Kevin Carey discusses The Big Society

1. Charity Finance Directors’ Group
2011 Annual Conference
MOVING FROM GLOOM TO BLOOM
Does the 'Big Society' add up?:
Charities in a Postmodern Age
by
Kevin Carey, Chair, RNIB

2. Definition of Modernism
A period from approximately 1789 - the
outbreak of the French Revolution - to 1976 -
the global oil price spike - during which
means were developed and employed for
economic mass production and the
prosecution of world wars.

3. The End of Modernism
• The development of the World Wide Web by
Tim Berners-Lee and the development of the
PC and Windows 3.x;
• The collapse of the Communist Eastern
European bloc and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

4. The Four Pillars of Welfarism
• Ranking consumption over infrastructural
investment;
• Using cheap credit rather than redistribution
to tackle inequalities;
• Resorting to lazy statism in a 'crisis‘;
• Adhering to an inexorable economic and
income growth for the better off.

5. Presentation Outline
Aspects of Postmodernism
• Politics;
• Culture;
• Charities themselves;
• Money.

6. Charity Bands
• Total volunteer ultra local organisations;
• Declining number of middle sized city,
county, regional and national charities;
• A declining number of charities large
enough to operate in a heavily competitive
market for audience.

7. Postmodern Characteristics
Relevant to Charities
• Self centred;
• Identity creating;
• Egalitarian;
• Participative.

8. Charities and Postmodernism
• Foster participation;
• Channel personal experience;
• Empower event organising.

9. Proposals for Major Charity Changes
• A switch of default from campaigning and
contracting to product development, wholesaling
and retailing;
• Be transparent about expenditure and impact;
• Be rational about mergers and acquisitions;
• Drop the charity designation;
• Break the double lock of poor performance and
poor pay.

10. What Charities should be
We should be developers and deliverers
of social capital and
social goods and services.

11. Summary of Actions
• Diagnose problems and market solutions;
• Base impact on sales;
• Persuade investors of user requirements.

12. Donors and Charities
When people invest in charities they are
buying something to please themselves as
well as to benefit others and most of them
are using discretionary income in a
competitive charity market which in turn
competes against other forms of more
obvious self gratification.

13. Kevin Carey, Chair, RNIB
Royal National Institute of Blind People
105 Judd Street
London, WC1H 9NE
Tel: 0207 388 1266
www.rnib.org.uk