How has the pandemic affected sector funding? You tell us!

We’re examining the current funding landscape for voluntary organisations in Wales. Alison Pritchard, Sustainable Funding Manager at WCVA, explains why this work is so important and how you can help us build this picture.

Funding and income are always key issues for voluntary organisations, even more so since the pandemic hit in 2020 and many sources of income dried up. WCVA, Richard Newton Consulting and the Chartered Institute of Fundraising want to know what the picture of voluntary sector income in Wales looks like now.

DIVERSIFYING INCOME STREAMS

Through our Sustainable Funding pillar of work, WCVA and its Third Sector Support Wales (TSSW) partners (the 19 County Voluntary Councils) provide voluntary organisations in Wales with support around funding and fundraising.

For several years now, a particular focus of this work has been around encouraging voluntary organisations to diversify their income streams to improve their sustainability and resilience. The more diverse our income sources, the less we experience the negative impact of losing one. For example, when a contract comes to an end and isn’t renewed.

GETTING MORE DATA ON THE SECTOR’S INCOME

To keep supporting the sector effectively, TSSW and other key sector stakeholders such as the Welsh Government, need to have a clear picture of how diverse the sector’s income is.

WCVA’s Third Sector Data Hub is a valuable resource here but only provides part of the picture. The available data is from registered charities only and from the 2017/18 financial year. We know that there are approximately 6,000 registered charities in Wales.

When you consider that the voluntary sector in Wales is made up of over 48,000 organisations in total, you can see that that’s quite a large gap in the picture of voluntary income in Wales.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

In order to fill in those gaps and get a more accurate picture of how the pandemic has affected our ability to generate income, WCVA has partnered with Richard Newton Consulting and the Chartered Institute of Fundraising to run a survey on income in Wales.

By completing this survey, you’ll be helping WCVA, other support bodies and stakeholders such as the Welsh Government to:

• Develop and produce relevant guidance, resources and training on income generation activities that will help you diversify your income
• Advocate effectively on behalf of all voluntary organisations in Wales on issues that impact sustainability, such as commissioning and the use of dormant accounts
• Provide you with up-to-date information and insights about which income generating activities are being under-utilised, helping you make informed and strategic decisions about your own income generation

 WHAT TO DO

Completing the survey will be easiest if you have your financial information for your financial year ending in 2020 to hand. We recognise that these accounts may have been affected by the Coronavirus pandemic but as we are intending for this survey to be repeated over time, please use actual figures rather than making any adjustments for income variations as a result of the pandemic.

The more organisations that complete this survey, the better the resulting information will be for us all to make use of.

Take the survey here: http://ow.ly/9EBa50ES5eK 

As part of this piece of work, Richard Newton Consulting will also be carrying our interviews and focus groups to gain more detailed insights to complement the data collected in the survey. Look out for an open focus group being held as part of gofod3.

If you want to get in touch with us about this project, please drop us an email on sharon@richard-newton.co.uk.

Closing date 21 June 2021