Category Archives for "Third Sector"

Churches in the Third Sector

Last Monday I broke down third sector organisations into three sub-sectors.  Today is the first of a series of posts where I consider some organisation types in more detail.

My interest is in the contribution churches make to the local economy, as a part of the community sub-sector.  Many churches contribute to their neighbourhood, similar to the role played by community groups.  They are usually exclusive because they restrict decision-making to their members.  (I use the word “members” loosely, not all churches have membership as understood by community groups.  I could write a post on this topic alone but for now let it rest.)  Churches can be responsive to local needs. Many tthat have been around for a very long time, know their neighbourhood better than other organisations.

Church members are often active in local groups and so churches have an impact beyond the projects they start themselves.

Typology of Churches

If you are not involved with churches it may not be obvious they are a range of organisations. They manage their affairs in a variety of ways.  These various ecclesiologies can make a real differences.  The main ones are

  • denominational – here the differences are about the ways in which churches organise decision-making.  Congregationalist churches have almost complete autonomy based on one member one vote.  Connexional churches make decisions through elected committees and pass some of their decision-making to higher levels.  Episcopal churches devolve power from Bishops to parishes.  These are generalisations. All churches have a degree of local autonomy, especially about the contribution they make to their neighbourhoods.
  • geographical – the Church of England for example is organised into parishes.  This means they draw their membership, from a defined geographical area.  In practice this is not always true. Usually churches’ community work is confined to the parish, entering neighbouring parishes by agreement only.  Other churches do not have a defined parish but may still work in the immediate neighbourhood of their church building.
  • theologically – what a church believes can be more important than how it makes decisions.  Motivations for community work can vary.  Some churches are evangelical and so their work is about communication of the gospel; others by social justice.  In practice the difference that matters is the willingness of a church to work in partnership, some theological stances are exclusive, the church relies on its members to do the work, whilst other churches will happily work alongside other groups.

I write to manage expectations, the work of an exclusive church may be valuable; providing food banks, street pastors and similar work effectively from a substantial committed membership.  Others involved in similar work may be more collaborative.  Which is most effective?  It’s impossible to generalise.

How do churches contribute to the local economy?

  • churches start new projects.  I’ve already mentioned food banks and street pastors.  The work they do with the elderly, children and young people is so common it can be taken for granted.  Until recent years, churches employed community development workers (probably the biggest employers outside of local authorities) and initiated a range of experimental projects in community and the local economy.  Sadly development work is out of fashion although new projects are still happening.
  • provide support for people in work through various forms of chaplaincy.  Industrial chaplaincy was in its early days in the large manufacturing industries and there have been many retail chaplains over the years.
  • asking the awkward questions about the local economy, through campaigning and relationships with key people in the private and statutory sectors.  A recent example is Listen Up, a churches project to research the impact of Universal Credit on the lives of people living on benefit.
  • provision of support for people at key points in their lives, especially bereavement.  Perhaps we underestimate the value of having people around who have experience supporting people through difficult times.

It is valuable having people in the local economy who actively question the motivations of the powerful and support those who  struggle to make a living.  But the assumption volunteering and grants are somehow morally superior to trade is an issue many churches need to discuss, if only because their scepticism alienates small business people seeking an honest living.

But maybe churches will eventually challenge these assumptions and open up new possibilities.  Can you think of faith projects that have challenged assumptions about the local economy?

Anatomy of the Third Sector

Last Monday I wrote about finding terms that describe the third sector.  It’s tempting to describe the sector by what it is not; it is not private or public.   This is not very satisfactory but this is the way we categorise public life in this country.

People define the Third Sector by comparison with the Public (or Statutory) sector, funded through taxes (mainly) and governed through elected political leaders who employ officers to do the work, and the private sector, funded through trade (mainly) and governed through ownership.  There are complications but this will do for now.

So, the Third Sector represents various alternatives that fall between the other two sectors.  I suggest three sub-sectors.  What they have in common is they welcome voluntary work.  So, if taxes define the public sector and trade defines the private, perhaps volunteering defines the third sector.

Professional Voluntary Sector

Large organisations, often with a national profile.   They usually have a steady income stream (from donations) and employ paid staff.  Organisations like this include:

  1. Trusts who make donations but don’t employ staff.
  2. Large organisations who provide expertise through their staff.  Many ask volunteers to deliver services, supervised by paid staff.
  3. Churches and other religious bodies, can resemble large voluntary sector organisations in their national or regional offices.
  4. Various loose federations of local groups, providing training and support.

Community Sector

Informal organisations who champion a particular neighbourhood or issue.

  1. Community groups, neighbourhood groups and forums.  These usually start out as a group of residents who meet around some local issue.  If they raise funds, usually grants from the statutory or professional voluntary sector, they employ staff.  This is usually small-scale and temporary.  Sustainability is a major issue for these groups.
  2. Action or interest groups form around issues and often have a city-wide and not a neighbourhood perspective.  They might form around an issue or a group of people disadvantaged because of who they are.  Funding can be difficult when they are seen as political.  They can be effective raising awareness and gaining political support.

Not-for-profit sector

These fall between the third and private sectors.  They earn income through trade although many are grant aided.

  1. Community organisations that trade.  Sometimes they are micro-trading, ie subsidised by grants or loans.  Sometimes their main income is from at least one large contract.
  2. Mutuals, sometimes called co-operatives, can be an alternative business model for trading organisations.  They include organisations that provide financial services, eg credit unions or (not so much in the UK) micro-credit.  Retail co-ops are often counted as third sector because their members share ownership.
  3. Alternative currencies, eg Local Economic Trading Systems (LETS).  There are examples online as well as real life schemes.  The real life schemes operate locally.  Online schemes have a global reach and some can be converted to established currencies.  I know very little about online schemes and so cannot recommend them.

If we’re to understand our neighbourhoods and their economics, we need to understand the organisations that operate in them.  In future posts I shall share more details about each type of organisation.

I’m sure I’ve missed some types of organisation.  Be the first to point out my errors.  What have I missed?

What is the Third Sector?

This Monday I’m starting a new sequence about the Third Sector.  Recently I’ve written about a specific example of partnership working and I shall return to partnership later.

What is the third sector and is ‘third sector’ the best name for it?  You can refer to an earlier post about the scope of third sector organisations.

The Labour government’s Cabinet Office had an Office of the Third Sector between 1997 and 2010.  The current coalition government used the term Civil Society or Big Society, and has an Office for Civil Society.  Third Sector and Civil Society seem to cover much the same territory.

Terms Used to Describe the Third Sector

  1. Political parties use ‘Third Sector’ and ‘Civil Society’ for organisations and activities that are not public or private sector.  These two terms are useful if you want to refer to the sector but they carry political baggage.
  2. ‘Voluntary Sector’ covers similar organisations and activities.  The term has been around since the late 1970s.  Whilst most people have a rough idea what it means, it can be confusing because it covers local groups run by unpaid people and large organisations who employ staff (sometimes called the professional voluntary sector).  Organisations with established income streams, often from donations, have little in common with small community organisations.
  3. ‘Community Sector’ – applies to a narrower range of organisations than ‘voluntary sector’.  It covers organisations working locally, usually with no or very few staff.  They usually don’t have their own income streams and so are dependent on grants.  Some city-wide or national organisations, representing local groups, belong to this sector.  It might  also include organisations with a national profile that work locally, eg churches.
  4. ‘Not-for-profits’ describes the third sector or parts of it.  Perhaps any third sector organisation is not-for-profit but the term only makes sense where an organisation is trading.  Some use the term ‘not-for-personal-profit’ because social enterprises and mutuals do trade and generate a profit.  Sometimes people use “surplus” to show an organisation trades but not for personal profit.  Surplus cash is not always spent for community or charitable purposes and so many of these organisations could just as easily be described as private sector.  Sometimes it is difficult to see how small traders, adding value to a neighbourhood, are making less of a socio-economic contribution to their neighbourhood than social enterprises.  So, not-for-profit describes those organisations that generate surplus to be used locally and collectively but perhaps does not adequately convey a full picture of the local economy.

Do you have other names for the sector I have not identified?  Which terms do you use and how do you use them?

 

The Scope of Third Sector Organisations

Venn diagram showing 3 overlapping circles

We usually think about the three sectors; statutory, private and third sector organisations, from a national top-down perspective and so perhaps see a greater separation between them than we find in neighbourhoods.  All three sectors are part of the ecology of a healthy neighbourhood and so we need to understand how they interact and contribute to public well-being.

The diagram represents the three sectors, and the potential for interaction between them.  They can all play a vital role in a neighbourhood, providing jobs and social spaces where community can grow.

Third Sector Organisations

Third sector organisations (a) are not easy to define because people use the term to cover a ragbag of everything that is neither statutory nor private sector.  Personal contributions of time or money, eg through faith and community groups, grant aid and support for social aims through trading commonly fund third sector organisations.

Statutory Organisations

Statutory sector organisations (b), might be working for the local authority, the NHS or the police, for example.  National government may also be active through various schemes.

Grant Aided Community Organisations

There are not so many type (d) organisations these days, where statutory funding aids voluntary organisations.  This type of organisation has been very common over the last few decades but is not so common in an age of government cuts.  Some people criticise government funding as a contested use of tax-payers money.  For certain purposes it is vital for the welfare of our communities.  However, there are many issues where government funding supports local regeneration and vigorous debate about the implications of this approach is long overdue.

Private Sector Organisations

There will also be private sector organisations (c), from self-employed people and small businesses through to large companies and multinationals.  Where the latter are present in an area, they can be the source of many jobs.  Or else they may be present as branches of supermarkets or other chains.  A local trader might provide a vital service, at the heart of a neighbourhood and so, whilst clearly not third sector, is relevant when assessing the assets of an area, for example, a local café whose proprietor encourages community meetings.

Community Businesses

Community businesses are type (e) organisations, which aim to generate income for social aims through trade.  Other local businesses can become type e from the private sector side, for example by forming small business mutuals to support enterprise in a neighbourhood.

Development Trusts

Section (g) combines elements of all 3 sectors.  In the UK these are usually some sort of development trust.  They aim to develop an independent asset base within a neighbourhood.  In practice most seem to combine grants with trade and deployment of assets.  Some seem to be surviving the cuts and so perhaps the model has staying power.

In future posts I shall look in turn at the various types of organisation found in our communities.

Mutuality: the Ecology of Third Sector Organisations

If we do not understand our organisations, how can we determine the purpose of their websites or structure their content?

Not all third sector organisations are mutuals but mutuality might help us understand nature of third sector organisations.

Typology

Third sector means various things to various people. Politically it has been re-named as the Big Society in recent years.  Sometimes the sector is called not-for-profit or the community or voluntary sector.  None of these are satisfactory but may be important for determining the purpose of websites.  The words we choose have implications for search engine optimisation, for example.

Various organisations may be part of the third sector.  How does each type, eg community groups, voluntary organisations, charities, social enterprises, mutuals, faith groups; relate to the sector and what is its socio-economic position? In time this will be a resource organisations can use to define their role and work out the purpose of their websites.

Position

Third sector implies there are at least two other sectors and their relationships need to be understood.  Their overlaps and boundaries are particularly interesting.  For example, is a self-employed web designer, specialising in the third sector, a part of the third sector or in the private sector?  What’s going on when a local authority applies for a grant to start a social enterprise?  These sectors are a model that helps us understand our society, the better we understand them, the better able we are to develop our websites.

Partnerships

For many third sector organisations, an up-to-date, relevant website is a big ask.  Is it possible for organisations to collaborate, especially where their vision for a local area is complementary?  Pooled resources might not only enhance online presence but also open up other opportunities for collaboration in real life.

Methods

Why mutuality? How is or could mutuality be expressed in various types of organisation?  What mutual methods might be possible online?  These will cover a range of activities including participative methodologies, community development and non-directive consultancy.

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