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.
Wave six findings - Spring 2023
The infographic summary, summary report and data tables for the sixth wave of The Scottish Third Sector Tracker are available here. Read our summary report of wave six of the tracker.
The findings from wave 6 suggested that more organisations were feeling the impact of rising costs, inflation, and other financial pressures. Core operating costs continued to rise with more organisations reporting a negative impact on their ability to deliver services. In addition, difficulty fundraising continued to be a perennial issue for around a third of organisations with over half applying for additional funding to combat rising costs. Funding delays and cuts, whilst not appearing to be prevalent, cause additional financial uncertainty for organisations.
Two-thirds of organisations wanted to see more funding made available to help with rising costs, with 40% wanting specific help with energy costs. This came after a quarter of organisations said that the practical and financial support available to help with rising costs was not very sufficient and an additional 15% said that it was not at all sufficient.
Financial reserves remained important to the survival of many third sector organisations, however, almost half of those organisations using reserves felt this use to be unsustainable. This wave also saw an increase in the number of organisations reporting that they had access to less than six months operating costs in their reserves.
Despite these financial pressures, 60% of organisations reported reducing the cost of their services or making them free to support the communities they serve as the rising cost of living continues to have a detrimental impact on peoples’ lives.
While financial pressures were prevalent, staffing and volunteer issues remained high too, with volunteer shortages the response option most frequently ranked as organisations number one challenge. Many organisations reported increasing the pay offered to new and existing staff and offering more flexible working conditions to attract and retain paid staff. In the face of these challenges, most organisations remained confident of their future survival, although the percentage of organisations that were very confident has dropped.
Almost all organisations recorded a rise in overheads again into April/May 2023, with energy and staffing costs leading this increase. Increasingly, these rising costs are thought to be having a detrimental impact on organisations’ ability to deliver their services.
Financial challenges remain the most common issue reported across the sector. In contrast, the increase in organisations reporting decreased turnover in December 2022 appears to have been reversed and accompanied by a notable jump in those recording an increased turnover in April/ May 2023. For those seeing increased turnover, grant and trading income has often underpinned this rise.
Financial reserves remained important to the survival of many third sector organisations. However, new data suggests almost half of those using their reserves felt this is unsustainable and more organisations reported that they have access to less than 6-months’ operating costs in their reserves.