London Regional ICT Champion

What should have been an important chance for the non-profit sector to influence the local agenda and how Capacity Builders prioritises its meagre resources instead became an exercise in apathy.

Earlier this week we were at a major Capacity Builders’ consultation event in a south London borough  – to facilitate the ICT strand – and were met with the sight of rows of empty chairs a grand meeting room echoing to the sound of apathy.  Over 50 organisations had committed to attend, but around 20 actually turned up, their ranks swelled by event organisers, liggers and facilitators.

The few hardy souls who turned out made a reasonable attempt to look consulted before engaging with a buffet intended for three times as many people.  We witnessed one old boy make 6 visits to the buffet before he retired with a glazed look of satisfaction. Who said there’s no such thing as a free lunch, these days?

So what is it with the non-profit sector:

Does the ChangeUp/Capacity Builders agenda leave non-profits disaffected and why?

Are non-profits tired of  consultation, however meaningful it might be?

Or was it just a nice day and people fancied doing something else?

Either way, the irony of an apathetic non-profit sector in a hall dedicated to the memeory of Ernest Benn (uncle of Tony) – a tireless worker for the “good of others” according to the plaque on the wall – was not lost.

Ernest Benn is famously quoted for defining politics as “the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”

And in an almost empty hall, what better metaphor could there be for the Capacity Builders project?