The road ahead
The operating environment for
the voluntary sector
Newham funding summit 2012
Karl Wilding
NCVO Policy & Research | September 2012
www.ncvo-vol.org.uk
1
The wider context
Demographic and economic
trends
• Multiple disadvantage
• Shift in the spatial distribution
of disadvantage
• Further polarisation and
gentrification, and decreasing
social mix
• Increasing needs and demand
for services in the context of
public spending cuts
VCS and volunteering trends
• Funding squeeze – especially
driven by reductions in
government expenditure
• Lack of resilience for
organisations that lose
contracts or funding
• Rising demand for services
due to on-going economic
downturn
• Wider social issues for charity
clients and beneficiaries –
poverty, access to benefits,
housing, and legal advice
% of charities that had been affected by
the economic downturn, 2008-2010
http://data.ncvo-vol.org.uk/a12q23
Source: Charity Commission
The income spectrum
Donor
Funder
Purchaser
Consumer
Gift
Economy
Grant
Funding
Contracts
Open Market
ASKING
EARNING
The proportion of adults giving to charity and the total
annual amount donated, inflation adjusted, 2004/05 –
2010/11 (£ billions, %)
http://data.ncvo-
Source: NCVO/ CAF
Changing attitudes: what is the voluntary
sector for in Squeezed Britain?
The impact of spending cuts
Estimated change in government spending on the voluntary sector 2010/11 - 2015/16
(£ millions, 2010/11 prices)
http://data.ncvo-vol.org.uk/a12q34
Source: NCVO estimates
based on Office for Budget
Responsibility (2011) tables
Grant and contract income from statutory
sources, 2000/01 – 2009/10 (£ billions)
http://data.ncvo-vol.org.uk/a12q33
Source: NCVO/TSRC, Charity
Commission
Who gets state funding?
Proportion of total income from state funding,
by size (%)
Get state
funding?
% of
income
from state
Micro
8%
5%
Small
38%
21%
Medium
56%
35%
Large
69%
38%
Major
76%
41%
Total
25%
38%
http://data.ncvo-vol.org.uk/a12q33
Source: NCVO/TSRC, Charity
Commission
What can you do about it?
• You MUST be able to tell your story – and why you
are effective
• write better, not more, grant applications;
• think about income diversification (and its limits);
• think more about matching income type to beneficiary
class;
• and address the knotty issue of charging
• (and for us in NCVO etc: advocacy on behalf of
communities and make sure we get the story right)
10
Hidden assets and resources
What is resource-raising?
“the practice of raising
the
resources a charity needs
to
deliver its activities
through a mix
of financial and in-kind
support.”
Strategic resourceraising
organisations are those
which
proactively decide which
resources they need to
raise
(from Beaumont C., From Fundraising to Resource-raising’ 2011)
Money is important but…
…it is only one piece of the
puzzle
http://www.collaborate.so/
The Militant Optimists