Comment: More money won't fix the charity sector's toughest problems

1 May 2026

Read time: 6-7 minutes

Summary: Nigel Kippax is a Charity sector advisor and an associate with Charity Finance Group. In this comment piece, he discusses how the charity sector’s long‑standing financial challenges are less about a lack of money and more about unchallenged assumptions, growth mindsets, and outdated funding models that may be limiting real social impact.

Twenty years ago, I was told that the biggest challenge facing charities was money. Not enough donations. Not enough grants. Too much need, not enough funding. Fast forward to today, and I hear exactly the same concerns being voiced.

On the surface, this makes sense. The work charities do is never-ending. Social problems do not come with neat endpoints, and there will never be enough money to fix everything. That is not a failure of the sector, it is just the reality. But if this has always been true, why are we still framing the problem in the same way? Perhaps the issue is not just a lack of funds. Perhaps we are failing to ask the right questions about financial risk, sustainability, and how money actually flows through the system.

The growth assumption we rarely question

I have never read a charity strategy that openly says, “We will do less.” There is money available in the system, but it is, of course, finite, and that has always been the case.

Every strategy I encounter focuses on growth: more services, more reach, more beneficiaries, more impact. Growth may look different from one charity to another, but the underlying assumption is the same: “more equals better”.

This mindset is understandable. Charity leaders are driven by purpose. When the need is visible and urgent, it feels morally uncomfortable to scale back. Unfortunately, the uncomfortable truth is that a perpetual “more, more, more” mentality is just not realistic. If resources are limited but expectations are limitless, something has to give. Usually, people, quality, or financial resilience.

Two areas we need to tackle: internal and systemic

If we want different outcomes in the future, we need to change both what happens inside charities and how the system around them operates. First, we have to look in the mirror. There needs to be far greater focus on making the best possible use of the money already available. This means truly understanding how a charity operates day to day. Not just programmatically, but operationally.

Many sectors have used improvement methodologies for decades to reduce waste, increase consistency, and free up resources. Charities should feel confident applying similar thinking, without fear that this somehow compromises values or compassion.

Internal improvements matter, but they are not enough. There is a bigger, more uncomfortable issue embedded in the sector itself. The dominant funding models in the charity sector are rooted in Victorian-era assumptions about power and control, specifically, who gets to decide how money is spent. These models remain largely unchallenged, even when the world around them has changed dramatically.

We funnel huge effort into securing short-term grants for long-term social issues, creating instability, duplication, and wasted energy. What would happen if grants were routinely awarded for 10 years rather than one to three? Would we see deeper impact, stronger organisations, and better use of money? Would this start to look like genuine investment rather than perpetual firefighting?

Collaboration over competition

Charities are not competitors, but too often, governance decisions suggest otherwise. Boards can behave as if market share matters more than mission. We need deeper collaboration across the sector, including shared services, shared infrastructure, and shared delivery where it makes sense. This requires a cultural shift away from organisational protectionism and towards collective impact.

Boards are often told to act “in the best interests of the charity.” In practice, this can encourage defensive behaviour, protecting assets, brand, and independence, even when collaboration or asset-sharing would better serve beneficiaries.

Decisions should be taken in the best interests of the purpose and the people served, even if this means giving up control or resources. A genuinely mission-focused charity should be able to say no. When reading a charity strategy, it should be crystal clear not only what the organisation will do, but what it has chosen not to do. Clarity brings focus, and focus protects scarce resources.

The imbalance of power

There is a clear imbalance between those who hold the money and those delivering the work. If we truly share the goal of social change, this imbalance needs to be addressed. Trust-based funding, longer-term commitments, and shared accountability should be the norm rather than the exception.

The sector spends enormous sums of time, money, and human energy feeding the bidding model. Writing, rewriting, pitching, reporting, and rebidding. None of this directly addresses the social problems charities exist to solve. We should be asking why this effort is considered acceptable, and what could be unlocked if we collectively reduced it.

There’s a striking parallel with other industries. For example, the vast sums spent by train operating companies to win relatively short franchises do nothing to improve passenger services. When systems reward bidding rather than delivery, everyone loses.

Could there be a better way?

The social needs are real. The financial pressures are real. But the nature of those pressures hasn’t fundamentally changed in decades. If we keep trying to solve the problem in the same way, we should not be surprised when we keep getting the same results.

So, the real questions might be these:

Are we, unintentionally, contributing to our own challenges?
Are we prepared to question funding models we’ve simply learned to accept?
And most importantly, are we brave enough to imagine a better way?

Because until we do, we may keep mistaking “not enough money” for the problem, when it is actually the system behind it.

Stronger governance matters. CGIUKI’s Charity Toolkits and the Certificate in Charity Law and Governance offer practical support for trustees and leaders looking to build more resilient, mission‑focused organisations.