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Supporting Scotland's vibrant voluntary sector

Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

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 Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh EH3 6BB.

Fair funding & procurement

Poor funding and poor procurement approaches risk our sector’s contribution and ability to deliver vital services for people and communities across Scotland.    

Our sector urgently needs Fair Funding and streamlined procurement processes to support the essential work of voluntary organisations and their staff and volunteers.  

Current areas of focus

We champion a long-term, flexible, sustainable, and accessible approach to funding and procurement calling for consistent approaches and processes, unrestricted funding, transparency, and investment in the sector that keeps pace with inflation and supports Fair Work and at least the Living Wage.   

Our Fair Funding calls are central to a sustainable voluntary sector in Scotland. We want the Scottish Government’s commitment to Fairer Funding by 2026 to include as many of those calls as possible. 

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Our sector employs 135,000 people across Scotland and and is support by 1.2 million volunteers. Fair Work for this workforce is an SCVO priority. We are calling for voluntary organisations to be supported and resourced to be Fair Work employers. 

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SCVO is dedicated to creating a fair and sustainable operating environment for Scotland’s voluntary organisations. We engage annually with budget processes to call for meaningful progress to realise these ambitions and respond to announcements that will impact our sector. 

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Inflationary pressures impact both the voluntary sector and the communities the sector works with. We collect evidence and share actions that can create the funding security essential for a sustainable voluntary sector which can survive the running costs crisis, support people through the cost-of-living crisis, offer Fair Work, support volunteers, and deliver quality outcomes.

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We work with partners across sectors and monitor the design and delivery of new public funds, like Levelling Up, to ensure that voluntary organisations in Scotland not only sustain current funding levels but also access expanded funding opportunities. 

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Scotland’s procurement system should support and enhance the financial health of voluntary organisations and the essential services they provide. We work with colleagues across the sector to call for more equitable, effective, and flexible procurement processes that encourage participation of voluntary organisations of all sizes through straight forward, streamlined approaches that support Fair Work and quality outcomes. 

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Funding Transparency is essential for understanding funding flows to the voluntary sector and supporting voluntary organisations and others to assess the impact of spending decisions on both the sector and the people and communities our sector works with.  We are calling for significant improvements to fiscal data to support voluntary organisations and others to understand how well public money is spent.

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Contact the team

Jason Henderson

Fair Funding

Rachel Le Noan

Public funds

David Livey

Procurement

Sheghley Ogilvie

Scottish and UK Budgets, Transparent funding, Fair Work, Running costs crisis

Latest briefings & policy papers

The latest Fair Funding & procurement briefings, policy papers, and consultation responses from the policy team.

Progress & latest developments

We work with colleagues across the voluntary sector, in government and across parliament, and with other decision-makers, to share the impact of funding and procurement systems and decisions on voluntary organisations, their staff, volunteers, and the services and support organisations offer. We share the funding and procurement solutions needed to support a sustainable voluntary sector. Our Fair Funding work is central to these solutions. 

  • We want to ensure that the Scottish Government’s Fairer Funding principles align with SCVO’s definition of Fair Funding – developed through significant research and engagement with the voluntary sector. 
  • We’re pushing the Scottish Government to ensure voluntary organisations in Scotland benefit from the full Barnett consequentials of additional support the UK Government provides to charities and communities in England. 
  • We continue to explain the need for annual inflation-based uplifts for public grant funding and the need for recognition of the impact of rising inflation on voluntary organisations, their staff, and their volunteers.  
  • We are calling for more financial transparency asking the Scottish Government to adopt a comprehensive approach to financial openness, including within budget lines and grant funding across all directorates. 

Perfect storm could see voluntary groups shut - SCVO's Paul Bradley highlights the data from our Third Sector tracker and the worrying picture it paints for Scotland's voluntary sector in the coming months

https://youtu.be/Jf3BCU0Dq9M

Get involved

Collaborate with us and our members to develop and promote voluntary sector policy perspectives for Scotland