United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

There are 190,000 registered charities in England and Wales. These charities galvanise local communities into taking action to improve the lives of millions at home and abroad. Approximately £100 Billion in assets are held by this sector.

The resources of charities meet tangible need amongst some of society’s most disenfranchised and impoverished individuals and communities. They have the ability to understand and tackle social need in a way that government cannot and their management are drawn from the very communities that they serve.

As the economic downturn takes hold there is less voluntary income being given to charity as there is less disposable income available to the average citizen yet this is the time when the demands on charity from those in need is increasing dramatically. Some way had to be found to maximise the impact of charitable resource yet at a practical level which would involve large scale social engineering.

As the regulator of charities in England and Wales the Charity Commission has been aware for some time that many charities fail because they have either fulfilled their purpose or find that they cannot now do so. There has never been a strategic plan to handle the funds remaining to these charities effectively and release them for the benefit of citizen’s who are in real need.

As a result of preliminary research by the Charity Commission for England and Wales (CC) and the Community Foundation Network we realised that there were at least 10,000 charities which had over the years become dormant or inactive, with a further 6000 a year ceasing to exist and spending their remaining money in ineffective ways. The projected sums of money held by the dormant and inactive charities is in excess of £100 million. If recycled and targeted properly this money would make a tangible difference to society.

Given the scale of the issue, the Charity Commission lacked the ability to deal effectively with these charities in the localities where they operate and act as an advocate for recycling this dead money.

The Community Foundation Network is a charity that has a national presence but appears in every locality which means it has valid intelligence about the needs of the population. As one of the largest grant-makers in England and Wales with a mission of meeting real need they could ensure that funds were placed where they would do the most good, something the Charity Commission lacked. In turn the Charity Commission is the repository of knowledge about charity management and the law, knowledge the Community Foundation network lacked. The result gave birth to the Boost Initiative as a dynamic partnership between the Charity Commission and the Community Foundation Network or to put it another way between Government and the citizen.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The key benefits are fourfold: 1. The Charity Commission as a government department is now in partnership with a major client that understands the needs of the most needy in society providing the Commission with vital real-time intelligence about the value of charity, the needs of society and equipping it to model its services to reflect those needs and the needs of the charities themselves. The Commission by training key personnel within the Community Foundation Network in charity law and governance acts as an enabler, growing the technical skill of those bodies and their ability to help each other rather than having a dependency on the Commission. 2. The Community Foundation has been provided with bespoke training which improves their ability to spot opportunity for assisting struggling or dormant charities and targeting support to release their money to where it is really needed. 3. Charities that are struggling in meeting their mission now have a friend who understands their needs and can help them deliver assistance more efficiently. 4. Local Government, and recently the banking industry, have realised the benefits of embracing this initiative to help them release funds that otherwise would be lost to the citizen. To date £10million pounds has been released into communities in need and this will definitely grow as the success stories increase. This is now more than a partnership between a government body and a charity. It now embraces Central Government, Local Government, the Charity Sector and Business - all four main sectors of society. The Charity Commission operates a referral system that is underpinned by key advice and contacts on its website. To support this front-line staff in the Commission have been thoroughly briefed to identify opportunities to assist charities, local authorities and financial institutions. All referrals are routed to a single point within the Community Foundation Network that administers Boost on behalf of the Network. As a result of the training that has been delivered by the Charity Commission and increasingly the Network, there are key contacts within the Network across every locality in England and Wales who can be put directly in touch with the client. This results in; a no delay and personal service being delivered in every case, an ability for both the Commission and the Community Foundation Network to analyse the number of referrals to assess trends in the type of client seeking assistance, the type of assistance that is required and make use of this to refresh and improve the training and guidance available to these clients. Success was also achieved by National Recognition of the initiative which picked up an Award at the U.K based Charity Times Awards, which is a vote of endorsement by peers of initiatives which help society the most. To have achieved this within a year of formal launch was exciting and confirmed that we were meeting a need.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The Charity Commission was able to see the potential of Boost from the outset, and has led the initiative in terms of training key workers within the Community Foundation Network on the process and legalities of charity law and practice including practical steps to secure funds and release them into the community. The Commission agreed a protocol with the Community Foundation Network that released a key worker with the Charity Commission, Mike McKillop, and one within the Community Foundation Network, Cat Kirkcaldy, to commence scoping the exercise. The result was a paper recommendation which was underpinned with statistical information about the type of funds that could be released, the type of action that would be required to release them and the type of referral system that could be employed to ensure swift action was taken. The Community Foundation Network, through Stephen Hammersley its Chief Executive, put the paper to a steering group of senior executives within their network and simultaneously briefings were placed before the Chief Executive of the Charity Commission, Andrew Hind, and the Director of Charity Services, David Locke. This led to a roll-out of training which benefited 40+ Community Foundations in England and Wales and key staff in the Commission. Particularly front line staff in its contact centre Charity Commission Direct were made familiar with the initiative and provided with briefings that could be rolled out to Charities, their professional advisors, financial institutions and local authorities. Once the training was completed, Charity Commission Direct launched a series of questions and answers and scripts to signpost suitable institutions to the Community Foundation for Merseyside who centrally control the initiative. Because of its clear value in offering a clear home for property that can no longer be used or is not being used effectively to help society, the entire charity sector is a stakeholder in this initiative and although financial institutions are now taking a keen interest it is local authorities who have taken a lot of immediate action. From inception to delivery the key people involved have been small in number: Dave Roberts, Cathy Elliott, Jack Miller and Cat Kirkcaldy from the Community Foundation Merseyside and Mike McKillop and David Locke from the Charity Commission Ultimately the stakeholder and owner of the initiative is the citizen as it is their pressing needs that the initiative is created to meet. The cost of the initiative to the Commission has been negligible as this initiative has enabled it to address needs by recycling high maintenance funds in an efficient fashion. The cost to the Community Foundation Merseyside for administering the project on behalf of the Network was met by funding from a number of grant making trusts that recognised its ability to generate much needed resource for local communities.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The main objective of the initiative was to unlock dormant or inactive funds and target these where they would have most effect. There were a number of subsidiary critical success indicators which were: 1. The number of dormant funds would reduce Strategy: Statistical analysis of the numbers involved and the type of legal action required to release their money was undertaken by the Charity Commission. This served as a baseline against which we could measure successful uptake and design and package information for use by the Community Foundation Network. The number of these charitable funds has now fallen by several thousand. However, thousands of others have now been identified which have been brought to the attention of the Community Foundations by organisations who they have worked with to release known funds. 2. Inactive funds would start self-referring to Boost rather than await identification and signposting by the Charity Commission Strategy: The centralisation of referrals to the Community Foundation Merseyside by the Charity Commission enabled statistical comparison between what the Commission was referring and what the Community Foundation was receiving. The Commission also used statistics on “web hits” to map customer journeys to and from its web information on Boost. 3. The Community Foundation Network would be able to enhance its own work with charity and citizens by gaining valuable knowledge about charity law and practice and putting this into practice Strategy: The assessment of the type of legal action required to release dormant charity money together with questionnaires to Community Foundations informed the composition of a concise training regime on charity law and governance, populated with examples the trainees could directly relate to. This training regime was underpinned by a comprehensive manual that contained technical reference material and a bespoke Boost website that would create an on-line community of Community Foundation trained staff who could learn from each others experiences and who would receive up to the minute information about organisations in their local area who may be able to supply assistance to the citizen but who lacked the capability or knowledge to do so. 4. The Community Foundation would see a net growth in its assets as it receives recycled money and uses this to increase it grant programmes. Strategy: As mentioned above, over £10million has been released to date and we are only six months into the active phase of the initiative. As each success is celebrated with further detail of the Boost initiative in local and national press releases, signed up by the Charity Commission at Director level and the Community Foundation Network at senior manager level, the figure will grow.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The key steps were: Identification of need October 2006- January 2007 Statistical information produced by the Charity Commission illustrates the number of dormant funds and the type of legal action required to release these. Community Foundation Network at the same time realises through its intelligence network with local communities that there is a problem with a number of pots of money not being re-distributed to the community. February 2007 Meeting with Charity Commission and Community Foundation network to share intelligence and agree a plan for releasing money to communities in need. This meeting was called to discuss our various roles within the charity sector and it was completely coincidental that the discussion on these potential high value funds took place. Scoping exercise Feb 2007- May 2007 A number of dormant and inactive charities papers and circumstances were placed under scrutiny to identify how difficult, legally, these would be to release to the most disadvantaged in society. This led directly to an embryonic training plan covering the eventualities uncovered. June 2007 – December 2007 Trial A Local Government Authority known to have many dormant funds was specifically targeted by both the Charity Commission and the Community Foundation Network and advice was rendered under the training plan to the principals in charge of the local authority and with key workers in place in all three organisations over £250,000 was released to tackle social deprivation, in a very short period. January 2008 – March 2008 Refinement of plan Meetings with steering group of Community Foundation Executives. Engagement with policy division and legal division within the charity commission to ensure that what know will work can be reflected in practice and procedure and be underpinned by the law of the land. Final touch put on training plan and process mapping of all eventualities that will result in the speedy release of dormant funds back into society. April 2008 – September 2008 Capacity Building with Community Foundations Roll-out of bespoke training programme to every principal user in England and Wales to equip them with the knowledge to secure money to meet the needs of communities in trouble. July 2008 Hard Launch National coverage and launch of Charity Commission website material and personal referral system after a critical mass (41/55) of community foundations have secured training in how to acquire and maximise the benefit of this money for local need. January 2009 It is growing ! With £10million released with minimal effort, the initiative has yet to become self-referring and a household name. However, with several major transactions underway and a commitment and enthusiasm for assisting the most needy in society already evidenced by the Charity Commission and the Community Foundation Network, we are all happy that this will really take-off in the second quarter of 2009.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
There were no major obstacles to overcome with this initiative. It was built on a platform of simplicity so that it could be rolled out with minimum effort, if anything this in itself was an obstacle as a number of Community Foundations who received training could not believe that the law and practice in relation to releasing dormant funds could be so easily applied. The correlation of statistical information to ensure that verifiable data was obtained to drive the original concept was time consuming but provided a solid platform to drive the change. Obtaining buy-in from staff in the Commission and throughout the Community Foundation Network was undertaken through a series of workshops and scripted material. The largest obstacle, if it could be called that, was in assuring the relevant charities and their management that folding their assets into a much larger entity capable of using these funds to greater effect was not an admission of lack of competence on their part. In many instances where funds have been released the original management have been invited to retain involvement in identifying need in their own local areas and as many of these managers were appointed from within the communities they serve, this improved the ability of the initiative to relay funds directly to where they would have most effect.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Lloyds TSB and Barings provided seed money to fund a development worker within the Community Foundation Network. The Charity Commission also agreed a partial secondment of a development worker to pull the initiative together with the Network. In total £100,000 was provided for three years. Rathbones Investment Managers have also provided minimal funding but have assisted the initiative by hosting the training rolled out to the Community Foundation Network. Much of the cost was non-financial and comprised the skill and expertise of the Commission in the form of its extensive knowledge of the charity sector and its willingness to interpret the law as it relates to releasing funds for community use, in novel and practical ways. When coupled with the grant funding expertise and knowledge of community needs and priorities that resided with the Community Foundation Network, the result was a powerful partnership centred on the needs of the Citizen.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
This is in many ways a unique initiative. It is sustained by a change in practice within the Charity Commission which has led to many value added changes to the way in which the Commission operates. Through the initiative the Commission has been able to demonstrate the value of working in partnership with the sector it regulates - improving its knowledge and equipping it to respond to the needs of that sector as opposed to what it perceived that need to be. The Commission has changed the manner in which it advises charities and is now exploring more opportunities for partnership work with sub-sector bodies who can relay legal requirements and good management practice in a form which is clearly understood by individual communities. The Commission is now actively targeting the large pots of money which had remained undisturbed and unused or underused in some cases for over a hundred years. By packaging information about the initiative the Commission has also seen a fall in the number of reactive enquiries it receives from the management of dormant or inactive funds as this initiative provides a safe and reliable alternative to the Commission’s legal action. Financially the initiative is approaching an ability to self-fund, becoming less reliant on external sponsorship. The Commission is the regulator of charity in England and Wales and therefore the initiative is not transferable to other government agencies. However, we have advised other agencies of the synergy that can emerge from forging closer working relationships between regulator and regulated and Central Government have been informed of our progress. Many Local Government agencies are now actively assessing their own dormant and inactive funds with a view to releasing these into local communities and several enquiries have been received from financial institutions that are embarking on a similar exercise. The Boost Initiative has been replicated in Scotland by the Scottish Community Foundation in conjunction with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator and a similar exercise will probably emerge in Northern Ireland when their charity Regulator is formed in early 2009. Enquiries have also been received by Sydney Community Foundation, and it is hoped the Boost Initiative will replicate successfully not only in Sydney, but in further countries on an international basis.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The Boost Initiative is a prime example of showing a public sector organisation working in partnership with the third sector and private sector, to achieve a common goal with tangible monetary gain for those who need it most. The enthusiasm of staff and management within the Charity Commission and the Community Foundation Network has played a crucial part in the success of the initiative. Because of its simple application, the initiative can be grasped quickly by all and everyone feels involved. The Commission gains credibility and valuable front-line experience for its staff so that they have greater empathy for the needs of local communities; the Community Foundation Network gains by upskilling its staff and being able to maximise the impact of their grants programmes in disadvantaged communities through the injection of much needed additional resource. Ultimately the impact of releasing £10million of what was inaccessible money up to a few months ago is excellent news for communities and individuals who are struggling in the economic downturn. We are very excited at the scope and scale of the additional money that can potentially be released and each publicised success generates even more interest. The Charity Commission has learnt the value of practical partnership working and has reduced the volume of reactive work it receives. The Community Foundation Network has been upskilled so they are able to forge ahead on the ground with identifying and offering assistance to the management of funds that are struggling. Local Government agencies and financial institutions are embracing the initiative. The beauty of the initiative is its simplicity. Money is not being conjured, it is simply being recycled so that it can be used to greater effect and at this time of economic uncertainty it is an operation that could and should be rolled out beyond England and Wales.


Institution Name:		Charity Commission
Institution Type:		Public Organization
Contact Person:		Mike McKillop
Title:		Senior Manager, Development, CCD
Telephone/ Fax:		0151 703 1640
Institution's / Project's Website:
E-mail:		mike.mckillop@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk
Address:		12 Princes Dock, Princes Parade
Postal Code:		L3 1DE
City:		Liverpool
State/Province:		Merseyside
Country:		United Kingdom

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information