£3m slashed from charities' funding in the past month | Friday 30th July 2010

£3m slashed from charities' funding in the past month

By Mathew Little, Third Sector, 29 Jun 2010

The voluntary sector has suffered public sector funding cuts of nearly £3m since the end of May, according to figures collected by the NCVO.

As the public spending squeeze begins, the umbrella body has assembled a table listing 579 organisations that have seen reductions in grants or contracts from statutory bodies.

The vast majority of the known cuts so far have been to 550 organisations funded by the Arts Council, which has slimmed down its budget by 0.5 per cent and made cuts affecting charities totalling £1.7m. The table shows these cuts represent less than 1 per cent of most organisations' income.

 But more drastic cuts have been reported by charities funded by other public bodies; 29 organisations have suffered cuts totalling £1.26m, including some that have lost 50 per cent of their annual income.

David Kane, research and development officer at the NCVO, said the affected organisations received funding from sources such as central and local government and the NHS.

 "The data shows that a lot of organisations are worried," he said. "A lot of them seem to talk about the future as being worrying. They are saying we have suffered a little cut now but we're expecting worse in the future."

A section on the NCVO website, Crowdsourcing the Cuts, asks charities to reveal how their statutory funding has been cut and what effects it will have on their long-term future and their service users.

The survey opened on 27 May, when the coalition government announced £6bn of spending cuts. Many organisations have added entries since last week's Budget.

The list comprises only organisations that have contacted the NCVO about their cuts or those identified by the umbrella body as suffering cuts.

- The table can be found at http://bit.ly/bI9esi.

EXAMPLES OF FUNDING LOSSES

Hull CVS lost £210,000 from the Future Jobs Fund.

Ealing CVS has lost funding worth £290,000 from the Local Area Agreement Reward Funding scheme.

Chelmsford Agency for Volunteering has lost £10,000 of its funding from councils in Essex and Chelmsford.