Goodbye stellar returns, hello to beans on toast

By Craig Dearden-Phillips , Third Sector, 1 October 2008

A solemn chief executive is told by her nervous bank manager that she can't have further funds. Hurried talks take place with a rival about a shotgun merger. She draws up a long list of immediate redundancies. All new projects are on ice to retain cash. Insolvency seems to beckon.

This is not Canary Wharf in 2008, but a third sector organisation in the UK in late 2010 - possibly yours. If you think this sounds fanciful, think again, because your charity, like most, was built up during the good times. Donations flowed in from comfortable citizens; property left in...