The inquiry invited civil society leaders to share their responses to the final inquiry findings and to the PACT, inviting personal and honest reflections about what these might mean for their leadership approach and their organisations in the future. What are the opportunities it presents and what might some of the challenges be?
Here’s an overview of the responses received so far:
Ouch. It’s time to ask some hard questions
The Inquiry lays out a set of shared aspirations for us to commit to and offers an important opportunity for leaders to stop and reflect on whether we could be doing things differently; to ask if we could be better. It is time to get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable.
Vicky Browning, Chief Executive of ACEVO, the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations
A new generation of leadership… within our grasp?
A call for us to recognise that ‘civil society is political’ is not made in the hope that charities and civic groups will transform ourselves, but instead that we will rediscover ourselves.
Kirsty McNeill, Executive Director of Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns at Save the Children UK
Courage required for a big course correction
It takes courage and conviction to point out to incumbents across the voluntary sector that what has served well to get to today is not what will see us through tomorrow. The Civil Society Futures inquiry, has shown precisely this.
Matthew Reed, CEO of the Children’s Society & CEO designate Marie Curie UK
It’s time to take back control
A profound challenge to many charities, the call to shift power and to be accountable to communities and people is particularly challenging for bigger and more long standing organisations
Stephen Hale, Chief Executive of Refugee Action
Why a reinvigorated civil society now needs the ideas to match the size of its ambition
A welcome blueprint for civil societies reinvention and reappraisal. But it’s how we make connections, galvanise our supporters and most importantly think bolder, that will make the real difference.
Matt Hyde, Chief Executive of the Scouts
Start getting uncomfortable – we need to give power away
What does it look like to talk about and give away power in the housing sector?
Alison Inman, former President of the Chartered Institute of Housing 2017/8
Power with: Why we need to change the narrative of us and them
A new CEO’s reflection on power, not about ‘power over’ but about ‘power with’. There is so much information, the canvas so fast moving, the players so multiple that a small elite cannot control it.
Julie Bentley is incoming Chief Executive of Action for Children
Beyond command and control… communities and the common good
The Big Lottery Fund re-desiging how we work, the systems and networks we operate in, and the way we communicate to work more closely with communities.
Dawn Austwick, Chief Executive of the Big Lottery Fund
The road to relevance
Today we’re the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) but maybe we need to be the Network for Change, the Network for Connection for volunteers and organisations in places everywhere?
Karl is Director of Public Policy and Volunteering at National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
Ignoring the rain
What does it look like to put power and resource directly in the hands of the community through the Big Local programme?
Matt Leach, Chief Executive of the Local Trust
Experts by experience: it’s high time we all started listening
The importance of Refugee-led Community Organisations
Maurice Wren, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council
Dealing with our profound crisis of listening
As funders, foundations are operating in a social, political and psychological climate that might reasonably be characterised as a profound crisis of listening. Reflections on what the Inquiry findings might mean for the funding ecosystem.
Carol Mack, Chief Executive of the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF)
The future is here and it is unevenly distributed
Power, accountability, connection and trust resonate – they are the fundamental building blocks that will allow us to rise to the many challenges we face and we all have a responsibility to act.
Bob Thust, Partner at Practical Governance and Esther Foreman, CEO of The Social Change Agency Conveners of Losing Control
Civil society’s tech future?
We can’t ignore the power that technology has – the social sector needs to find ways to join the conversation and challenge its power.
Cassie Robinson, currently Head of Digital Grant Making at the Big Lottery Fund and Co-founder of the Point People – she was previously Strategic Design Director at Doteveryone
Faith, flourishing and fragility
It might be slow, messy, time consuming, and emotionally demanding, but we need a commitment to our collective flourishing.
Heather Buckingham, Director of Research and Policy at the Church Urban Fund
Amongst high tides; be the change and challenge ourselves
Exploring the different levels where change is most needed
Jim Minton, Chief Executive of Toynbee Hall
Yes to the PACT… but how do we have more impact?
While not suggesting revolution, the PACT will give impetus and new ideas to the sector. But what else can support more impact?
Dan Corry, Chief Executive of NPC Thinks
A PACT with the future
I’ve been confronted with a clearer sense of my position in society, and how a lack of action, or a willingness to accept change makes me, in effect, complicit in the structural inequalities that I oppose.
James Goodman, Director of Futures, Forum for the Future
Power, Accountability, Connection and Trust: why we support a new PACT for Civil Society
Why PACT brings a powerful balance of reassurance and agitation for Citizens UK to work with in the years ahead.
Matthew Bolton, Executive Director of Citizens UK
The PACT at openDemocracy
We are currently reassessing our entire organisational structure, looking at everything from who owns us to our staff pay scales to recruitment policies.
Mary Fitzgerald, Editor-in-Chief of openDemocracy
Do you want to share your response to PACT or the Inquiry? Email up to 500 words to Louise [email protected]