Posted on 25th March 2010
Philanthropy has a role to play in building a stronger civil society, according to the final report of the Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society carried out by the Carnegie UK Trust and chaired by Geoff Mulgan, director of the Young Foundation.
The two-year Inquiry looked at the possible threats to, and opportunities for, civil society between now and 2025. Its final report Making Good Society identifies four interrelated priority areas where a stronger civil society could make the most difference: growing a more civil economy, ensuring a rapid and just transition to a low carbon economy, democratising media ownership and content, and helping to develop participatory and deliberative democracy.
“Philanthropy has traditionally tended to concentrate on specific issues such as social needs and social care, but we would like to encourage a broader focus on the key centres of power such as the economy, finance and policy-making,” says Mulgan. “And in these harder times the message is about providing more systematic and creative support for innovation – philanthropists can play a key role in encouraging the kind of models of healthcare and low-carbon living that need to be the norm in 10 years’ time.”
Specifically the report identifies that in the push to democratise media ownership and content, philanthropists can support community and civil society media. “Philanthropic funding can help preserve journalistic independence and secure guarantees on public service content,” it says.
“There is a massive imbalance in how media organisations are organised in the UK, “ says Mulgan. “For example, when Channel 4 was set up it was required to spend its advertising revenues on public broadcasting – that’s a good model but it was 28 years ago. There has been nothing since. Philanthropists can help by supporting alternatives, particularly digital platforms such as community websites, and including radio and local newspapers.”
However, as news-gathering is excluded from the 2006 UK Charities Act’s interpretation of public benefit, the Inquiry calls for a change in the legislative framework to make it easier for civil society associations with charitable status to be associated with news gathering and dissemination.
“The lack of scrutiny involved in the commercial production of journalistic content when reporting on civil society organisations was an issue raised time and again in the discussion groups,” comments research analyst Erin van der Maas.
In helping to develop participatory and deliberative democracy, philanthropists can help to grow the leaders of the future. “There are few programmes to grow leaders from poor backgrounds,” says Mulgan. “This should be a key priority, particularly from our multi-ethnic cities. Initiatives such as PeaceMaker in Oldham or the Young Foundation’s UpRising programme are good examples, but there is huge scope for philanthropists to back similar projects – without such programmes the risk of conflict is very high.”
Philanthropists can also encourage the use of social media as a means to correct the power imbalance. “An extraordinary amount of innovation is taking place through the internet, SMS, twitter and social networking sites, turning them into tools for mobilisation, education and direct action,” says the report. “Funders should be backing this innovation, partly to ensure that it really does open up participation and deliberation, and partly to find better ways for the online world to connect into the largely offline world of councils, boardrooms, parliaments and global summits.”
In the civil economy, one of the biggest contributions philanthropists could make is in strengthening the financial stability of the civil society sector. This includes helping to grow alternative financial models such as social investment bonds, and in investing responsibly.
Meanwhile, philanthropists can help to build a low carbon economy in two major ways – supporting civil society organisations working towards a green economy, particularly at local level, and by using their assets to invest in low carbon businesses.
The call for philanthropists and other funders to use their assets to strengthen civil society runs throughout the report. “To philanthropic organisations, we make the case for more strategic investment to open up some of the most important centres of power in our society – in finance and the media – as well as meeting needs on the margins,” it argues.
Making Good Society can be downloaded for free from here.
