Member News
MP and fundraiser Angela Smith was guest of honour at last week’s DODS Charity Champions Awards 2009, which celebrate the contributions made by parliamentarians to charities.
Speaking to ePolitix.com at the event, the minister for the third sector praised the charity work of those nominated for the variety of causes they support.
“These are nominated by charities in the voluntary sector and voted on by your parliamentary peers,” she said.
“So that’s a pretty high threshold you have to get over.”
As well as acknowledging those who have made valuable contributions, the evening was also one of championing the charities themselves.
“One of the things I don’t think we ever do properly is capture the diversity of the sector,” said Smith.
“You’ve got the small organisations, which might be one or two people working in somebody’s kitchen or spare room, to huge organisations that are national and international and based in the UK.”
Smith also talked about the important work that volunteers and charities do and how this is now suffering from all kinds of “pressure” triggered by the economic downturn.
“But there’s also a greater demand on services, particularly those organisations that offer advice and support services,” Smith said.
“They are finding more people need their advice and help and support.”
Despite there being a strain on financial resources, Smith said that charities are also struggling to provide training for the recent rise in volunteers the sector has experienced.
“There are more people that want to volunteer, but finding skills and filling vacancies of volunteering can be difficult as well. There are a lot of pressures.
“There’s a Chinese saying, ‘There are no problems in life; there are challenges and opportunities’.
“I think the sector has those in abundance at the moment.”
Smith has long been a member of the League Against Cruel Sports and was a lead campaigner against hunting with hounds.
She has previously won a DODS Charity Champion Award for her work on animal welfare.
A patron of a number of local charities in her constituency of Basildon, Smith has undertaken many challenges in the name of charity fundraising.
One of the hardest challenges for her was listening to Des O’Connor records for a period of 24 hours. She managed to raise thousands of pounds as a result, but side effects included humming his songs long after, which she admitted was a downpoint.
“I have worked in the sector; I’ve been a financier, I’ve been a trustee, and if you talk to people here tonight you’ll find that they’ve all been involved in different ways.
“We talk about it as the third sector, but I think I quite like to see it as the first sector really.”
Looking at the future of the “first sector”, Smith is reluctant to say that services provided by charities will replace those in the private sector. She is keen however, to tell us of the changes that are happening already.
“I think the public don’t want business as usual, they want business with a heart as well as a pound sign nowadays. So I think we’re going to see growth in social enterprise, I think we’re going to see charities and voluntary organisations doing more.
“What we can’t ever do is use that as an excuse to see charities and voluntary organisations doing services on the cheap.
“What we should use them for is for innovation… the excitement, the development of services. We’re going to see public sector and third sector working together and we’re going to see them soar.”
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