Concluding remarks

Overall, our view is that the Scottish Government can and must do more to deliver fair funding, not only for voluntary sector intermediaries – as is covered by this case study – but for all voluntary organisations that rely on this crucial source of income. While voluntary organisations are undoubtedly grateful for the Scottish Government’s continued support and investment in sector infrastructure and in frontline services, it is impossible to ignore the annual cycle of challenges that voluntary organisations experience when applying to and receiving funding.

The interviews conducted as part of this case study of voluntary sector intermediaries provide crucial insights from senior voluntary sector leaders in their own irrefutable words. We know that the Scottish Government recognises the need for a vibrant voluntary sector. In its COVID Recovery Strategy, the government has noted its ‘commitment to working with partners…in the voluntary sector as part of an energetic national recovery endeavour.’ We need to see that energy applied to working with the voluntary sector to deliver fair funding across all funding, including in the funding voluntary organisations receive from non-departmental public bodies and via third-party organisations responsible for disseminating Scottish Government funds.

This paper outlines what a convincing response from the Scottish Government to the funding challenges faced by voluntary sector intermediaries would look like, and this reflects SCVO’s longstanding calls for fair funding across the voluntary sector. Fair funding for Scotland’s voluntary organisations means:

• longer-term funding models to ensure security and reduce wasted capacity
• unrestricted core funding to ensure the stability needed to plan ahead and to generate the capacity needed to seek out further funding
• funding practices that are sustainable – such as inflationary uplifts and full costs – to ensure that the sector too can be sustainable.
• streamlined and consistent approaches to accessing funding – such as with applications and reporting – to ensure a level playing field for all organisations.

We have every confidence that those calls can be achieved if all parties the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament give their urgent focus to working together with Scotland’s voluntary sector to find workable solutions. SCVO will continue to listen to the needs of voluntary organisations as we make the case at a national level for fair funding for the whole sector, for better supported voluntary sector infrastructure, and for national bodies to apply their energy to systematising good funding practice.