Charity official slams States’ support for third sector
The States Treasury’s attitude to the third sector is ‘disgraceful’, the outgoing vice-president of the Association of Guernsey Charities said as he stepped down after 11 years on the board.
At the organisation’s AGM he reflected on what had worked and what needed improvement.
Mr Rose has championed gift aid, where every other country in the developed world except Guernsey, he said, gives charities back the income tax on all charitable donations.
The island gives back tax on donations in excess of £1,000 and up to £7,500, which amounts to a very small proportion of donations.
In 2017, a large amount of work was carried out to quantify how much lowering the threshold to zero to allow all donations to qualify would cost.
‘That figure was £800,000 annually so around 0.13% of States Revenue, inconsequential to the States, but money that would have helped you enormously,’ he said.
‘The social return on investment was estimated at two-and-a-half times, so we thought it was a no-brainer, but it never got to the Assembly.
‘I think this is disgraceful on the part of the Treasury, it shows how much they really value what charities do for our community. I do hope they will rethink but I won’t lose any sleep anticipating an epiphany any time soon.’
Policy & Resources committee members John Gollop and Heidi Soulsby were in attendance at the meeting.
Mr Rose also noted that in the social compact he signed with the States in 2014, item number one was a commitment from the States to ‘foster and encourage development of the third sector’.
‘The social compact was signed by a States deputy who is still on P&R,’ he said.
‘I was two months into my chairmanship of the association, and naively thought this commitment would drive a fundamental change in attitude towards the third sector.
‘I’ll leave it to you to consider whether the States has lived up to its commitment in the 10 years that has elapsed, but you can probably tell how I reflect on this.’
He also updated the meeting that the online donations platform giving.gg which launched in July 2016 passed £1m. raised in early February this year.
Commercial UK donations platforms caused issues for access in Guernsey and included additional costs, so Mr Rose, with the help of volunteers, built the local donations site.
The 2023 accounts show that last year the website raised some £178,000.
‘If I was keeping a score card, in my humble opinion, most of the things the AGC has achieved during my time on council have worked well, both for you and for the sector as a whole,’ he said.
