Call for Evidence: Response from Solas-Cymru

Solas-Cymru welcomes the Communities and Culture committees’ decision to carry out an inquiry into the funding for the voluntary sector organisations in Wales and would like to submit the following information as evidence.

Solas-Cymru is a leading homelessness organisation operating in Wales. Solas relies heavily upon fundraising and income generation to ensure we are meeting our vision of being able to offer more than just a resettlement need to those most marginalised and disadvantaged in our communities, offering a toolkit for a future where people can play an active and successful role within tomorrow’s society. This is over and above and distinct from the income we receive via Housing Benefits and the Supporting People programme.

Solas would like to highlight its experiences of accessing funding and resources but wishes to clarify that the difficulties experienced with Welsh Assembly Government funding are not particular to the Welsh Assembly Government but many issues coexist with other statutory sources including Local Authorities and indeed the Big Lottery, for the purpose of this piece of evidence.

Solas believes it has become increasingly difficult to access funding from statutory sources not excluding Welsh Assembly Government due to feedback which suggests that there is increasing competition from paid professionals and consultants, applying successfully for funding on behalf of sometimes National Charities.

Solas, like many other smaller organisations operating within the voluntary sector, relies on its fundraising activities being 'added onto’ existing posts, without sufficient central resources to enable us to purchase in a specialist position. Solas believes that the value or impact of a project can sometimes be assessed too readily by a well rehearsed form.

It is also our experience that most grants appear to meet the recurrent costs of time limited innovative projects or one-off capital projects in some particular sub sectors (eg the arts and education) but not to be readily or widely available for:

• asset purchase;

• core costs;

• projects aimed at developing the human capital of the organisation.

This can only serve to weaken the sector in the short term and ring fence future capacity to any sustainable long term development.

In addition, many grant programmes are also reluctant to fund the initial costs of projects aimed at sustainability and generating funds to support the applicant organisation in the future. These projects may be regarded as too risky and/or too 'commercial’ for grant aid.

Solas believes that as a result of the general publics’ apparent disapproval with fundraising techniques used by charities over the past few years, grant makers have chosen to make 'value for money’ in their funding grant assessments, a very highly pointed assessment area. Solas understands that with all public monies there must come accountability however Solas believes that this has resulted in existing statutory grants failing to keep pace with the real costs of some services.

In addition Solas would also like to raise some concerns over the matter of 'Full Cost Recovery’. Within all Solas funding applications, a full cost recovery approach has been adopted to secure an element of core funding for each project or service however this is not always supported by grant makers. Full cost recovery is a real issue for voluntary organisations who are sometimes necessitated into operating on a project-by-project basis and from our own experience, it appears to be becoming harder for agencies to operate on a full cost recovery basis, especially around education, training and employment activities

An example of this would be our employment and skills build Compass Centre, which was developed in response to a gap in homelessness service provision; Solas had long recognised that people need to have meaningful daytime activity in order to break the cycle of homelessness and chaotic lifestyles.  Compass developed links with the local and larger community to ensure that those excluded from society were able to take a full and rewarding role within it.

Like many projects and services within the voluntary sector, Compass does have to consider its funding position very regularly, due to a lack of secure core funding and has, over time, been reliant upon fewer and fewer sources. This has sometimes resulted in us diverting our focus onto fundraising rather than the strategic direction of the project and needs of our clients.

There has been a diverse range of bid submissions over the past few years and in the short term, due to the attractive nature of each of the departments, Solas may initially need to break down the services, to attract smaller, speedier funds. This will however can only serve to be counter productive in the longer term and lead to projects which ’start and stop’ instead of evolving.

To overcome the short term nature of many grants, a tiered approach could be introduced wherein all projects received funding as a pilot and only if successful would this funding continue for a 5 year period or greater.

In relation to reporting requirements, many of our funding streams require quarterly and yearly reporting. Funding from the Welsh Assembly Government for example, is recognised for its comprehensive monitoring requirements and all grants either public or private require substantial signing off procedures including reports. Any new funding stream being brought into the organisation will also lead to an increased draw upon the already under resourced central services including administrative and finance functions.

A final issue, which is levelled at the voluntary sector itself, is the duplication which exists amongst voluntary sector members and the Welsh Assembly Government should encourage cooperative/partnership arrangements to encourage greater affordability and accountability amongst voluntary sector organisations.

Tim Atkinson
Business Development Manager
Solas Cymru