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The problems facing the third sector during the recession and proposed public sector cuts have been discussed in Bournemouth.
At a 'charity question time' fringe event at the Liberal Democrat conference, the panel faced questions on whether there should be greater transparency over charity chief executive expenses.
John Low, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, explained that the current vogue for greater transparency over expenses is an inevitable by-product of the MPs' expenses scandal.
He labelled the clamours for greater transparency over expenses "a storm in a teacup" and added that he would rather see greater clarity over remuneration as a whole as opposed to just expenses in general.
Speaking for the Liberal Democrats, Jenny Willott explained that the she felt a lot of the lingering questions that people hold with regard to charities' administration costs – and more generally how they spend donations – would disappear if charities were more open.
A lot of the misperceptions would disappear, she said.
Adam Samson, former chief executive of Shelter, stated that he would have liked to have seen his salary opened up to scrutiny, claiming it would have put an end to as lot of rumour.
And he agreed with Low that the question of openness over remuneration rather than a focus just on expenses is important. The charity sector, he added, needed to "have a good think about this".
Matthew Bowcock, representing the Community Foundation Network, explained that having come from a private sector background he has been "staggered" by the passion that charity workers have.
He told how one charity worker he knew had left a £110,000-a-year salary to work on £45,000-a-year. This, he claimed, showed that the issue was irrelevant.
Samson stated that he felt the sector's attempts at self-regulation had been a failure – referring to the remuneration of some housing association chief executives’ salaries to prove his point.
Bowcock spoke about a community foundation in New York which had an annual turnover of $2.5bn. With such organisations, he claimed, people may have to recognise that appropriate remuneration for chief executives is required.
But he repeated that people's motivations for working with charities also has to be borne in mind. The ethos of public sector work meant that people should stop drawing direct parallels with the private sector.
A questioner also asked what the panel's views were on government grants and funding, and whether commissioners understood how their money is used.
Samson said that he liked commissioning as it "concentrates the mind" of the charity on what they should be doing, but he criticised the poor contracts and commissioning practice of the public sector.
For the future, he said he could see nothing changing with regard to how government commissions from charities, except that money will "dry up considerably".
Willott, while acknowledging that the third sector can add considerably to the work of government, said she was concerned that charity commissioning could possibly be seen as a "cheap option". She also conceded that, sometimes, only large groups can offer services required by government.
Bowcock agreed with Willott. He explained that over 50 per cent of the money going to the charity sector was for government projects. The result of this, he said, was that it diverted some charities away from what they mostly should be doing.
Some charities, he added, become "addicted" to government money.
Low explained that some commissioners exploited the charity sector's need for money as part of their drive to cut costs.
He also stated that some charities currently receive about 40 per cent of their funding from government and they will "really suffer" when the cuts start being made.
A further question focused on charity shops and the definition of a charity.
Low said that charity shops were "brilliant" and Samson explained how Shelter had made £1m a year from their shops.
Bowcock explained that 50 per cent of charities that the British give money to are not actually registered charities.
He explained that his foundation carries out "due diligence" on organisations and then gives grants accordingly.
Low claimed that there were closer to 800,000 charities in the UK, with only 180,000 registered.
Willott added that the few, very big charities shaped people's perceptions of charities – and giving – but agreed with Low that the majority were small, voluntary groups.
A final question raised the issue of strategic giving.
Bowcock explained that a lot of charitable giving in the UK is "strategic and responsive". He thought it would be a good idea for people to give larger amounts, but less often.
Samson spoke about charities report back to people who donate to charities. He said that people, on the whole, trust charities and do not particularly want to know how charities spend money.
Willott stated that such reporting depends on what kind of relationship you have with a charity, with people having closer ties with smaller local charities, rather than larger bodies. She agreed with Bowcock that more needed to be done to get people to give strategically.
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