Funding

Funding is a key strand of NCVO's work. Our public policy work seeks to ensure that funding and the fiscal environment best meet the needs of voluntary and community organisations.

If you would like to discuss any of our work on funding, please email us or call 020 7520 2473.

What's new:

January 2012

NCVO Commission on Tax Incentives for Social Investment

We commissioned this report to bring together cross-sector experts with the aim of making practical, workable recommendations to government. This report is intended to make a genuinely useful contribution to the debate, with an achievable number of recommendations for government to consider. We hope that this report is seen as a major stepping stone in our involvement in this debate, building upon the recommendations made by NCVO's Funding Commission in 2011.

Our hope is that social investment can become an increasingly important source of funding to civil society in the UK. With a sharp decline in public funding combining with a difficult economic environment, this has clearly made the need to secure new and different types of resource more acute. Social finance has the potential for organisations to continue to deliver on their mission and to serve acute need whilst giving them the flexibility to invest in future provision and innovation

The Commission proposes that the Government should:

Improve the attractiveness of the existing Community Investment Tax Relief (CITR) regime for investment into Community Development Finance Institutions.
Consider how equity or equity-like investment made directly into enterprises established for community or social benefit (such as Community Interest Companies, Charities and Community Benefit Societies) should be eligible for CITR1.
Amend and simplify the Enterprise Investment scheme (EIS), Venture Capital Trusts (VCT) and Seed Enterprise
Investment Scheme (SEIS) to ensure they work for social ventures.
Undertake a longer-term, strategic and more fundamental review of the tax code to ensure its suitability, simplicity and fairness for encouraging growth of investment in social ventures.

Read or download the full report (PDF, 252KB)

November 2011

Response to the proposed changes of the Big Lottery Fund's policy directions

On 18 November 2011, NCVO reponded to the consultation on the proposed new Big Lottery Fund Policy directions. The proposed guidance is much more light touch than before yet there are a number of concerns relating to:

The percentage of BIG funding that goes to the voluntary and community sector
Protecting funding from being the capital of the social investment market
The definition of social enterprises
The importance of the principle of additonality

Read the full consultation response. (PDF 26KB)

August 2011

Counting the cuts: The impact of spending cuts on the UK voluntary and community sector (PDF 2.8MB) offers our best estimate of where, how, and how much the cuts from Government in public spending already are and will continue to impact our sector. The report contains key information about the impact public sector spending cuts will have on the voluntary sector from 2011-2016. Here are some key figures:

The UK voluntary and community sector will lose around £911 million a year in public funding by 2015-16.
This means voluntary and community sector stands to lose £2.8 billion from Government over the current spending review period running from 2011- 2016.
These are likely to be conservative estimates based on analysis of the Government’s own figures published by the Office of Budgetary Responsibility. The figures assume that cuts with be made proportionately, they provide us with a solid baseline figure to measure any further cuts against.

Read the full report

Browse our advice sector on how to cope with the cuts.

June 2011

NCVO Policy Analysis: The Giving White Paper

NCVO has written a detailed policy analysis on the Government's Giving White Paper, which was published on 23 May 2011. Our report analyses the specific proposals and investments in the paper, details priorities and recommendations and outlines NCVO's involvement in the next steps with this White Paper.

Download our analysis of the Giving White Paper (PDF 40KB)
"If we want people to give more, we need to make it easier", writes James Allen for the Guardian Voluntary Sector Network blog.

Comprehensive Spending Review 2010

The Government has now published details of the Spending Review. The overall picture is one of significant reductions in spending, along with proposals for public service reform and a de-centralisation of power from a central to a local level. There is no doubt that these will be challenging times for the VCS. It is essential that the sector is not seen as a soft-target for cuts and that any reductions in spending are phased in over time. Government must work in partnership with the sector and seek to mitigate the impact of cuts on the VCS and on the people and communities that the sector serves.

Spending Review 2010 - NCVO Analysis (PDF 63KB)
Spending Review 2010 Key Points (PDF 13KB)
NCVO Spending Review: Our Response

* The statistical appendix mentioned in this document, which contains a detailed analysis of the cross-government impact on the VCS for the whole period of the Spending Review will be published here shortly.

If you would like to discuss the Spending Review please email James Allen, Senior Policy Officer or telephone 020 7520 2475.

NCVO responds to consultation on National Lottery Shares

NCVO has responded to the Department for Media, Culture and Sport consultation on National Lottery Shares.

Download the NCVO response (PDF 33KB)
Download the NCVO briefing on the proposed changes (PDF 82KB)

If you would like to discuss our work in this area please email James Allen or telephone 020 7520 2475.

Social Investment Wholesale Bank

The Office of the Third Sector has launched a consultation on a proposed Social Investment Wholesale Bank (SIWB). The consultation document sets out the vision and economic case for the bank and seeks the views of all stakeholders on its design and possible functions.

Read the NCVO briefing on the SIWB consultation (PDF, 110Kb)
For further information about our work in this area send us an email or telephone 020 7520 2473.

Funding Commission launched

NCVO has launched a Funding Commission to respond to the Sector's concerns and uncertainty about funding over the next ten years and to take responsibility for setting a new funding agenda.

The Funding Commission aims to set the agenda for the funding of the voluntary sector in the next decade. The Commission will look ten years into the future and ask, what are the opportunities and challenges for VCOs in relation to their funding.

For further information see the Funding Commission webpage.

Community Infrastructure Levy on Charities

The Community Infrastructure Levy ('the Levy') is a proposed levy on development. In principle, it will apply whether or not there has been any increase in site value as a result of the granting of planning permission. The amount of levy to be paid will be based on the cost of local infrastructure needed, and the owners of land will be required to pay this levy to local charging authorities. NCVO, the Charity Tax Group (CTG), the Charities' Property Association, the Churches' Legislation Advisory Service and lawyers Bates Wells and Braithwaite are working with Members of the House of Lords to secure an exemption from this levy for registered charities. If the Government does not table its own amendment, Lord Cameron, a crossbench peer, will table an amendment to exempt charities in the week commencing 6 October, and we are working with Lord Cameron to achieve cross party support for this.

full briefing on the Community Infrastructure Levy - (PDF, 67Kb)
for more information please email Helen Donoghue at CTG

Government's proposals for Gift Aid

The Government has produced their response to the Gift Aid consultation (PDF, 335Kb). This contained a number of recommendations, including:

payment of Gift Aid claims at a transitional rate of 22% from 2008-11
major reform to the auditing process
a comprehensive programme for bringing more smaller charities into Gift Aid
redesign of guidance
outreach to 5000 new charities a year through the launch of targeted marketing tools

We have produced a briefing on the proposals for Git Aid (PDF, 28Kb)

NCVO response to Department of Health consultation on funding

NCVO has responded to the Department of Health's Strategic Review of its funding of third sector organisations.

Download the NCVO response (Word 307KB)

Sustainable funding team

You may also be interested in the work of NCVO's Sustainable Funding Team which seeks to ensure that voluntary and community organisations are able to exploit the full range of funding and finance options available to them.