Charities tend to be on the right side of history. As well as delivering directly for their beneficiaries and causes, the sector has a proud tradition of reflecting progressive thinking from other causes in many aspects of how they work. There are many examples, from investment policies that exclude tobacco companies, to procurement policies that protect workers’ rights.
Environmental issues have long been one of those examples, although often at quite a low level, like using recycled paper. Somehow the simple fact that climate change and biodiversity loss is affecting people everywhere – and therefore every cause – has not really registered in everyday decision-making, in spite of a succession of devastating floods, heatwaves and wildfires across the globe in recent years. But maybe it has now.
And none too soon, because this decade is our last chance to make the drastic changes needed to avert a climate and nature catastrophe that will have unimaginable consequences for people everywhere.
The COVID-19 crisis has shown us that our way of life is more fragile than we realised. It’s a reminder that we can’t bend nature to our will – because at the end of the day we humans are a part of the natural world, with an apparently small thing sometimes throwing everything out of balance. We know that deforestation and the industrialised meat industry are directly connected to the release of pandemics from the depths of forests, as well as being amongst the biggest drivers of climate change and biodiversity loss. Everything connects, it really does. We’ve seen floods and fires ravage the globe, destroying lives and livelihoods, whilst big oil companies continue to search for new oil rather than switch to renewables. If this century is not to be one of successive global crises we will have to tackle the nature and climate emergencies with the same determination with which we’re now, rightly, tackling this health emergency. Not just to protect ecosystems and other species but to protect us humans. To protect ourselves and our families.
Every charity in the UK can play a part in that, and they should, because every cause will be touched by the consequences of failure. If the sector speaks and acts as one in the interests of all we can make a real impact.
The Institute of Fundraising’s toolkit for fundraisers comes at just the right time to show charities how they can make a meaningful difference. Are your investment policies or corporate partnerships propping up industries that are driving carbon emissions? Do your challenge events involve air travel? Do you have a plan for reducing your operational carbon footprint? Are your events plastic and meat free?
Not all the changes that need to happen are easy. But doing the right thing, even if it’s hard, is part of a charity’s DNA. The founders will almost certainly have been the kind of people who would have done the right thing, whatever it took. Your supporters will probably feel the same, and will increasingly expect to see real commitments on climate from the causes they support.
Sometimes this can be hard. Charity trustees are required to make decisions in the best interests of their particular charity, and when there are hard choices to be made between here-and-now benefits for their cause, and the less tangible benefits of alignment with sectoral best practice, sometimes the pressures of the here-and-now win out. Trustees will often need to look to reputational risks to feel comfortable about tipping the balance in favour of progressive best practice.
That’s where a clear position from sectoral bodies can make a big difference, and why today’s launch of the Institute of Fundraising's toolkit is so important. It sends a clear message to charities that the climate and nature emergency is something of direct relevance to every charity, and that every charity has the power to make a positive contribution to the changes that need to happen.