Does Charity Begin at Home? There are good arguments on both sides: on the one hand, the need in developing countries is greater and the value of our money there can save lives; and on the other, there is a need to learn and be generous at home before you can extend that generosity to others.

‘Just writing a cheque’ has become a disparaging remark in philanthropy. Terms like ‘beyond chequebook philanthropy’ are used to describe more strategic and involved forms of giving. The assumption is that writing a cheque is a thought-free act. But giving money as a one-off donation does not necessarily mean that the donor has not thought long and hard about their gift.

The purpose of grant assessments is to determine the quality and eligibility of a proposal. It is these judgments that help a funder decide how best to allocate their resources. Reviewing the application form and supporting documents such as annual accounts, business plans and policies, gives an assessor one picture of the organisation.  But if, as they say, “culture eats strategy for breakfast” then it is worth assessing culture as an important factor of a successful organisation. So how do we assess this?

After six years in the role, I am about to finish being a Grant Manager with Lloyds Bank Foundation. On reflection, the most significant shift over this period has been from being a more traditional ‘assess and monitor’ funder to a ‘relationship’ funder. 

Independent funders are not accountable to the public and they don't have to base their giving on research. They use several mechanisms to hold themselves to account. Can change be driven - or at least accelerated - by bringing more external pressure to bear?

At the recent STEP Special Interest Spotlight event, I was delighted to be in a room full of private client advisors who had all signed up for the breakfast session on philanthropy. Read on for my five take-away points from the speakers and discussions.

As you decide how to join in with Giving Tuesday 2017, don’t let these common myths about charities hold you back. Charities of all sizes are doing amazing work and need your support.

Congratulations, your hard work has paid off and you have secured a grant. You now need to get on with delivering whatever activity you set out in your bid. But you have another job to do: to maintain the relationship with your funder. Just how much of a relationship you can develop will depend on the size and length of the grant and the nature of the funder.

It must be Autumn as I have started to see various campaigns urging me to write a will and remember a charity (generally a large national one) when I do so. It’s Free Wills Month in October and then there’s Will Aid in November. The awareness campaigns are important as research shows that although 35% of people want to leave money to charity in their will, only 6.3% do. But just how significant is legacy giving?

At its heart, philanthropy is a good thing. A private individual gives their time, expertise and most often, money to support others.But philanthropy does not happen in isolation. It takes place in a context of politics and power and so it quickly becomes contested and complicated.

Over the summer I have been troubled by robots. Will I be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI)? Surely not? Surely my years of experience and practice are invaluable and difficult to replicate?

This brings me to my favourite read so far this year: the report “A Whole New World: Funding & Commissioning in Complexity” from Collaborate (link below). It “challenges the idea that an intervention (project, organisation or programme) can be held accountable for the impacts it makes in the world.” Instead “outcomes are created by people’s interaction with whole systems”. It puts forward the case for a complexity-friendly version of funding which puts people back into the heart of funding approaches.

Application forms are a long-standing part of life. We apply to do a course, to join a club, to take out a loan, to get a job. They are also the commonest tool used to seek funding.

Philanthropy is often framed as oppositional: either ruled by the heart or by the head. At one extreme, donors are characterised as easily moved by emotive stories and thoughtlessly giving money to whatever causes they care about. At the other end philanthropists are described as dispassionate and objective, keen on impact and effectiveness and looking to scale up social change using business approaches and technology.But of course, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. 

It’s easy to be a better donor. All you need to do is ask for your donation to be used for core costs.