🧵 With Covid, I think we over-estimated the impact on charities in the short-term and under-estimated impact in the long term.
With the energy crisis, I'm worried that we're under-estimating the impact in the short term.
brainyquote.com/quotes/bill_ga… Longer-term impact of Covid: lower levels of reserves (hey, that's what they are for), drop in formal volunteering (the great retirement/resignation), inflation/inc. costs, widespread weariness/burn-out. Not the basis for marching up the hill again so soon after the last time.

The fab @nextwavefutures has helpfully summarised the new @vdeminstitute report on the state of global democracy, which includes a fair bit about the role of civil society: justtwothings.substack.com/p/14-march-202…
TLDR: democracy is backsliding in many countries and not in great health. 1/ And in countries where democracy is getting worse, the key indicators include how civil society is treated (whether you can set up an organisation, whether civil society is consulted by government; whether people at large are getting involved in civil society) 2/

Hello everyone. Some of you will have read this morning that we're proposing some changes at @NCVO as we take forward our new strategy. Like pretty much everyone, we're going through tough times. Let me explain. 1/ This year has been challenging for everyone - charities, businesses, government. People's lives disrupted, & worse, everywhere.
Charities & volunteers have mobilised, brilliantly. Adapted. Cared. We've helped those most affected by coronavirus and the consequences of lockdown.

So, I am incredibly tired. Brain isn't working quite right. But my sense of today's much welcome announcements from @RishiSunak I will say upfront that I may well have got some of this wrong. 1/ This is great news for people across the country worried about whether they will have a job next week – and that includes people working for charities and not for profit organisations who are included in the scheme if they use PAYE. Thank you @OliverDowden @dianabarran. 2/

1/ Have been mulling over #GE2019. Lots to think about for us working across civil society.

We're still living through times where society is still divided (anyone note the 52/48 result last night?). The future still seems uncertain, despite a clear result. 2/ There is much to do if we are to build the sustainable, prosperous, civilised society we all want, for everyone. Strikes me we've got to put creating public benefit on a par with creating wealth if we're going to do that.

Fair amount of disdain for this in my Twitter feed. All understandable: too little, too late; no power; another talking shop; avoids dealing with policies that generate inequalities. 1/

https://twitter.com/politicshome/status/1149547466527670272

All fair, it strikes me. But I would want to give this idea a hearing: could it become the equivalent of the Office for Budget Responsibility? With strong, high profile leadership; baked-in independence from ministers etc, this could challenge from within using govt’s own data 2/

So, at @NCVO we’ve been reading the @oxfamgb report from the @ChtyCommission. I’m inevitably drawn to the section on wider lessons for charities. I’ve snipped some bits and tweet them, plus a few final thoughts. 1/12 So, the first lesson from @oxfamgb: good governance matters. As trustees, we have to make sure we understand the risks our charities face. 2/12

1/ Hmmm. How to design a fund to support 'left behind' communities. Lots of debate about this today (assuming of course that is the purpose of the fund). Funnily enough, civil society has been thinking about this for a bit. A good time to reflect in a thread, methinks. £1.6bn isn't insignificant. In fact, it's almost as much as the £2bn in the next tranche of dormant assets that the government's own report from 2017 thinks might be available. More on that here if you are interested: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi… We could change communities with that.