When I started my internship here last July, I didn't know much about the charity sector. Aside from a newspaper story I wrote for the British Heart Foundation and a week’s work experience there, I scarcely knew my Band Aid from my Gift Aid. It's been a fascinating learning curve over the last six months and although we are not a charity, we work solely for non-profits. So I thought while many of our bloggers reel off their last Auld Lang Syne at home, I’d muse on five things I learned about the charity sector in 2012.

1. A Hidden Gem - Resilience report from the Clore Social Leadership Programme

Introduction 

There are certain words which in the charity world have gained a completely different meaning from the one they do in the rest of the world. Independence is one of them.

As a researcher on Parliamentary matters, I am only too aware of the importance of the relationship between charities and MPs. But three separate events suggest a worrying new direction in the way MPs view charity lobbying.

It’s time the sector stopped huffing and puffing and bit the bullet. The public has no easy way of knowing whether a charity is spending enough of its income on its mission, nor whether that money is doing a good job. 

We had a sector meeting with some of our Charity Awareness Monitor clients last week and some of the discussion was about how some donors are getting more sceptical about international development being a deserving cause. The recession at home and debatable spending priorities like nuclear and space programmes have prompted many questions about who we should be helping and why. It’s a good question and one that, being Indian, I have admittedly mixed feelings on. 

Trust is of paramount importance to charities. It is a major factor underpinning the donations of time and money by millions of people every year. This time and money is the lifeblood of a charity and to keep people onside, the trust has to be maintained. But how do you do that?

Ever since Lord Hodgson’s review of the Charities Act recommended that charities with an income of over £1 million have an automatic right to pay their trustees, arguments have raged on both sides. Lord Hodgson and his supporters say that the change will help charities attract the best and brightest for the boardroom. Opponents are concerned that payment will further erode the voluntary ethos that the charity sector is based on.

I talked to somebody last week from an overseas development charity which was busy preparing for its 40th anniversary. Not 50th, not 25th, but 40th. This is not unusual. Charities seem to be obsessed with celebrating anniversaries. It doesn’t have to be a particularly significant anniversary, but it does have to be celebrated. For me, charities celebrating anniversaries makes about as much sense as hedgehogs celebrating a new bypass.