I’m slowly coming back to life after remembering how much I hated being trapped in a room researching for weeks at a time (it’s one of the reasons I left academia all those years ago…).
Next week I’ll be back with a proper BCS, but for now, some media to keep you going.
Cringey self-promotion
First, the cringey bit. This is not a self-promoting consultant blog, but a brief interlude reminding you I’m available for weddings and bar mitzvahs in my day job as a consultant with UK charities and funders. And also strategy and change, learning, research and evaluation, and income generation. I know, sexy. Check me out here.
What To Do About….. Civil Society?
In July, I joined Peter Holbrook, CEO of Social Enterprise UK, Lord Victor Adebowale of the House of Lords, and Devi Clark, MD of Impact Hub King’s Cross to talk about ‘What to do about… Civil Society’. This is their regular podcast series where they talk to a different guest about a thorny problem. No prizes for guessing which one they got me for.
“What is civil society actually for, and who is it really serving? "Barely Civil" Alex Evans, writer of the Substack Barely Civil Society and self-described "recovering chief exec," joins Devi Clark, MD of Impact Hub King's Cross and SEUK board member, for a (mostly) civil conversation about charity in the UK. They dig into how attempts to de-politicise charities became political in themselves, why food banks have become a growth industry nobody wanted, how charity boards were built to keep organisations safely non-radical, why we give more to dogs than refugees, and how alarmingly easy it's become to register a hate group as a charity. It's a sharp look at power, money, and what simple changes could give civil society back the freedom to actually do good.
If you prefer your podcasts audio-only, find it here on Spotify and here it is on Apple Podcasts:
Fuller version of something I said:
One of the problems with charity is that we’re so focused on the idea of goodness - and indeed, so overwhelmed with the tasks - that we’re not wiling to be critical. But critical doesn’t need to mean hostile. Critical can mean rigorous, it can mean testing and challenging assumptions and thinking things through.
And not just in a way that is some theory of change or some management system which again benefits neoliberal economics and the powerful.
It’s about really questioning why things are the way they are. And what our role as civil society, as charities, is in relation to those things.
And honestly I don’t know anybody who runs a food bank who thinks there should be food banks. And we all know that the systems put in place to make our work ‘efficient’ or suitable for the demands of others are holding us back.
There is an absolutely unintentional and obscene joke about a carrot at one stage which I wish I had made on purpose. Next time I will.
Thanks to Peter and Victor for inviting me.
Leading Social Change podcast
Meanwhile, just before that I met Anna Day on her ‘Leading Social Change’ podcast to talk about charities and, well, social change…
“He’s not here to celebrate the sector. He’s here to interrogate it.
Episode two of Leading Social Change asks the question underneath every question: what is the charity sector actually here for, and are we honest about whether we’re achieving it?
Anna Day’s guest is Dr Alex Evans, a consultant, researcher and writer who has spent nearly three decades refusing to take the charity and voluntary sector at face value. That makes him genuinely unusual in a world that often prefers its own mythology unchallenged.
Alex’s CV covers the sector from every angle. He holds a PhD in Cultural Studies Politics from the University of Sussex and has led organisations ranging from a 131-year-old community charity in Rotherhithe to a digital social enterprise spun out of St Mungo’s. For the last six years he has worked as an independent consultant with clients including the Henry Smith Foundation, the NHS, Hackney CVS and Mencap, across strategy, organisational development, leadership, evaluation and research.
But it’s his other work that makes this conversation essential listening. Alex founded and writes Barely Civil Society, a blog writing project that takes a deliberately critical look at philanthropy, charity and sector politics. Where much sector commentary flatters, Alex probes. Where others reach for the comfortable narrative, whether or not the evidence actually supports it, he asks the questions without easy answers.
In this episode, Anna and Alex dig into the questions the sector rarely asks itself out loud. Are charities really best placed to lead social change and what does ‘impact’ really mean? And who is in charge?
Leading Social Change. Episode two, with Dr Alex Evans, is out now. Listen, subscribe, and join the conversation on Spotify:
Join Charity Leaders UK: www.charityleadersuk.com the home of leaders inspiring social change across the UK.
Check Out Alex’s Barely Civil Society Substack: https://www.barelycivilsociety.org/
I suspect there might possibly be a tiny bit of Chat GPT going on in that blurb, but hey, it’s pretty flattering and honestly I need that at the moment. Thanks to Anna for inviting me on the show.
And here’s a flashback to my interview on charities getting political at the Third Sector Conference in June.
Coming soon
Next week, I will be reporting from the Faith Charities Forum, if I have not spontaneously combusted due to being a huge heathen. [Update: I did not, and just hung out at the back of the bus with the Quakers. The cool kids.] I do think this is a fascinating area at the moment, and indeed, spent a weekend reading a history of the Church of England recently. I think Tillich is getting to me.
Speaking of which, I am also attending the Alliance Magazine 30 Years celebration this week, which does indeed offer another chance to spontaneously combust as they are asking whether the last 30 years of philanthropy have been a failure. Given that philanthropists always get a chance to set the goalposts, I’m going to say the answer will be a resounding ‘No’, but there should be a good bit of masochistic hurt/comfort humble bragging about how ‘We shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves even though we are not worthy of this gargantuan but essential moral task which has been foisted upon us’ talk. [Edit: I very nearly spontaneously combusted when the son of a billionaire who was only on stage because he was, erm, the son of a billionaire, told everyone that philanthropy had succeeded where liberal democracy had failed. And that philanthropists - like him - had the ideas needed for the future. I had to take four beta blockers.]
If you happen to subscribe to the magazine, you can find my previous article on Epstein and philanthropy here. Unlikely I know. But you can always see a similar one here:
Also, in case you missed it, this is one of my favourite articles I’ve written about philanthropy.
See you next week for a proper one.
- Alex