ACF responds to Civil Society Commission
21 May 2021
The Law Family Commission on Civil Society was launched last year to look at how to harness and enhance the powerful community bonds that exist in the UK. The Commission was set up by Pro Bono Economics with the support of Andrew Law and the Law Family Charitable Foundation.
As part of the Commission’s work, they put out a call for evidence in March 2021 asking for ideas as to how the potential of civil society can be unleashed. We’ve just put in our response.
Our response looks at:
- How charities are under pressure – both financially (with public sector funding cuts and then the Covid crisis over the past year) and also in terms of showing relevance to the broad range of the public
- How Covid has seen new forms of organising, mutual aid and volunteering develop
- How foundations are dealing with increased responsibility as other sources of funding for charities and civil society come under pressure – and how ACF is helping foundations through our Stronger Foundations programme and supporting collaboration through the Funders’ Collaborative Hub, as well as encouraging conversations about how foundations as a whole respond to the major challenges of the 21st century
- The challenges for civil society in working with government, including the need for social infrastructure to be at the heart of “levelling up” alongside physical infrastructure
We’ve also suggested that the Commission needs to look at how civil society can improve on its diversity, equity and inclusion; and the need for civil society to catch up on the implications of climate change for its work.
Read ACF's response to the Civil Society Commission.