South West Forum’s timely report mixing useful case studies with grim tidings on how cuts are already muffling the voices that influence decision makers (see previous blog post and here) was welcomed at a meeting at Bath Spa University last week of funders and others who support voluntary sector organisations in the region.
A number of funders have been doing their own surveys into how the cuts are beginning to bite, and sounded gloomy – the representative of one national funder said that the cutbacks in funding advisers and support were really beginning to show.
And while some local authorities are still good supporters of voluntary organisations, cuts of 50% are by no means unusual. It’s not just the headline cuts that matter – hidden costs, such as loss of peppercorn rents are also having a pernicious effect. Despite this, funders do not seem to be experiencing an explosion of applications, which in itself could be a sign of decline. As one put it, there is a sense of a fatalistic mindset in the sector.
One of the most interesting and useful contributions came from The Cranfield Trust, which gives free (and very high quality) management support to voluntary organisations. Their experience suggests that too many organisations are not good at cashflow forecasting, for example. Bad news in good times, disastrous when managing reducing budgets and falling reserves. And parochialism remains a sad fact of life, with organisations having little knowledge of related groups that might make good partners.
The Cranfield Trust has more volunteers than organisations to advise in the South West just now, (maybe the Big Society lives after all!) so if you want some free management advice from a skilled manager from the commercial sector - and 80% of volunteers remain with their clients after the formal advice has been given, so perhaps you’ll make a longer term friend – have a look at the website: http://www.cranfieldtrust.org/.
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