To hear the news of yet another infrastructure body on the verge of closure due to a lack of funding is deeply concerning, and particularly so when the cause that the Inter Faith Network has served for so many years is clearly more needed than ever.
At a time when tensions around faith are heightened on the global stage it would be deeply saddening to see the work of the IFN come to such a sudden and untimely end.
Funders of all types have the right to make decisions about where they put their funding and the conditions they might attach. But those conditions must be clear and transparent from the start and funding commitments once made should be honoured, other than in the light of specific and immediate concerns arising from appropriate due diligence.
This should be particularly so in relation to government or other public sector funding, and equally so where those conditions relate to the governance and leadership of grantee organisations, regardless of the source of funding.
Without transparency there can be no debate around the reasoning behind the conditions attached, nor can trustee boards make effective decisions about the governance risks attached to specific funding applications.
