This article is directed straight at charities, volunteer organisations and CICs. I am going to be as strong as I can be, because this needs to be heard. You’re now in charge.
Something changed in when the Procurement Act 2023 came into force last year, and most charities still haven’t noticed.
The Procurement Act 2023 made Social Value a legal requirement. Not a suggestion. Not a nice-to-have buried in paragraph fourteen of a tender document. A requirement. Companies bidding for public contracts must now demonstrate measurable community benefit. They must evidence it, report it, and deliver it across the full life of the contract.
This now means that businesses can’t do public contracts without You.
For a long time, the relationship between charities and businesses ran in one direction. Companies decided if and when they wanted to give. Charities waited, applied, hoped, and were grateful when something arrived. The power sat entirely on one side of the table. That table has been flipped. A company bidding for a public contract now needs Social Value the way it needs quantity surveyors or legal advice. It is not optional. It is not decorative. It is a scored, weighted, legally required component of whether they win the work. And Social Value, done properly, is delivered through partnerships with organisations that are embedded in communities, trusted by the people they serve, and capable of producing outcomes a procurement officer can point to.
That is you.
Not as a charity. As a supplier.
Charities are now suppliers
The companies that understand this are already looking for partners. They need organisations that know what a TOMS is, that can evidence outcomes, that can translate what they do into the language of a tender. They need charities that walk into the room like suppliers, not beggars. Most charities are not walking in like that yet. They are still writing newsletters. Still running fundraising events. Still treating every pound of income as something to be grateful for rather than something to be earned.
The ones that shift this mindset first will not be short of funding.
Don’t abandon what makes you awesome – turn it into a product
This is not about abandoning your mission. It is about funding it differently.
The Donkey Sanctuary that learns to articulate its community impact in the language of a TOMS framework is not selling out. It is still feeding donkeys. It is just doing it with a contract that renews rather than a collection tin that empties. The youth charity that builds a Social Value product around its employment programmes is not becoming a corporation. It is becoming sustainable. It is charging properly for something that companies are now legally required to buy.
The difference between begging and trading is not what you do. It is how you present it, price it, and position it. There are 120 local authorities in the UK. Each of them is overseeing contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Every one of those contracts now requires Social Value. Every company winning those contracts needs a community partner who can deliver it and evidence it properly. That market exists right now. Most charities are not in it yet. The Procurement Act did not create a problem for charities. It created a seat at the table that was never there before.
The only question is whether you pull up a chair.
