Government money X refugee advocacy

I’ve recently been reflecting on government funding for refugee and migrant charities.

When charitable organisations become engaged in the responsibilities of government (by taking on government contracts and/or receiving government funds), they become part of a nation’s wider governance structures.

The UK’s refugee & migrant sector is no different, and, particularly since the Syrian resettlement scheme, government funding for refugee & migrant work has been more ubiquitous across the UK.

One question is, how much government money can a charity receive before we need to rethink its charitable credentials? What is the upper limit of a charity’s annual income which comes from government before we can no longer call it independent? When does it cease to be delivering its own agenda, and acting in the best interests of the people they seek to support? When should a ‘voluntary sector’ organisation be more accurately described as an arm of government?

In light of horrific and ever more restrictive refugee & migrant policies and rhetoric, these are questions that I think the refugee & migrant sector needs to grapple with more comprehensively.

I’ve long thought that delivering a government contract does not equate to a vision or strategic plan for a charity.

But, more than that, since reflecting more on policy studies and grantmaking, I’ve been wondering how receiving government funding may affect a charity’s ability to meaningfully protect and defend the rights of refugees and migrants.

Refugees in the UK need robust advocacy

There’s no question that we need more effective lobbying and advocacy for refugees and migrants in the UK.

Anti-refugee and anti-migrant policies and rhetoric have dominated the populist politics of many UK political parties for quite some time now. This has resulted in people and communities suffering real harm. It has driven further polarisation and social turmoil, as well as curtailing human rights.

With refugees and migration being proxies in public debate for racialised people of all immigration statuses, an undermining of refugee & migrant rights is an undermining of civil liberties for all.

It’s not just non-citizens who suffer when refugees & migrants are scapegoated and victimised; black and brown people are actively discriminated against and the human rights of all people are undermined.

We have an important role to play here. A significant strength of the voluntary sector is our ability to be non-partisan and hold government to account, amplifying the voices of people who are too often excluded from political or public debate.

Independent advocacy

Many will argue (as I regularly do) that, in order to have a positive influence on government policy, we need to engage with policymakers, and one way of doing that is to engage in delivery of services.

But government grants, and government contracts especially, always come with strings attached. And it is for each organisation and individual to decide what their ‘red lines’ and non-negotiables are in terms of what they will and won’t do when asked by the government. I’m a big believer in the strength of diversity in the ‘ecosystem’ or assemblage of refugee & migrant organisations whose approaches and activities all differ in how we advance the cause.

However, our performance as a sector in meaningfully influencing refugee & migrant policy has been very weak for over 10 years now. This isn’t necessarily directly related to the funding charities receive from government but the aims of those paying the bills do affect the choices a charity makes.

And so, at what point can we say an organisation is truly independent of government? 10% of annual income? 25%? 50%?

Sustainable funding

There is a crisis of funding in the UK voluntary sector at the moment (the worst I’ve seen in 20 years), with increased competition for a limited number of charitable grants and decreased individual giving due to the UK’s economic situation.

Organisations need to ensure they have a diverse mix of income, including from individual donations, charitable grants, and income generation / social enterprise. For many organisations, this also includes contract delivery and/or grants from the UK government.

The major reason for ensuring a strong mix of income streams is to make sure an organisation isn’t too reliant on 1 or 2 sources, so that, if these dry up, the organisation can still continue running.

There is a very real risk that government money for refugee & migrant work may further disappear. We’ve seen US government humanitarian funding slashed, the UK’s aid budget has already been decimated (with 20% of it already repurposed for the mismanaged asylum system), and if Reform win the Welsh election in May, they will scrap the Nation of Sanctuary Plan (with its funding for refugee charities).

Photo credit: Ellie Burgin.

Data

Below is information from the Charity Commission on 10 of the refugee charities in the UK with the highest annual income:

Org Name	Annual Income	Income from Govt Contracts	Income from Govt Grants	Total Govt Income	% of Income from Govt
Migrant Help	£58,163,000.00	£42,770,000.00	£5,010,000.00	£47,780,000.00	82%
Refugee Council	£14,924,000.00	£3,620,000.00	£4,440,000.00	£8,060,000.00	54%
Refugee Action	£11,741,000.00	£5,580,000.00	£198,000.00	£5,778,000.00	49%
British Red Cross	£287,100,000.00	£31,990,000.00	£51,770,000.00	£83,760,000.00	29%
International Rescue Committee	£116,519,000.00	£8,510,000.00	£8,540,000.00	£17,050,000.00	15%
Freedom from Torture	£9,887,078.00	£0.00	£257,310.00	£257,310.00	3%
Afghanaid	£15,895,649.00	£0.00	£0.00	£0.00	0%
Citizens UK	£11,329,528.00	£0.00	£0.00	£0.00	0%
RefuAid	£94,084,252.00	£0.00	£0.00	£0.00	0%
United Kingdom for UNHCR	£25,532,000.00	£0.00	£0.00	£0.00	0%

Source: Charity Commission.

For these 10 charities, altogether, 25% (£162,685,310) of their income (£645,175,507) is from the UK government, with 4 receiving no government funding at all.

Recommendations

1) Stronger leadership

It is for each organisation to decide their role and approach to their work. But the refugee & migrant sector needs better forums for honest, robust debate about how we work with and hold government to account. This requires real leadership which effectively advances the cause of refugees & migrants rather than empire building or shoring up individual charity reserves.

2) Independent funding

Increased support from independent grantmakers and private philanthropy is needed now. It feels like there is a small window of opportunity for advocacy and lobbying which could soon close further as populist policy advances. If this happens, the refugee & migrant sector will need to move from provision of more aspirational services to focusing on people’s basic safety in an aggressively hostile environment.

3) Social enterprise

Charities need to become more savvy about monetising their skills / USP. I wonder if the future of charity work will look more like ethical businesses (i.e. B Corps) rather than arms length management organisations for the government. If charities can get their head around generating their own income from useful services and products that people need, they could use this to free themselves from dependency on government money.

Conclusion

I don’t think it’s wrong for charities to receive money from government, but I do think that we need to talk more honestly and openly about the impact of receiving government funds on our charitable aims / objectives both now and longterm.

Doing this will help our sector to hold ourselves accountable (and become more sustainable), as we hold the government to account, ensuring government policy respects refugees, migrants and all people in the UK.