2020 vision to double individual philanthropy to £20bn

Increasing individual giving to £20 billion by 2020 is one of the key objectives put forward by a new report which explores how to ensure charities financial sustainability over the next 10 years.

‘Funding the Future’ produced by the Funding Commission for the National Council for Voluntary Organisation (NCVO) offers a 10-year framework for how the voluntary and community sector can stay financially resilient when faced with depleted resources coupled with increasing demand for services.

It sets out clear recommendations for civil society organisations (CSOs), funders and commissioners, infrastructure bodies and the government to bolster all income streams for the sector, including individual giving, trading income, grants, public sector contracts and private investment.

It suggests that individual giving can be increased from £11.3 billion to £20 billion by 2020 through increased donor engagement, better fundraising approaches and via a 'Better Asking' Campaign, developed by NCVO in partnership with the Institute of Fundraising and other sector bodies.

The report says: “It is clear that getting more people to give more than £100 per month and getting more of the very rich to give millions are going to be an essential part of meeting the challenge of increasing giving to £20 billion per year by 2020.”

Yet, as Dr Beth Breeze, Kent University researcher, highlights in a paper for the Commission, as a nation, we are at best ambivalent, at worst hostile, in our attitudes to the rich. She argues for the need to reposition philanthropy as part of the solution to, rather than as part of the ‘problem’ of, being rich; suggesting it should be viewed as an essential part of the successful life in the 21st century.