London Regional ICT Champion

According to the 2008 NCVO Almanac third sector income received from government was £10.5 billion in 2005/06.

Tracking where the money went is one thing, but where does it come from and does it join-up, if at all?  My colleague Andrew Samuel coined ‘joined-up-ness’ – it should be in the Urban Dictionary, but isn’t  – to describe how statutory funds

The NCVO Almanac does an admirable job of ploughing through the Charity Commission’s Guidestar database to come up with some interesting stats:

• for the first time more than half of charities income is derived from earned income – this highlights the importance of income generating activities;
• Over half of all charities receive no income from statutory sources;
• Over half of the largest charities receive little or no statutory income;
• One third of charities are heavily reliant on statutory funding;
• Local government provides about 50% of income from statutory funding – highlighting the importance of local partnerships and compacts;
• Grant income from government has remained static for 5 years – which suggests that funders are channeling funds through contracts rather than grants;

Bear in mind these figures are from 2005/06 – so the economic downturn and significant funding cuts delivered by the Arts Council, Sport England, and the £700m budget hit the Big Lottery is taking on behalf of the 2012 Olympics is yet to show up in the almanac.

The Office for the Third Sector (OTS), DCLG and other government departments are not slow in churning out news trumpeting the latest government funding initiatives, a favourite tactic being to re-announce funding and call it ‘new’.  There’s also the official parliamentary record, Hansard and They Work for You, as well as resources like the Directory of Social Change, FunderFinder, Government Funding and Grantfinder that enable charities to keep on top of funding streams.

But the real problem is trying to show how statutory funding joins up in a clear and concise way that fund-raisers can get to grips with.  For example, the OTS recently announced £42.5 million of funds to help the third sector tackle the economic downturn and unemployment.  Of the recently announced £42.5million the “new” (some of it is re-packaged) funding is split:

• £10million for jobseeker volunteering in the third sector delivered by Dept for Work and Pensions
• £15.5million community resilience scheme delivered through Grassroots Grants
• £16.5million modernisation fund to help organisations restructure and merge – some of this is through Capacitybuilders
• £0.5million investment in the School for Social Entrepreneurs
• £1m refocused spend by Capacity Builders to help charities with the economic downturn

But nowhere does it say how this £42.5M relates to other statutory funding. The best available grants map appears at Grants Online, but it doesn’t include some OTS, DCLG or Capacity Builders and you’ll have to subscribe to get the most recent version.

If anyone out there knows where to get hold of a map of Third Sector funding and how it relates to the rest of statutory funding, let us know, we’d love to know.

Tags: Funding