There is a business phrase that people often like to use - what gets measured gets managed. But increasingly, I am becoming more pessimistic about this idea - as in reality, it seems that what gets funded, gets managed.

This week brought the news that campaign group, Make My Money Matter, would be closing its doors as a result of recent funding challenges.

The group has shared various landmark reports since its launch in 2020, including its first report, which revealed, for the first time, how pension providers rank in terms of their efforts to combat climate change, whilst further updates have looked to hold the industry accountable on its progress.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the group has struggled to maintain funding, as MMMM co-founder, Richard Curtis, and CEO, Tony Burdon, admitted that "getting funding for campaigning is always hard".

This is especially true of an organisation such as Make My Money Matter, which are likely to share messages at times that may not serve the interests of those funding it.

Burdon and Curtis suggested that "the basic argument has always been the same: money makes the world go round – but it also has the potential to destroy it".

But this is clearly no longer enough to convince organisations to foot the bill, as the group confirmed that it is now closing its doors - in what seems likely to be a blow to efforts to ensure that pensions are on the right side of climate change efforts.

This is particularly concerning given broader trends in this area, as recent research from Pensions for Purpose found that nearly all (93 per cent) UK and European institutional investors, including pension funds, have expressed significant unease over the future of sustainability practices under a Trump presidency, while the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative has already announced that it will be suspending activities to track signatory implementation and reporting.

And this is not the only industry group struggling to gain funding that is so desperately needed.

The Pensions Scams Industry Group (PSIG) recently held a consultation on the future of the organisation, after its chair, Margaret Snowdon OBE, said that the group was ultimately unsustainable in its current form and, without a basic infrastructure, the burden on its volunteers was “considerable”.

Funding was a key area of disappointment for the group, as the consultation found that the industry is not yet ready to fund the group's work, despite calling for more work from it at the same time.

And this may not prove sustainable for long, as, in a recent interview with Pensions Age, Snowdon said that while PSIG volunteers "all love doing what we do, but over time the costs of building and running a website and managing a community interest company are not sustainable without any income".

"We hated doing it, but we felt we needed to ask the industry to support us financially, hence the consultation – we needed to know if we were still relevant and test the water for industry funding," she said.

"It was great that the industry finds our work invaluable and really wants us to carry on and even do more, but funding will only be considered if we can set out what we offer and work out the value to industry organisations.

"We had a lot of suggestions, which we agreed we would look at, but we are challenged to both reinvent a commercial offering while still doing everything we currently do. We will review our position later this year.

Organisations such as PSIG are incredibly important, not just for the pensions industry, but also for the government, regulators and of course savers themselves. So hearing that many industry organisations are not ready to help fund this work is incredibly disappointing, especially given how vocal many of those same organisations are about the need to combat pension scam concerns.

After all, Pensions Age had no issue sourcing expert insight or comment throughout our year-long campaign on pension scams. In fact, most industry organisations were incredibly keen to be linked to the campaign in some way, eager to highlight their own resources and solutions being put in place to help

But real change won't be driven by individual organisations efforts, it requires cross-industry, and even cross-competitor, collaboration.

The pensions industry brands itself as one that is genuinely looking to do what is best for savers - but this can't just be shows of support on social media or the industry, it needs to be actionable change.

Snowdon, for instance, recently shared a number of posts about PSIG's latest petition, calling for fair tax treatment for pension and investment fraud victims.

But whilst her posts received much support, with hundreds of likes from industry professionals, it is disappointing comparing this to the petition itself and seeing how many of these same names appear (or don't appear) as signatories on the petition itself (trust me, I checked).

Rather than what gets measured gets managed, I think the industry should follow another well-known phrase - put your money where your mouth is.

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