BACKGROUND BRIEFING

CHARITIES AND CAMPAIGNING

• Campaigning is a legitimate activity for charities and other voluntary organisations.

• Charities exist to meet the needs and concerns of their users and beneficiaries, and have a duty to do all they can in order to further or support their charitable purposes.

• This can be achieved in a number of ways: for example by giving information and advice to individuals and communities, providing services, or by campaigning for change.

• As a general principle, charities may undertake campaigning and political activity as a positive way of furthering or supporting their purposes. However they must never engage in any form of party political activity.

• Campaigning is still a largely voluntary discipline – in 2007 only 24% of voluntary organisations employed someone in a campaigning role1.

Through their campaigning work, charities can enable people’s voices to be heard, acting as advocates on their behalf, or supporting and encouraging them to speak up for themselves. Often charities speak for those who are powerless, and cannot make their case alone. But they also give people the confidence and support to participate directly, fostering citizen engagement and strengthening our democracy.

Campaigning also helps to create a strong and independent voluntary and community sector: through their campaigning work charities reinforce their independence by speaking up on behalf of their beneficiaries in a non-partisan way, voicing the needs, concerns and preferences of those they work with.

20’s Plenty for Us

Rod King, who founded 20’s Plenty for Us, has been campaigning for slower speed limits in residential areas for five years.

He said: “Campaigning is the heart and soul of our activity. Our efforts are changing the way local and national government and highways leaders think about speed limits. Neighbourhoods are quieter and have less pollution and, most importantly, the measures are reducing casualties on our roads.”

Several councils have now adopted 20 mph speed limits in residential areas and the Department for Transport has issued new guidance urging more local authorities to introduce 20 mph limits over time.

The campaigning and advocacy role

Through their campaigning and advocacy work, charities bring a number of benefits to society, including:

• better services across the public and private sector; • more engaged communities; and • stronger democracy.

1 Voluntary Sector Skills Survey 2007: England, NCVO

Campaigning and advocacy are core activities for charities, including those that deliver services. They are not mutually exclusive but complementary ways of working, ensuring that the type and quality of service an organisation offers is informed by their knowledge of user needs. Equally, their campaigning and advocacy work is strengthened and gains legitimacy because their experience of providing services. This enables them to link into and work with communities, reaching parts of society that others do not, and engaging with a much wider range of interests than would otherwise be possible.

Through their campaigning work charities can also facilitate community engagement in decision-making processes. Many have developed expertise in reaching out to marginalised groups, and doing so in non-stigmatising ways. They can therefore act as a means of ensuring that new issues are raised and a diversity of voices are listened to, not just those who find it easiest to make themselves heard. But they also enable people to participate directly and encourage debate on public policy issues by bringing people together to identify their common concerns and priorities and the values that they believe should drive society.

Campaigning by charities also strengthens democracy. Their ability to give voice to people’s concerns and aspirations, and to give them the support and confidence to speak for themselves, means that through this campaigning work they make a fundamental contribution to an active and healthy democracy. It is important that there are opportunities for people to participate directly in decisions that affect their lives and their community. Campaigning by charities is an important way to achieve this, and throughout the years their action across a broad spectrum of issues at local and national level has energised and provoked public debate in a way that has left traditional politics in the slipstream. Campaigning is not only accepted by the public, but also expected. A recent opinion poll ranked lobbying and campaigning as the most cost effective activity for charities to engage in2.

Key issues

Charities and voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) have traditionally been at the forefront of social change in Britain. They are rooted in civil society, in citizens coming together to make a difference to their lives, their community or to the lives of others.

It is vital that Government protects charities’ right to campaign within the law, and respects their independence and their essential role as an independent voice for their cause and the interests of the individuals and communities they work with.

• Their right to campaign must be recognised and encouraged, irrespective of any funding relationship.

• There must be an enabling environment for lawful protest and peaceful assembly, which ensures any legal restrictions on campaigning activity are not unduly prohibitive.

• There has been considerable public debate about the campaigning role of charities because some politicians question charities’ right to campaign.

Further resources

CC9 - ‘Speaking Out’ - Charity Commission Guidance on Campaigning and Political Activity by Charities http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/publications/cc9.aspx

Sheila McKechnie Foundation, NCVO and NCVO Campaigning Effectiveness Advisory Group Manifesto Statements http://www.smk.org.uk/storage/external-docs-images/Right%20to%20Campaign%20Manifesto%2004-02-10.doc

2 NFP Synergy poll 2007