Charities in the United Kingdom

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Introduction

Charities are organizations that are established to extend humanitarian assistance or services to the community. A charitable organization can be local or international. A local charity organization caters to the humanitarian needs of the people within the locality in which the organization is based. An international charitable organization is global. This simply means that it has functional offices in several countries around the world, and therefore extends its humanitarian assistance to people whose place of origin or residence is not related to the place of origin of the charitable organization.

Profiles and Functions

The United Kingdom is one of the countries in the world with the highest number of charitable organizations. These charitable organizations fall into the two classes or categories identified above. Local charity organizations or organizations that operate within the borders of England only are as many as the international ones. Examples of local UK charity organizations include Textile Industry Childrens Trust, Catholic Childrens Society (Westminster), and Happy Days Childrens Charity. International charitable organizations on the other hand include SEWA International, Oxfam, Save the Children, and Plan International.

Budgetary Nature of the Charity Organizations

The Charity organizations operate on budgets of various sizes. Some charitable organizations operate on small budgets, others on medium-sized budgets while others operate on big budgets. All these types are found in the United Kingdom. Happy Days Childrens Charity is an example of a small-budget charity. The Textile Industry Childrens Trust is a medium-sized budget charity whereas Oxfam is a large budget charity. The nature and quality of the services offered by any charity organization are heavily dependent on its budget.

The Services Offered By the Charities

Charity organizations provide a range of services to the people. Some of these are education, nurturing of sports talent, spiritual nourishment, poverty eradication or economic empowerment, promotion of health among the people, protection of the environment, protection of children in general and vulnerable children in particular, and the promotion of good citizenship among the people. Other services can include caring for the disabled, caring for the old, rehabilitation of drug addicts, caring for victims of domestic violence, caring for refugees, and taking care of orphans. Some charity organizations restrict themselves to dealing with only one service while others combine a number of these services.

Again multi-tasking within charity organizations depends on the resources at the disposal of the organization because the ability to offer different services has a lot to do with sufficient staff and adequate equipment. Big charity organizations with strong budgets are usually able to offer several services to the people. For example, Oxfam has been able to deal with education, health, and civil education in several African and Asian countries as well as in the United Kingdom (Oxfam 2010, p.1). This is possible due to the relative financial superiority of Oxfam compared to the smaller charity organizations that can only be able to employ a small number of people who can offer only one service.

Where to look for what charities do

The work that is done by charity organizations is normally mentioned explicitly in the vision and mission statement of the charitable organization. All the services that are offered and any goods that the charity may be giving to the people are also stated in the information accompanying the mission statement. Most charity organizations in the United Kingdom have taken the online route. This means that by visiting the charities websites, you can get all or most of the information concerning a particular charitable organization.

Financial Nature of Charity Organizations

Charity organizations do not engage in any profit-making undertakings. They rely on donations from well-wishers and donors, and sometimes they can partner with governments to accomplish some missions that are of significance to the people. They are however required to handle the resources at their disposal with utmost transparency. This is accomplished through proper record keeping. Another crucial financial aspect that is associated with charities is that they are exempt from taxation.

Leadership

Charities have different levels of administration. Most UK charities have well-established structures of leadership or administration. Such positions as managers, chief executives, financial directors, and presidents are part of most charities. These positions are normally in the hands of aged and experienced men and women although nowadays it is possible to find charity organizations that are in the hands of middle-aged people as well.

Workforce/Employees

The people who work in charity organizations are not paid. They are volunteers and are given allowances meant to assist them to meet their daily needs as they work for charitable organizations. The workers, the leadership, and the clients or customers form part of the stockholding as far as charity organizations are concerned.

Partnerships

Most charity organizations are always willing o partner with other social entities as they try to improve the lives of the people in the society. These partnerships can be between these charity organizations with other charity organizations at the local or international level, companies, and government institutions such as schools and hospitals. The partnerships can be for various reasons.

For example, charity organizations have partnered with pharmaceutical companies in the past to seek cures and care for certain diseases such as cancer, tuberculosis, and anemia (Cancer Research UK, 2010, P.1). Partnerships can also be for the extension of education to the citizens or children. We have also had partnerships between charity organizations and companies whereby these charities have assisted in taking the goods donated by certain companies to the people in need of them (Marion, 2004, p.24).

Do Charities Compete?

Competition among charity organizations exists. It is both advantageous and disadvantageous in that too much competition can affect service delivery since they are supposed to have a humanitarian touch. But again it can be an advantage in that service delivery will be better. The charities that have an edge in the field are those that are located at strategic points in terms of access to customers and points of service.

Strategic Review

External Economic, Political and Social Factors Affecting Charities

Charity organizations do not operate in a vacuum. They operate within a system that is political and has both economic and social aspects that touch on the charity organization.

Political Factors

Charity organizations can get affected by politics in terms of their leadership if they are large enough to cause a political impact in elections. The government of the day may try to influence the outcome. In the United Kingdom, however, independence is fairly high for charity organizations. The other angle of politics in charities is the voice they have when commenting on issues such as jobs, taxation, and economic oppression of the citizens especially in difficult economic times like recession time.

Economical

The economy of the United Kingdom has been stable for a long time and this has made the charities in the UK have a good operating fiscal scale or budget. Things however changed with the financial meltdown that affected every part of the globe.

Social Factor and Legal Factors

The rapid technological innovations that have seen the rise of Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace have revolutionized the way charities work. Networking is high and more information can now be shared with the public at rapid speeds. Legally, charities must have operational licenses and be able to meet all the requirements such as payment of rent in case of rented premises and pay other dues that are supposed to be paid. Genuine charities in the UK always find it very easy to operate given the conducive operational environment made possible by the government (Charity Commission, 2010, p.1).

Conclusion

From the above, we have seen that charities are non-profit organizations formed to extend humanitarian services to people. They provide crucial services such as education, economic empowerment, and health information. Charities care for children, the sick, the displaced, the disabled, the poor, and the aged. Most UK charities have well-established leadership structures and Oxfam is an example of large UK-based international charity organizations. Charities in the UK play a crucial role both at the local and the international level.

References

Cancer Research UK. (2010). Research Highlights. Web.

Charity Commission. (2010). About the Charity Commission. Web.

Marion, R. F. (2004). Governing Nonprofit Organizations. New York: Harvard University Press.

Oxfam. (2010). Oxfam in action. Web.

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