Many Irish charities are run on a purely voluntary basis with shoestring budgets and are in desperate need of the services offered by the Wheel. With 1,900 members, the Wheel is the largest representative body for Ireland’s charity sector. Established in 1999, the organisation offers a representative voice and a range of support services including advice, training, influence and advocacy.
"The Wheel was set up for the benefit of the 30,000 non-profit organisations in Ireland," says Ivan Cooper, the organisation's director of public policy. "About 10,000 to 12,000 of them are registered charities and they are all providing very important services and supports to people and communities around the country. They are engaged in every facet of life in areas such as care for homeless people, working with people with disabilities, supporting elderly people, almost everything."
That role is reflected by the fact that about half of the sector’s funding comes from the State. “Almost €14 billion goes through charities’ accounts every year,” Cooper points out. “About €6 billion or so comes from earned income and donations, the rest is provided by the State.”
The Wheel helps its members in a variety of ways. "We provide services and supports such as information and advice to board members and managers to help them do their work. We also offer training in areas like finance, governance, leadership and compliance. The other big part of our work is to advocate on behalf of members with stakeholders such as the Department of Health, the Health Service Executive, Tusla and so on about issues which members need to have addressed."
That advocacy role has been particularly important during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Covid-19 presented immediate challenges to charitable organisations and they had to very quickly adjust the ways they deliver services to accommodate social distancing, remote working and so on,” says Cooper. “And they also had to deal with a fundraising crisis.”
Government support
The majority of the Wheel members rely on some form of government support and that became even more crucial to them during the Covid-19 crisis. “The impact of Covid-19 is unprecedented,” says Cooper. “One of the things it did was cause statutory agencies and funders to work even more closely with charities. The majority of our members report that relationships have improved as a result. That’s been a positive. We are working hard to build on that spirit of positivity as we face into the challenges that lie ahead.”
He explains the scale of the fundraising crises. “We did some work with funding partners at the beginning of the crisis and we estimated that Covid-19 would cause a reduction of €1.5 billion in funds coming into charities. The wage subsidy scheme has been vitally important and that made a real contribution to charities which qualified for it. Over the course of the year the Government contributed about €400 million to charities through that.”
That wasn’t the only additional support provided. “We worked very closely with the Department of Rural and Community Development on this and a €40 million emergency stability fund was established,” says Cooper. “The department is to be congratulated on moving very quickly to put that in place. Almost 600 organisations have benefited and €30 million has already been delivered. An additional €10 million has been secured for next year. While that is only a small contribution to what is required it is still very significant. We will be engaging with other line departments to urge them to increase their contributions to at least partly make up for the shortfall.”
There is still a question mark hanging over many charities at the moment. “We have a big concern about the ability of charitable organisations to respond to needs. About half of our members are concerned about that for next year and over two-thirds say their services have been impacted by the crisis. And 55 per cent say their finances are uncertain. Their ability to continue operations will be challenged and we will be working closely with the department on that. One thing we need to help with that is accurate accounts of the impact of crisis on charities. We are operating on the basis of anticipated impacts at the moment and we will work with the funding bodies to get that information.”
He concludes by calling on members of the public to increase their online charitable donations. “About 20 per cent of donations were made online only two years ago, that’s 60 per cent now. I would encourage members of the public to seek out charities, engage with them online and donate.”