Wave five findings — Winter 2022

The infographic summary, summary report and data tables for the fifth wave of The Scottish Third Sector Tracker are available here.

Key Findings — Summary report

The wave 5 summary report is available here

The findings from wave five of the Scottish Third Sector Tracker suggested that third sector organisations were operating in an increasingly difficult environment. Organisations were facing rising costs/inflation, staff and volunteer issues and shortages and financial pressures, all of which made it difficult to run a sustainable organisation and provide adequate support to the people and communities they serve. Many organisations were doing their level best to continue to support their staff through a time of reduced income and increased demand.

Key Findings — Infographic summary

Financial pressures continued to dominate the Scottish third sector landscape. December saw an increase in organisations reporting lower turnover, with those reporting lower turnover also increasingly pessimistic about how long this will last.

Rising costs remained a prevalent issue for third sector organisations, with all bar a small minority seeing their costs rise. This had affected the ability of almost half of all organisations to deliver their core services or activities.

The proportion of organisations falling back on their financial reserves had steadily increased throughout 2022, with over a third having accessed these reserves between August and December.

Challenges regarding staffing and volunteer numbers remained a key concern for the majority of organisations.

The infographic summary is available now.

Data tables

These tables present the in-depth findings from the fifth wave of the Scottish Third Sector Tracker.

The percentages are based on the weighted figure, not the raw totals.

The tables are available now.