river. Instead, I’ve been thinking about what society will look like post-Covid 19; and I’ve been thinking specifically about the third sector.

Over the years, there’ve been growing murmurings of criticisms of the charity sector institutionalising certain behaviours and attitudes. I have to say that some are well founded; as an example and in the spirit of forthrightness, we at Green Park actively campaign on improving representation through diversity in senior leadership, as the third sector is notoriously unrepresentative of the communities it serves.

However, neither the sector nor society have ever been presented with such a crisis, where so much shit has hit the fan.

Not to start on a negative note, but there really has been a lot of bad news recently. The central aspects of illness and fatality aside, each analysis hits further home. Charities are expecting a decline in voluntary income of 48%, according to ACEVO, the IoF and NCVO. The NCVO has predicted that an estimated ￡4.3 billion – yes, billion – has been lost to the sector over these three months. Major NGOs are furloughing huge numbers of staff, such as Oxfam with two-thirds of its UK staff.

All this said, I want to focus on the concepts of change and opportunity in chaos.

In a recent opinion piece, I talked about the third sector’s positive response to the crisis, such as scaling up their digital capacity and capability at breakneck speed, and coalitions such as the Voluntary Community Sector Emergencies Partnership popping up.

This is good news, because the sector is often criticised precisely for being behind the curve on the subject of all things digital, and for becoming siloed; and, as Margaret Cooney correctly points out, “Accessibility is just the same in the digital space as it is in the physical.” Famously, those who fail to learn the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them; equally, too much introspection and not enough progressive, innovative thinking – and action – can result in us ending back at square one.

If there’s one thing this crisis has proven, it’s that the third sector is and always has been capable of systemic change – it’s just now that, when faced with survival, it gains an appetite.

So far, what I’ve talked about is predominantly internal – digital capacity, accessibility and coalition building aside, who actually still thinks that the sector can’t adapt to remote working? – and shows positive signs for the future, but we must also balance it against external engagement.

The real question that the sector must now tackle, both now and after this crisis, is genuine impact, hand-in-hand with transparency and celebration. It’s clearly important to reach audiences across the globe with a message of solidarity, to mobilise thousands in the streets to raise consciousness of an issue (the climate emergency’s still a thing, by the way). That said, those metrics are too regularly the benchmark of a successful campaign. Public campaigning can often result in an immediate outpouring of emotion and engagement, an increase in awareness of an issue – but these feelings, so passionately held during, for example, a rally, often become deprioritised in an ever-changing social context or simply fade away in the face of everyday struggles – or even in competition with other equally worthy causes, particularly in a time where we all need good stories for causes close to our hearts. We all know it - it’s easier to understand and appreciate the impact of a crisis when it directly affects you. How will the sector make sure it’s truly adding value, not just continuing with business-as-usual, when all is said and done Covid-wise?

I asked Andreea Petre-Goncalves, who set up the Flare “think-and-do tank” in Brussels about this and here’s what she said:

“It’s tempting in times of uncertainty to try and shoehorn whatever was on our agendas into a radically different new reality. I have heard many charity voices say things like “the Covid-19 crisis only proves how important our cause is” or “the crisis makes our issue all the more urgent”. Trust me, as much as I understand the need to stay relevant, if you are saying that, you’re probably the only person who agrees with you right now.

Let’s ask ourselves instead what the world needs most keenly right now and how we can make ourselves most useful, collectively, as a community of like-minded folk. Start with “if the world was the way it should be after Covid-19 it would look like this […]”. If your answer is your pre-crisis strategy, you’re not trying hard enough. This is a turning point in history, and we must all rise to the challenge, whatever the impact on our business plans. If we can’t be driven by ethos and ideals, no one can.”

The third sector has a well-earned reputation for being undervalued and underfunded, and now it faces drastic losses and cuts – but the issues of homelessness, of child poverty, of the climate emergency, not only were there before the crisis but will persist post-crisis. Yes, there has been a heart-warming and important outpouring of solidarity both across the UK and globally – clapping for NHS workers, for example – but surely that voice can and must be harnessed into real policy and system change. Otherwise, it’s just lip service for immediate self-gratification and we’ll end up where we started. 

On one hand, we now have arguably the most heightened awareness of how broken society really is – and on the other, the third sector has limited and precious resources. As negative as this might immediately sound, in my eyes it’s a positive: simply put, the charity sector now has no excuse other than to prioritise impact over reach and awareness; and to not only connect a mission to its donors and public supporters, but the people who keep the sector running.

Another positive to come from the crisis is that social action has transcended the charity sector – two main examples being the prevalence of community aid groups, and support from businesses trying to do the right thing (both prompted and unprompted). To again reference Margaret Cooney, “This crisis has shown that, in many cases, it’s smaller, community-based groups that are the glue that holds communities together, responding to local needs.” Moreover, government apparently has a magic money tree. Hospital parking fees, anyone?

Society has shown that when the shit hits the fan (I’m really using that phrase a lot these days), we’re not just capable of but willing to pull together. This pandemic, though certain socio-economic groups are certainly more affected than others, touches everyone’s lives.

What society and the third sector look like after this blows over, whenever that happens, no one knows. However, there neither cannot nor will not be a ‘return to normal.’ This crisis has shown that our sense of normal is shifting, and we all have appetite to ask for better and more.

To get there, we need honest reflection, openness to change and strategy, and we’re presented with an opportunity to make that journey. I’m reminded of a quote by Lenin: “You must have your heart on fire and your brain on ice.”

With thanks to all who continue to inform my opinions, and with special thanks to the following for their valued insights and contributions: Margaret Cooney, Andreea Petre-Goncalves, Siobhan Harley and Tia Jeewa.