South West Foundation

Poor Communication between Funders and the VCS: Funders need to be good communicators

Footprint 2 Real Division between what funders want to fund and what,any funders decided that they would like to fund The main issue for our organisation is the unwillingness of funders to provide core funding The benefits of organisations having their core costs covered is immense

Footprint 3: the Contract Culture Many VCS organisations are well placed to deliver services in a sensitive manner that is needs led because of their relationship with the communities in which they work-this is at odds with the requirements placed on the sector by contractors and purchasers

FOOTPRINT 4: THE Future of small Voluntary and Community Organisations is under threat Smaller organisations will die out- It worries me. There is a big role for them. You need so much in place to meet funders requirements

Footprint 5: lack of investment in Funding Advice, Capacity Building and Development Support One way of minimising the damage that funders’ footprints cause is to ensure that the Voluntary and Community Sector has good access to funding advice, capacity building and Community Development input

2006  51% of the Voluntary and Community Sector reported difficulties in accessing the help that they needed 2015  66% of the Sector said they received no help at all. A further 29% said they could access some help but not all the help they needed said they had difficulty in accessing all the help that they needed. (source: South West Foundation : Report to be published 2015)

 Increase access to appropriate support- especially for smaller organisations  Improve the dialogue between funders and the sector  Look to fund core costs ( a forlorn hope but one of the most essential moves to enable the sector to deliver successfully)  We still have all the same issues as in 2006 but access to appropriate support has seriously diminished

South West Foundation