The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations is the membership organisation for Scotland's charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. Charity registered in Scotland SC003558. Registered office Caledonian Exchange, 19A Canning Street, Edinburgh EH3 8EG.
Tackling the climate emergency
Right now, funding practices often feel like a yearly game of “Will We, Won’t We?” — except the stakes are people’s jobs, community trust, and the momentum of local climate solutions. Short‑term grants and late decisions create stop‑start cycles that drain energy and force groups to spend more time refreshing inboxes than refreshing their communities - myself included!
Fair Funding offers something radical: the ability to plan ahead without needing psychic powers. Multi‑year, inflation‑linked, trust‑based funding would let organisations like ours build long‑term capacity, retain skilled staff, and support communities with the consistency they deserve. It would turn the sector’s default mode from “scramble” to “strategic”.
Without improvements, the future looks worryingly familiar. Brilliant projects will continue — because communities are stubbornly hopeful — but they’ll be held back by uncertainty. Innovation will shrink. Burnout will grow. And Scotland will risk missing the full potential of its grassroots climate movement.
SCVO’s Fair Funding work aligns closely with SCCAN’s own calls for sustained investment in community infrastructure, reduced bureaucracy, and a shift toward partnership rather than procurement. We don’t need more hoops; we need more trust.
Ultimately, what matters to us is simple: Scotland cannot deliver a just transition on short‑term funding cycles. Fair Funding isn’t just a technical fix — it’s the foundation for a future where communities can lead climate action with confidence, creativity, and maybe even a little less caffeine.
[Fair Funding would ensure] better planning, better partnerships
Like most of us, the Scottish Government undoubtedly recognises the urgent, human-driven emergency that the world now faces. The climate crisis is causing catastrophic weather extremes, melting ice caps, biodiversity loss, and significant risks to human health, food security, and economic stability worldwide. It is a crisis that we should all strive to combat, and it has been encouraging to note that the Scottish Government has both highlighted doing so as one of its key priorities and taken forward work in this area through, for example, the Climate Change Plan (CCP).
Whether it is playing a role in directly fighting the climate crisis by bridging the gap between national policy and local action, or helping to alleviate the social issues linked to climate action, such as poverty reduction, health improvement, and inequality, Scotland’s voluntary sector is at the forefront of work to avoid climate catastrophe and reduce the damage from the climate-related impacts we are already experiencing. It is this aspect that is crucially important to the Scottish Government’s approach to tackling both climate change and the impacts of climate change. The sector’s input is crucial. But it has to be a sustainable sector in order to ensure that input.
“Confirmation of funding often comes late in the year, which can be stressful,” says an organisation connecting culture and climate change. “This is largely because [the] Scottish Government doesn’t confirm its support of our core funding until later in the year. The Government [also] tends to provide funding which has to be spent before 31st March. These projects are too short and waste money.”
“The inconsistency and lack of confidence [in] funding is now starting to really affect our organisations,” admits a national environmental charity. “Managers leading on grant bids face the constant stress and anxiety of managing current operational delivery set against a more erratic funding environment.”
“The turnover of staff is both exhausting and disruptive,” confirms an organisation focused on environmental improvements. “[There needs to be] an acknowledgement that inflationary uplifts need to be made to ensure that voluntary sector organisations are able to maintain good staff on good quality contracts.”
The climate crisis requires immediate action. Only by ensuring those organisations who directly support climate action, and those that provide the services to mitigate, and prevent, the impact of climate change, are sustainable, will we be able to create the best possible conditions to ensure that the planet itself is sustainable for future generations. Fair Funding is crucial to this objective.
“[Fair Funding would ensure] better planning, better partnerships,” says the culture and climate change organisation. “More confidence about the future leading to better work.”
“Fair Funding will enable organisations to plan effectively, develop staff, help managers and trustees move away from constant firefighting,” explains the national environmental charity. “Organisations will be able to engage more effectively in policy making and providing stability of staffing to stakeholders and clients.”
And as outlined by the national network of climate focused organisations: “Service levels would increase, staff morale and retention would increase – overall, [it would mean] a better delivery of support to our network.”
Greener Kirkcaldy
Greener Kirkcaldy is a community-led charity and development trust working locally to bring people together, take positive action on the climate emergency, and support people through fuel poverty and food insecurity. Despite a clear focus on climate action, the organisation’s work spans several additional areas, including social justice, community development, and volunteering.
Over the past fifteen years, the organisation has deliberately built a diverse funding portfolio and developed strong relationships with funders, partners, and networks. This approach has enabled Greener Kirkcaldy to grow, build resilience and respond to changing community need. As a result, the organisation has extensive experience of funding practice, including many examples of positive and supportive funding relationships, as well as some of the challenges facing the sector.
The organisation is fortunate enough to receive some multi-year grants. These have provided valuable stability and enabled longer-term planning and investment in staff and services. However, the lack of inflationary uplifts within many grants remains a concern, particularly as costs continue to rise. Delays in funding decisions and the release of funding can also create uncertainty and place unnecessary pressure on staff and services.
Greener Kirkcaldy has also found that securing funding for core organisational costs remains difficult, despite these costs being essential to delivering effective projects and services. Funders often look to support new, short-term projects while the infrastructure, staff capacity and organisational development required to deliver those projects can be harder to fund. As the organisation has grown, it has become ineligible for some funding programmes designed for smaller charities. At the same time, there can be an assumption that larger organisations are financially secure, when in reality they remain heavily dependent on grant funding and face the same challenges around rising costs, core funding, and financial sustainability. In addition, the organisation is increasingly facing the challenge of grants being awarded at lower levels than requested, requiring them to repeatedly adapt plans and seek additional funding to fill gaps.
These challenges have clearly outlined that, despite those years of effort developing a varied funding portfolio, this has not eradicated the issues caused by the current funding landscape. Primarily, the capacity required to be frequently applying for funding is exhausting, directing crucial time and resources away from the work the organisation exists to carry out. And right across the climate action sector, there is an increasing belief that funders are losing interest in funding the kinds of projects needed to specifically tackle the climate emergency.
Despite this, Greener Kirkcaldy has experienced many examples of positive funding practices. Flexible, multi-year funding has enabled the organisation to plan ahead, invest in staff, and respond to changing community need. Some funders, both independent and statutory, have proactively engaged with the impact of rising costs, offering opportunities to reprofile budgets and incorporate uplifts where possible, for example following the recent increases in employer national insurance contributions. And some networks, trusts, and foundations are recognising the need for unrestricted, core funding streams, with some even creating funds to develop organisational resilience. These examples demonstrate that Fair Funding approaches are both achievable and beneficial for funders, organisations, and communities alike.
But in reality, these welcome snapshots of positive practice are simply not enough. Greener Kirkcaldy is now forced to approach all of its activities with a reluctant understanding that funding, and the barriers imposed by the current funding landscape, are likely to only worsen in the coming years. Greener Kirkcaldy has worked hard to build financial resilience through diversified income streams, strong partnerships, and forward-thinking financial management, including maintaining healthy reserves. These measures help the organisation absorb some of the pressures created by delayed decision-making, funding uncertainty, and rising costs. However, it is far from a sustainable position and capacity restraints make it difficult to balance funding and diversifying income. Ongoing funding uncertainty increases the risk that even well-established organisations across the sector will need to reduce services and staffing levels in order to remain sustainable.
Fair Funding approaches, including multi-year funding, inflationary uplifts, timely decision-making, and greater support for core costs, would enable organisations like Greener Kirkcaldy to spend less time navigating funding challenges and more time tackling urgent issues such as climate change, poverty, and delivering lasting benefits for communities.