Resilience can only take the sector so far

The latest wave of the Scottish third sector tracker suggests that, while much has changed over the past year, one thing has remained remarkably consistent: voluntary organisations continue to do more with less.

Across Scotland, charities and voluntary groups are adapting to rising costs, growing demand, and ongoing funding uncertainty. They are finding new ways to deliver services, support communities through increasingly complex challenges and continue to look ahead with optimism. But the latest findings also raise an important question: how much longer can resilience fill the gaps left by an increasingly difficult operating environment?

Almost every organisation (97%) reported facing challenges over the last six months. Fundraising is the most commonly reported issue, alongside rising costs, volunteer shortages, and financial uncertainty. None of these are new. What is striking is how perennial an issue they have become.

Yet, despite this, organisations continue to deliver. Nearly three-quarters reported delivering everything, or most, of what they had planned over the previous six months, and almost one in three expect to expand their services over the coming year. This reflects a sector that is determined to keep responding to community need, even as the pressures continue to mount.

The Tracker also shows how organisations are making that possible. Many are applying for more funding, developing new income streams, and drawing on financial reserves. Those reserves are no longer simply there for emergencies—they are helping to keep services running, retain staff and bridge funding gaps. At the same time, almost a quarter of organisations have postponed or cancelled planned work, highlighting the difficult choices organisations are now having to make.

People remain central to these challenges. Recruiting volunteers continues to be harder than recruiting paid staff, with organisations reporting fewer people coming forward and less capacity to support them. Recruiting paid staff also remains difficult, particularly where organisations cannot compete with salaries and benefits available in the public sector.

This wave also explored procurement for the first time, and the findings suggest that current systems are failing to work for much of the sector. Only one in ten organisations described applying for contracts as easy. Instead, organisations spoke about complex processes, limited internal capacity and systems that appear designed with larger organisations in mind, leaving smaller and volunteer-led groups feeling excluded altogether.

Alongside these challenges sits a changing social and political landscape. One-third of organisations reported experiencing challenges linked to wider societal change, from increasing demand and financial pressures to poor relationships with public bodies and growing social division within communities.

The clearest message from this wave is that organisations are not asking for more initiatives or short-term projects. They are asking for the conditions that allow them to plan, invest, and deliver effectively: sustainable, multi-year funding, meaningful engagement with decision-makers, fairer access to opportunities and practical support that strengthens organisational capacity.

The voluntary sector has demonstrated extraordinary resilience over recent years. But resilience is not an unlimited resource. If organisations are to continue supporting Scotland's communities, they need an operating environment that aligns with their needs. This latest wave of the Tracker suggests that supporting the sector's long-term sustainability is no longer desirable — it is essential.

Read Wave 12 of the Scottish Third Sector Tracker now.