11 April 2005

NPC's achievements on funding the underfunded

For many donors deciding where to put their money, their instinct is often to plump immediately for names that are already familiar to them. However, one entrepreneur with £1m to give away, who wishes to remain anonymous, decided to seek expert advice first, and he approached New Philanthropy Capital (NPC). NPC was able to help him find less popular areas of charitable activity where his money could have the highest impact.

The donor approached NPC for advice because he was impressed with its philosophy that many of the methods used in planning investments can be equally applied to finding opportunities in the charitable sector. Using NPC's innovative sector research, he decided to spread the funds among a range of 12 UK and international charities. He also followed NPC's recommendation to make the funds 'unrestricted' - not tied to a specific project.

The resulting donations have made a dramatic impact on some of the charities picked. One of the charities was Community Regeneration Trust North East. It supports people suffering from financial hardship, social exclusion, unemployment or any other form of debilitating
circumstance. It began life as a small furniture recycling project and now serves over 3,000 people with a wide range of activities, including a food bank and community volunteer programme.

As its CEO says: "This donation, because it was not asked for and came from someone who had looked at our work and felt it worthy of support at this level, has touched many of us quite deeply, and for some, made years of committed service to people in need worthwhile."

This donor project is the latest in a series of successes for NPC. The organisation recently helped the Guardian newspaper to identify nine charitable projects for the Guardian Christmas Appeal, which has already raised close to £250,000. It is the third year in a row the Guardian has worked with NPC.

For this year's Appeal, it picked the older people's sector and NPC recommended older charities, using research from its report Grey Matters: Growing Older in Deprived Areas , published in December 2004. The amount raised is impressive: older people's charities are notoriously difficult to raise funds for.

Another triumph for NPC was its continuing role in advising Execution Ltd., a London-based equity brokerage, on the effective distribution of funds raised from its annual charity trading day in November. NPC has worked closely with Execution on its ongoing commitment to small community-based organisations across the country that have a high impact. Close to £1m was raised at the event and NPC advised Execution on where best to allocate £650,000 of the total.

NPC tries to increase the funds flowing into the charitable sector and to identify areas of greatest need. It has proved especially effective at raising the awareness of outstanding charities that due to their smaller size would normally fall below the radar of large donors and grantmakers.

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