Editorial: Can scrutiny of performance come through an accreditation process?

By Stephen Cook, Third Sector, 12 December 2007

Giving money to charity can be - to put it rather crudely - a bit like buying a used car: you can see what it looks like and listen to the salesman's patter, but you've no way of really knowing what's going on under the bonnet.

This is the problem Martin Brookes of New Philanthropy Capital was addressing when he proposed recently that a new organisation should be set up to scrutinise - and thereby help to improve - the performance of charities. They receive £9bn a year in donations and £1.3bn in tax benefits, he...