Voice 4 Change England: Sustaining Grants support

Supporting ‘Sustaining Grants’

Voice4Change England formally extends its support to National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA) in its call for the recognition of the grant funding as the most important mean of supporting and sustaining voluntary civic action.

Voice4Change England is a partnership of 18 national and regional Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Third Sector organisations, which aims to provide a co-ordinated voice for the BME Third Sector in England to influence government policies.

We welcome the thorough approach undertaken by NAVCA and other supportive third sector organisations to evidence the need for grants to local voluntary and community organisations. The pamphlet on Sustaining Grants produced by NAVCA clearly establishes that the grant funding relationship between local government and voluntary and community sector (VCS) is an integral part of the local funding mix. The pamphlet argues “that a good grant, well structured around locally owned outcomes, can be strategic and can help all parties focus on maximising social and community benefit”. Grant funding, the pamphlet explains, “allow organisations to work with the least advantaged in society from whom raising an income is next to impossible”. It is from this premise that Voice4Change England wishes to involve BME voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) to support NAVCA in its call for Sustaining Grants. We invite all BME VCOs to make use of the pamphlet to influence local government funding in their respective areas “to maintain and improve grant funding” and “to promote the benefits of an active voluntary and community sector”.

Voice4Change England’s mapping research ‘Bridge the Gap: What is known about the BME Third Sector in England’ has found that in all nine English regions, BME VCOs are struggling to understand the complexity of the funding mix. Grant funding has been gradually reduced and since most BME VCOs are small unregistered charities, often they rely on small grants to continue to support BME communities.

Awareness of the ‘added value’ that BME VCOs offer has to be raised with local government, because in its absence an unequal funding relationship persists resulting in reduced funding to these groups. We believe that it is due to the lack of evidence that there have been unsupported recommendations to make funding to single issue groups on an exceptional basis (Annex D, Our Shared Future Report, Commission for Integration and Cohesion, July 2007). There is a vital need to record and demonstrate evidence of the role of BME VCOs in bonding and bridging diverse communities.

Sustaining Grants captures the evidence by providing case studies of grant funded VCOs to underpin the importance of grant aid. These case studies are selected under 10 themes to include ‘Impact beyond scale”, ‘Making links with communities’, ‘Multiple wins from single intervention’, ‘Improving the quality of community life’, ‘Being strategic – helping to meet key local outcomes’ and ‘Gateway to local services’. NAVCA is inviting VCOs and umbrella bodies to add their own case studies under these themes to make this document dynamic and relevant for their local areas. Voice4Change England and its Partners will make use of this document to collect and demonstrate evidence of the added value that BME VCOs bring. It is also useful for BME VCOs of all types that receive grant funding to adapt the pamphlet for their local areas to influence and lobby local government funding to their advantage.

The Sustaining Grants pamphlet is available in both Word and PDF formats at NAVCA’s website: http://www.navca.org.uk/publications/sustaininggrants. Word format allows VCOs and umbrella bodies to add case studies to make the document relevant for local areas. We invite BME VCOs across England to download Sustaining Grants and adapt it for their respective local areas by adding case studies of local voluntary action supported by the BME VCS, funded by grant aid. In so doing, should the BME VCOs require assistance, Voice4Change England and our Regional BME Partner organisations would be happy to extend their support.

Voice4Change urges the government to make grant aid the most significant part of the funding mix to the voluntary and community sector. We support the policy recommendation presented by NAVCA that “the Office of the Third Sector (OTS) and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) should reflect on the combined impact of central government policy on the financial relationship between local government and the VCS. If it is not central government’s intention to see local authority grant funding cease, then these departments should issue a joint statement clarifying this and making clear that grant funding remains a viable and legitimate option in the local funding mix.” (Why grants are important for a healthy local VCS: A study of four local authorities’ policies, Sally Cooke on behalf of NAVCA, June 2007, p17).

We invite BME voluntary and community organisations to come forward with case studies under the guidance and themes provided by Sustaining Grants to demonstrate the importance of providing services to BME communities and the ‘added value’ of the BME Third Sector in doing this.

For comments and further information on Sustaining Grants and guidance to adapt it relevant to your local areas, contact Arjumand Kazmi, Head of Policy, Voice4Change England at arjumand@voice4change-england.co.uk or on 020 7843 6129.

Postal address
Voice4Change England, c/o BTEG,
2nd Floor Lancaster House, 31-33 Islington High Street, London, N1 9LH.

An Endorsement by Voice4Change England, November 2007.