Are there too many charities?

Are there too many charities?

Do you think that there are too many charities doing the same thing and competing unnecessarily? Well that’s what the chief executive of a leading blind charity thinks. She thinks it should be made harder to register a new charity and is having too many of the same charities really a problem? Lesley-Anne Alexander, chief executive officer at the Royal National Institute of Blind People recently spoke out in a lecture at London's Cass Business School and said "Quite often people will set up a charity in the name of a loved one and I understand entirely those reactions but is that really the best way to use that energy and commitment?" Alexander says she would like the Charity Commission to introduce a stage in the form-filling to get people to research whether that help already exists before pouring effort into setting up what might be a duplicate project. There are 160,000 registered charities in England and Wales, of that 21,120 are disability charities. The commission receives about 30 applications to start a new charity every week, though not all get established. She felt that the bigger national charities have become more professional in recent years. They use their money efficiently and are likely to be very different from when they were founded. So rather than set up new small charities, perhaps people should join in with a bigger charity's efforts instead? Andy Ricketts, deputy editor at Third Sector Magazine, says: "There is an increasing awareness that charities need to operate efficiently and professionally and that the biggest charities are good examples of that. But other people in the sector would say that you can go too far and you don't want to forget the reason why they set up their charity in the first place". However the chief executive officer of the RNIB adds: "Who's to say that, just because there would be less duplication, this means that charities would achieve more?" Do you think that there are too many charities and are they becoming too corporate? Here at Incontinence UKwe believe that any charity no matter how many there are in the same sector has to be a good thing, as long as they’re set up for the right reasons. Best wishes Incontinence UK www.incontinenceuk.co.uk