A few months ago, I was privileged​ enough to attend an event where some of the biggest names in retail were discussing the impact of COVID-19 on the high street. They all agreed that there would be profound and fundamental changes to the sector and, for some retailers, the consequences would be devastating and the end of those businesses. But overwhelmingly, they also agreed that this presented huge opportunities for the sector, that radical change could be really exciting and that, almost certainly, these changes would be positive for customers.

If only we could say the same for the charity sector.

The pandemic has offered the greatest opportunity we have ever had to radically change how we work, to put ‘customers’ first—rather than desperately trying to sustain organisations that have hardly changed for 30 years—and to base decisions on data and evidence rather than feelings. We’re supposed to be the sector that exists to drive change but more often than not the sector is​ / seems focussed on keeping itself going. Radical change is not about using Zoom a bit more. It is not radical to get people to work from home. Radical is about shifting power, merging, closing, starting up, doing everything in a fundamentally different way.

Of course, there will be some excellent examples of big changes at some charities and some great examples of really agile charities that have transformed what they do and how they do it. But overall, ​the sector looks far too similar now to when I first started working in it (many, many years ago). It’s a bit more diverse, which is great, but with a long way to go. There are still too many organisations providing the same kind of services, running the same kind of programmes, fundraising in the same kind of ways and with pretty much the same kind of structures.

Read the full article about change in the charity sector by Richard Hawkes at Think NPC.