Tag Archive for: state of the sector

Don’t forget – 2025 State of the Sector Survey: Share Your Insights! 

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As we approach the end of 2024, it’s time once again for us to hear directly from the voluntary and community sector about the challenges and opportunities you face. From 26 November 2024 to 17 February 2025, we invite charities, not-for-profits, and community groups across Cambridgeshire to participate in this vital survey. 

This year feels calmer compared to the upheavals of recent times. Yet, beneath this relative quiet, our communities continue to grapple with complex issues—and the voluntary sector plays a crucial role in meeting these needs. 

The 2024 State of the Sector report “We get back up again” painted a challenging picture: a drop in volunteer numbers, growing demands for services, and stretched waiting lists. This evidence helped Support Cambridgeshire advocate for the invaluable contribution of charities and community groups in a landscape of tightening budgets and cuts to public services. 

Now, we need your voice again. How has your organisation fared this year? 

  • Are you still finding it difficult to recruit volunteers? 
  • Has funding improved or worsened? 
  • Are you feeling more optimistic about the future of your group? 

This survey is your opportunity to share your experiences and make sure your voice is heard. The survey is circulated with statutory officers, councillors and funders across the county.The insights you provide will help us build a clear picture of the challenges and opportunities across the sector, enabling us to advocate effectively on your behalf. 

By completing the survey, you’ll: 

  1. Contribute to a county-wide understanding of the voluntary and community sector. 
  2. Help shape strategies and policies that support your work. 
  3. Highlight emerging trends or challenges that require attention in 2025. 

It only takes a short time to complete, but the impact of your input will resonate throughout the year. All organisations that fill out the survey will be entered into a prize draw for £100 for that organisation. The closing date for the survey is 17th February 2025, and the prize draw will follow this. 

If you would like help completing the survey over the phone, or if you would prefer a paper copy of the survey, please call CCVS: 07935 649805. 

National papers tell us what we already know

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Several national reports have been released in recent months, painting a rather bleak picture for our sector. However, these reports may provide us with the data we need to advocate for our cause.

Despite our challenges, it’s important to remember that these issues are widespread and that support is available from Support Cambridgeshire. Whether you’re struggling with funding, volunteer recruitment, or other specific challenges, there are resources to help you find tailored solutions for your organisation, so do get in contact info@supportcambridgeshire.org.uk

NCVO Almanac

The Almanc 2024 is a great paper to look at if you want to see the national state of our sector and see the trends happening around us. It’s always a little behind where we are, but it holds great data that showcases things like financials, workforce, impact, and finally, volunteers of the sector. First published in 1996 it is a go to national paper to use if you want to compare your organisation with the national picture.

Some of the headlines from the report:

  • The voluntary sector is still recovering from the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic with an increase of groups of 0.5%
  • 14.2 million people volunteered at least once with a group or organisation
  • London remains the centre of the UK’s Voluntary sector, but micro and small organisations account for 80% of the sector.
  • Women make up 68% of the sector’s workforce, and it has the oldest workforce in the UK.

To read the full report click here. 

 

Community Life Survey

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Office for Civil Society compiled this report. The new updates reflect the 2023/24, along with the quarterly release for January to March. Much like the Almanac, this paper is great if you want to reference national statistics or see what is happening from a broader perspective. This report is more than just the voluntary and community sector, though volunteering is a section; here, you can find the national trends around things like loneliness, neighbourhood and community, charitable giving, civic engagement and social action.

Some of the headlines from the report:

  • 1 in 10 of adults have reported high levels of indirect loneliness (a score of 8 or 9)
  • 61% of adults felt they belonged ‘very strongly’ or fairly strongly to their immediate neighbourhood.
  • 81% of adults agree that their local area is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together
  • 16% of respondents had taken part in formal volunteering (defined as giving unpaid help to clubs, groups and organisations) at least once a month.

To read the 2023/24 report click here

 

Cambridgeshire State of the Sector

While our local version of the two above papers hasn’t recently launched any new data, we are collecting it for next year’s report. So, if you’re linked to a non-profit organisation, then we want to know how you find the current environment to work in. The survey is open to any one who is linked with a group should you volunteer or work for them, you may not know all the answers to all the questions but those you do will help Support Cambridgeshire to make the local case to our decision makers in Cambridgeshire. Also, you are welcome to use this data in your own applications or generally to see how Cambridgeshire is against the national picture.

To take part in the 2025 report click here – closing date 17th February 2025

To read past reports click here

State of the Sector – Have your say! DEADLINE EXTENDED 18 MARCH 2024

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THE DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 18 MARCH 2024.

Some may say the past twelve months, compared to others, has been a quiet year for our society, with no significant health crisis or political upheaval and that perhaps a glimpse of positivity can be seen for our communities with things calming down.

Last year, the State of the Sector report showed a decrease in volunteer numbers against an increase in those individuals that groups support having more complex needs and, therefore, longer waiting lists. The 2023 report and its findings have been essential in helping Support Cambridgeshire make a case for the crucial role of voluntary and community groups in our communities with tightening budgets and cuts to services.

It’s that time again when we ask for five minutes of your precious time to let us know how you’re coping in this environment. Are you still struggling to find volunteers? Has funding increased? Are you more optimistic today about the future of your group? We want to know!

We need as many individuals from charities, not-for-profit organisations, and community groups to complete the 2024 Survey of Cambridgeshire Community Groups and Charities. This way, we can see what is happening across the county and whether the challenges you are currently facing are the same as last year or if there is something we all need to be aware of coming down the road.

All organisations that fill out the survey will be entered into a prize draw for £100 for that organisation. The closing date for the survey is 4th March , and the prize draw will follow this.

Fill in the survey here

Cambridgeshire VCSE Survey 2023 – How you doing?

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As we move into 2023, you could be forgiven for thinking that the voluntary and community sector (VCSE) is just moving from crisis to crisis. After surviving and supporting those around us so well through the years of COVID, we now find ourselves in a cost-of-living crisis.

Many have said that while they thought they were battling on in covid, they are struggling to keep going and don’t know what the future looks like. The demands for services are higher, the costs of delivering are higher, and the expectations for services are higher than ever, yet the funding hasn’t changed. This shockwave of need in our sector has a huge impact, and we know this. However, like all things, we need to make a case and draw a realistic picture of what you are facing and how Support Cambs partners can support you.

In the past, our annual 2023 Survey of Cambridgeshire Community Groups and Charities has been a vital source of information for funders and stakeholders along with us as infrastructure organisations in painting that picture and looking at resources.

This year we are also looking at health impacts and changes to health services. So this is a great way to give your views on this.

It gives us information on the issues and barriers you’re facing and therefore allows us to plan to ensure our services fit for purpose. This is even more relevant currently with so many changes happening around us.

Therefore, we ask as many individuals from charities, not-for-profit organisations and community groups to fill out the 2023 Survey of Cambridgeshire Community Groups and Charities. So that we can see what is happening across the county and if the struggles you are currently facing are the same as last year and other organisations or if there is something we all need to be aware of coming down the road.

 

Fill in the survey here

Closing date 20th March – for more information please contact mark@cambridgecvs.org.uk

Reflections on ‘Coming up for air’ report, Mark Freeman

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What the 2022 State of the Sector Survey tells us about the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) in Cambridgeshire

A great deal has been written about the impact of the pandemic on the VCS over the last years. We carried out research in both 2020 and 2021 that showed that groups were adapting and growing but they had concerns about funding and burnout. Many of our findings have been backed up by national surveys[1].

This survey was carried out over February and March 2022 and shows that locally groups have weathered the storm relatively well. The impact of the pandemic has been more negative than positive, with groups on average scoring the impact as 4 out of 10.

Green survey with the title overall how has the pandemic impacted your organisations.

It is however debatable as to whether the storm has come to an end. Even as we learn to live with Covid and we return to a more ‘normal’ life, the sector and those that they support are caught up in the next wave of circumstances that impact on them. There will be a fallout from the last two years that we will need to understand and navigate, this will be complicated by the environment we all work in. We are all now grappling with the impact of the cost of living crisis and the war in Ukraine. At the same time many experts are predicting significant health impacts over next winter due to flu and possible new Covid variants.

What we have learnt is that although there are issues of concern that need to be addressed, overall the sector remains resilient and forward-thinking.

Trust in charities is rising according to government figures[2] and the last two years have demonstrated the ability of small charities and community groups to deliver essential services and support at a local level. Couple this with the optimism that the survey showed, 59% of respondents believed 2022 was going to be better for their organisation than 2021, and we believe that we are at a point where the role of small organisations and the communities they work in is recognised as the best way of reducing inequalities and providing opportunities.

More people are seeing this, and the Commission on Civil Society[3] write:

“With their unique combination of trust, agility, community, purpose and prevention, the charity sector is a powerful part of the public services ecosystem, with the potential to do even more than it does today. From mental health to social care, children’s and youth services to housing, a large proportion of the UK’s 160,000 charities and the 910,000 people who work for them play a fundamental role in providing or supplementing public services”

Locally we are seeing statutory services looking at how they work with the sector and communities. Local councils are looking at full system thinking and co-producing services with the sector. The new Integrated Care Systems in health have working with communities and the sector embedded in their core principles. We know that these changes will not happen overnight and that they will be hard to implement, we also know that the sector has its issues and is not fully ready to help, but it is there and there is a willingness to learn, engage and adapt. The whole system from a national to a local level has to work hard to find ways to support charities and especially those local small charities that are embedded in and engaged with communities.

The two big issues from the survey

Two big issues arose from the survey, these were funding and volunteering.

 

Volunteering

Volunteers are essential to the work of the sector and by our calculations could be worth over £117million to Cambridgeshire in a year. Over the pandemic many people signed up to volunteer but these were often short term opportunities and numbers were increased by the emergency nature of what was needed and by the number of people on furlough or working from home. The survey showed that over 70% of those responding were experiencing some issue with recruiting volunteers, and 56% were having issues retaining existing volunteers.

“All our members are elderly, frail. Since covid we have lost some, some are reluctant to come out. Present volunteers are not getting any younger either and commitment and time are difficult. We are considering bringing our group to a close.”

As a sector and a society we need to address these issues. Locally Cambridgeshire needs a county portal that allows groups to reach potential new volunteers, and that allows interested people to find volunteering opportunities that excite and interest them. We need to ensure that groups are offering people the support and flexibility they need to give volunteering a go. Volunteering opportunities need to be flexible and safe; they need to fit with the way people live and work.

We don’t need a national system, we need local investment into a system and the structures that make local volunteering easier and more accessible. We need to work with the business sector to look at how they can support their staff to volunteer. We must create the opportunity to volunteer in schools so that people get the bug early. We need to create volunteering opportunities that appeal to people at all stages of their lives.

Fundraising

The survey shows there has been a mixed impact on local groups due to the pandemic but 80% of groups see a lack of funds as an issue. The survey has also shown that there have been different impacts on finances for organisations, whilst most reported a neutral impact a higher number reported a negative impact than reported a positive one.

We know that many foundations ‘opened their coffers’ over the pandemic to fund additional support to enable groups to adapt, grow and deliver more. We know that government both locally and nationally also found money to support the sector and the work it did. The upshot of this will be the tightening of funders’ belts in the next few years. This will have a dramatic impact on organisations who will (along with everyone else) be faced with rising costs to deliver their work.

The nature of a national emergency meant that many funders relaxed their funding criteria and their need for monitoring. This was welcomed as it gave groups the space to adapt delivery to suit a changing environment. It also meant groups concentrated more on delivery and less on applying or monitoring. We also know that a lot of funding was short-term and needed to be spent quickly. This is difficult for smaller organisations to manage who need time to ramp up delivery, it has also resulted in a lot of organisations growing quickly with little hope of maintaining that growth.

We need a new type of funding. It has to be flexible and it has to fund outcomes and not projects. Funders must be less prescriptive about monitoring. Most charities monitor their work as they want to know what is and isn’t working and trustees need to be able to govern. We need to work together to ensure that one monitoring report can meet all stakeholder’s needs.

We need to look at core cost funding that will allow charity to deliver on its mission. Projects can’t run without the core of an organisation, so we need to move away from funding projects. Lloyds Foundation[4] state they

“Trust charities to spend the funding we give them as they judge best to achieve the greatest impact.”

We need to see more of this. Charities are best placed to know what is going to work and have an impact. A move to more collaborative funding will increase the impact and enable charities to spend more time and money delivering their services.

Charities need to plan, real impact takes time to happen, and sustainability is not about constantly replacing short-term funding. We need funding to be longer-term. Three years as a minimum but 5 or 10 years if funders are looking at addressing complex issues that rely on building trust and relationships.

The importance of infrastructure

The work of infrastructure (those organisations who work to support the sector) at local and national levels has to be recognised and supported. If there is a need for charities, and those that work with and fund them, to do things differently, they will need support to accomplish that.

“A lot of what we have done locally won’t make the papers, but we have laughed and cried with staff and volunteers over the pandemic. We have informed, advised and supported them. We have helped them gain new skills, build new relationships, and find new resources. We have worked with partners to ensure that the sector was recognised and supported.”

Infrastructure has shown its value over the pandemic and investment has flowed into it. However, locally and nationally, this has not been uniform which has led to different levels of support to groups across different areas. This has inevitably resulted in people being offered very different service levels as the number of local charities and their ability to deliver services, t, is better where the charities have had more support. One respondent wrote:

“They offer the best possible support to the sector – they are pro-active, professional, experienced, thoughtful, kind and considerate.”

To conclude

We have a vibrant and diverse voluntary and community sector in Cambridgeshire. On the whole there is optimism for the future. 59% of respondents think that 2022 will be a better year than 2021 for their organisation.

We have seen the sector working with other partners to make the pandemic as bearable as possible.

We have seen incredible efforts put in by staff, volunteers and trustees.

We have seen groups adapting and learning to ensure services were continued and improved.

We know that there are challenges ahead but we have seen positive changes starting to happen. We need to build on what we have, learn from our mistakes and celebrate our successes.

 

References

[1] https://www.lloydsbankfoundation.org.uk/we-influence/the-value-of-small-in-a-big-crisis

http://cpwop.org.uk/what-we-do/projects-and-publications/covid-19-vcse-organisation-responses/

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-trust-in-charities-and-trustees-experience-of-their-role/public-trust-in-charities-2021-web-version

[3] https://civilsocietycommission.org/conversation/understanding-the-ecosystem-charities-and-public-services/

[4] https://www.lloydsbankfoundation.org.uk/we-fund

The State of the Sector 2022 Survey – We need your help!

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As we move into 2022, the past two years have hugely impacted our voluntary and community sectors.

 

In the past, our annual State of the Sector survey has been a vital source of information for funders, stakeholders along with us as infrastructure organisations.

It gives us the information on the issues and barriers you are facing and therefore allows us to plan to make sure our services are fit for purpose.

 

Therefore, we are asking as many charities, not-for-profit organisations and community groups as possible, to fill out the survey, so we can see what is happening across the county post-COVID.

 

Fill in the survey here

Closing date 21st March 2022 – for more information please contact mark@cambridgecvs.org.uk