Welcome to the October 2017 issue of the Factary Phi Newsletter.
Major Giving News
Keaton Emery Memorial Foundation launched in memory of deceased backpacker
The parents of Keaton Emery, who died in Italy while backpacking earlier this year, have elected to launch their own foundation in memory of their son for the benefit of disadvantaged young people.
Speaking on their decision, his mother Denise said: ‘Keaton was a very special person to us as his parents but also to so many others.’
‘We feel that a memorial charity would be a positive way in which to acknowledge the contribution he has made to so many lives.’
She also added that ‘There are unfortunately many youngsters in care or who are homeless that cannot access further education. For this reason we have set up The Keaton Emery Memorial Foundation to help finance such young people in the North of England.’
Denise and Peter Emery, who run Emery Planning Consultancy in Macclesfield, have endowed their foundation with an immediate donation of £1m.
Leeds Community Foundation to accept £2m donation
Though it ceased to operate in 2012, The Jimmy Saville Charitable Trust has been looking for good causes to fund with what money remains in its accounts.
As this was obviously not an easy decision to make, senior figures at the Leeds Community Foundation said that they had thought very carefully before deciding to accept the donation.
Rachel Hannon, who is Chair of the Leeds Community Foundation said: ‘We want to help as many people as we can but despite the hundreds of grants we make every year there are still many more we have to turn down due to lack of funds.’
‘Our final decision was influenced by the fact that the money is made up of donations from members of the public and we believe their contributions should reach their intended targets.’
Report: This month we have included our summary of several sections of the Charities Aid Foundation Social Landscape 2017 Report.
Introduction
Now in its second edition, the report has been commissioned in order to gain an insight into the voluntary sector from the perspective of its Chief Executives. In particular, the report attempts to shine a light on some of the major challenges faced by charities, and to assess the effect these challenges have had on their ability to meet the needs of their beneficiaries.
Methodology
The research is based on a number of questions that have been asked of charities as part of ACEVO’s Pay and Equalities Survey in 2015 and 2016, which collected information from voluntary sector CEOs. The organisations involved are predominantly charities, but also consist of some social enterprises and other voluntary organisations.
The sample was drawn from CAF Bank customers and individual members of ACEVO, ACOSVO and CO3. The CAF questions were asked only of CEO’s, with the research based on answers from 472 respondents.
Key Findings- The ability to generate income and maintain financial sustainability was considered to be the most pressing challenge of all for CEOs, a problem compounded by a reduction in funding from statutory sources and an increase in competition from other similar organisations.
- Demand for charity services had increased for four out of five of the respondents over the course of 2016. Worryingly, this was expected to increase even further according 85% of respondents, and only one in seven CEO’s felt completely confident that they would be able to meet the demand (although 60% said they felt ‘somewhat’ confident).
- Since 2015, the ability for charities to meet this demand has risen to become the second most common challenge for organisations. This represents a 13% increase when compared with the 2015 study, with local charities expected to be hit the hardest.
- Despite a degree of confidence in their own ability, less than half of all CEO’s who were surveyed felt confident that the sector as a whole would be able to meet this new level of demand.
- While this has decreased significantly compared with 2015, the majority of respondents still felt somewhat optimistic about the future of their own personal organisations. It is thought that this lowering of expectations could be due to worries over worsening economic conditions, overall financial concerns and worries over meeting demand.
- With new technologies and more diverse ways of giving coming to the fore, all CEO’s stated that they plan to increase their online and social media presence, diversify their income streams and introduce new methods of giving
- Four out of five CEO’s said that they either had already, or would collaborate with another non-profit. Interestingly, the same proportion of respondents also said that they either had, or planned to re-structure their organisation in the near future.
- Two third of respondents felt that negative stories in the media had had a significant impact on the sector as a whole. Respondents stated that good news stories, better communication and education, and more transparency were seen as an effective way to rebuild trust.
- 70% felt that government support for the sector was lacking, representing a significantly higher number than in 2015.
- In a period where the demand for their services has never been higher and public trust is also seen to be at a low, three quarters of respondents felt that the public did not understand the importance of charities to Britain today
Phi in Numbers: October 2017
For this month’s edition of our Database Update, we have decided to compare individual donations made by men (individual records with the title Mr) and women (titled Ms, Mrs & Ms) to various activity types across the database. Please note that in order to compare these donations more accurately, we have chosen to exclude any joint donations.
Of the 378,975 ‘individual donor’ records, 122,916 donations are from donors titled Mr, and 69,491 from those titled Ms, Mrs or Miss (totalling just under 50% of records as the remaining records do not have titles to differentiate them). Below, we have included two charts showing the percentage split of donations from both groups into various activity types.
As is demonstrated by the charts above, the Education/Training activity type is by far the most populous activity type for both groups – this is most likely to be because records of donations to universities are prevelant in Phi, as universities quite often publicly thank a large number of donors in their annual reports, so these results may not be representative of actual levels of giving across the sector. More detailed analysis of donations to higher education can, of course, be seen in the results of the Ross-CASE annual survey of charitable giving to universities.
Arts/Culture is the next most populated category and again, this could be due to the culture of publicly thanking donors that exists in this sector.
We thought it might also be interesting to look at some of these donations in terms of their value. Excluding the far larger Education/Training activity type, we have below included breakdown of the Arts/Culture portion of the above chart according to donation size or value (£).
As is demonstrated by the graph, donation bandings are spread relatively evenly for both sexes, with a slightly higher number of donations in the two smallest bandings coming from donors titled Mr. Although interestingly, there is a spike in donations in the £7,500-£9,999 and the £10,000-£14,999 brackets, wherein there is a slightly higher proportion of donations made by donors with the title Ms, Miss & Mrs compared with those made by donors with the title Mr.
Profile: The Wolfson Foundation
The Trust was established in 1955 by Sir Isaac Wolfson with his wife and their son, Leonard Wolfson (who would later become Lord Wolfson of Marylebone) also serving as its founding Trustees.
Sir Isaac was a Scottish businessman and philanthropist who made his named as the Managing Director of Great Universal Stores. He first joined the company in 1932 as merchandise controller, and he quickly rose to became joint Managing Director and later Chairman of the company during the 1940’s, a position he would hold until his retirement in 1987.
At his arrival in 1932 the company was reportedly worth a total of £700,000, with this increasing to a staggering £16 million in 1948. Sir Isaac used his wealth gained from Great Universal Stores to establish the foundation, with its investments based upon shares from the company, which in 1955, had nearly 80 companies under its control.
In terms of its focus, the foundation’s grant-making is reportedly informed by four particular factors that have been in place since its creation. These are the pursuit of excellence (both existing and potential), the provision of infrastructure, the idea that Wolfson funds can be used as a catalyst, enabling additional support, and a significant level of collaboration with experts in their respective fields.
For the financial year ending 31st March 2017 the trust reported an income of £19,631,000 and an expenditure of £31,923,000. Factary Phi holds 2,103 records of donations made since 2005 worth a minimum of £202m.
The largest proportion of these donations have been made to causes associated with Arts/Culture (57) followed by Education/Training (38), Health (13), Heritage (12), Disability (7), Children/Youth & Environment (6), Elderly (4), International Development & Welfare (3), Development/Housing/Employment (2), and Animals, Sport and Religious Activities (1).
The Trustees
Lord McColl Of Dulwich is a professional surgeon and a Conservative politician. He is a Trustee of International Christian Leadership.
Sir Eric Ash CBE is an electrical engineer and a former Rector of Imperial College London. He is a Trustee of the Wolfson Family Charitable Trust.
The Hon Laura Wolfson Townsley is Chair of the Wolfson Family Charitable Trust. She is a granddaughter of Sir Isaac Wolfson and the wife of financier Barry Townsley. She is a Trustee of the Wolfson Family Charitable Trust.
Sir David Cannadine is an author and a historian. He is a Trustee of Gladstone’s Library, The Rothschild Archive and The Society of Friends of The Imperial War Museum.
Dame Janet Wolfson De Botton DBE is an art historian and a philanthropist. She is also a granddaughter of Sir Isaac Wolfson.
Rebecca Marks is a Trustee of The Imperial War Museum Foundation and The Tangent Charitable Trust.
Lord Turnberg Of Cheadle is a medical professional and a Labour Peer. He is a Trustee of Ovarian Cancer Action, Parliamentary Science and Technology Information Foundation and The Weizmann Institute Foundation.
Dame Jean Thomas is biochemist and a former Master of St Catharine’s College. She is a Trustee of the Thriplow Charitable Trust.
Dame Hermione Lee is a biographer, critic, English professor and a former President of Wolfson College.
Sir Michael Pepper is a physicist at the department of physics at the University of Cambridge. He is also an honorary professor of pharmaceutical science in the University of Otago, New Zealand. He is a Trustee of The Norman Cohn Charitable Trust and the West End Great Synagogue.
The Hon Mrs Deborah Wolfson Davis is a professional script writer who has also worked as a solicitor and journalist. She is also a granddaughter of Sir Isaac Wolfson.
Sir Peter Ratcliffe is a cell and molecular biologist.