Thanks For Giving Day 2007 - Celebrating Charitable Giving
22 November 2007

On Thursday 22 November 2007 the Beacon Fellowship welcomed the 2007 Beacon Prize Winners as new Fellows during its Annual Meeting hosted by Coutts & Co in their London HQ. This invitation-only lunch event took place on Beacon’s Thanks for Giving Day, mirroring the American Thanksgiving Day, celebrating charitable giving.

Sarah Deaves, Chief Executive Coutts & Co, opened the Annual Meeting with a short address celebrating the inspiring stories of the Beacon Fellows and stressing the historic commitment of Coutts & Co to philanthropy.

Martyn Lewis CBE, Chair of Beacon’s Board of Trustees, thanked Coutts & Co for its hospitality and welcomed all the Fellows explaining Beacon’s Thanks for Giving Day is:

“… all about celebrating and sharing inspiring stories of individuals who have made a real difference, through giving their money, time and skills to charitable and social causes. Gordon Brown MP described the Fellowship Prize in 2003 as ‘the Nobel Prize for Charities, a celebration of great people who are doing great things in very many parts of our country.’ He is right: Beacon Fellows are great people doing great things, from helping prisoners in Africa, through supporting victims of domestic violence to investing great amounts in Arts or medical research; Beacon aims to bring together people to share best practice and inspire others to give.”

Government’s strategy on charitable giving

Later during lunch Debbie Burton, Policy Manager for Youth Volunteering and Giving at the Office of the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office, set out the UK Government’s strategy on charitable giving, acknowledging that “the UK has one of the most generous charity tax regimes in the world, through a wide range of tax reliefs available to individual donors and the charities they support.  Office of the Third Sector has recently worked closely with HMT on the Gift Aid Consultation to explore ways in which the Government can help charities get the most from these tax reliefs.  The findings will be announced later this year.”

Ms Burton said that the Government’s interest goes beyond tax relief and Gift Aid and that through ‘A Generous Society’ the Government identified four key areas to encourage a culture of giving:

• working in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders to extend opportunities to give across society;

• working with charities to promote tax effective giving;

• working with young people to ensure that the culture of giving is developed at an early age; and

• working with employers and employees to foster new approaches to social investment.

For more information see full text of Ms Burton’s speech or visit: www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector

Conclusions – what can change the culture of giving?

Finally, all Fellows were asked to briefly introduced themselves and say what, if they were only allowed to choose one answer, what would be the one thing that could change the culture of giving? Reoccurring themes were:

• The need for more accountability, professionalism and information on the work of charities – without becoming too bureaucratic and burdensome for organisations;

• Educating and engaging young people, because they are potential future donors and charity activists;

• Simplify the current tax relief system, such as Gift Aid, making it easier for people to give tax efficient;

• Support small or local charities to bridge the gap with (major) donors, because they are often less well known or seen as ‘less glamorous’.