Dear Colleagues,
A couple of weeks ago, I attended the CLORE Governance Now 2025 conference. Clore Leadership is a registered charity and a resource for leaders in the arts, culture, and creative sectors.
The focus of the conference was around board effectiveness and resilience, particularly in a changing political landscape, which is certainly a universal theme across sectors.
With colleagues at Governance Now 2025
In one session, about 80 charity leaders were asked:
“Do you think that you will still be here in 5 years’ time if you do not change?”
Only one person raised their hand and said that they thought they would be – because they were self-funding and therefore, self-reliant.
It’s a familiar story; we know that the sector is struggling. A recent post on LinkedIn cited that ‘in the past 12 months alone, over 100 trusts in the UK have spent out, paused, or closed altogether and competition for funding has intensified.’ And further: ‘To put it into perspective, the Health Lottery Foundation recently received 2,400 applications for just 30 awards.’
This is also reflected locally. We know ourselves that a local funder received approximately one million pounds worth of applications for a £75,000 pot. Going forward, we need to consider different income streams rather than relying on traditional funding avenues.
Particularly within this context, it’s always worth reminding ourselves and others of what we do.
Navigating the sector can be confusing if you are not familiar with it. NAVCA has recently produced helpful information about the sector across the UK, its size and the difference between voluntary/community groups and charities etc. as follows:
- Community groups (68%) are grassroots, place-based groups, sometimes informal or with a constitution, rooted in local knowledge and relationships.
- Voluntary groups (26%) are charities, led by a board of volunteer trustees. They can range from small local charities to major organisations with multi-million-pound incomes.
- Social enterprises (6%) reinvest their profits for community benefit to strengthen communities.
Additionally, we know that there are thousands of faith groups across the UK who provide a meeting place and support for communities through churches, mosques and temples etc.
NAVCA sees all of this as a connected ecosystem, with each part contributing and working alongside one another to support local people and drive social change.
The local picture in Wolverhampton really reflects the above. WVCA’s VCS (Infrastructure) Support Service continues to be regarded as the go-to service for those either operating in, or considering setting up, within the VCSEF sector in Wolverhampton. Through our quarterly monitoring we capture data on how many new and existing groups we support and the issues we support them with.
Here’s a recent snapshot summary of WVCA’s VCS (Infrastructure) Support Service:
- The voluntary sector is highly responsive to need in the city, illustrated by the 59 new groups having approached WVCA over this quarter alone.
- Funding continues to be one of the key issues faced by the sector, particularly for small to medium sized organisations.
- Bid writing workshops have been delivered in direct response to the demand from organisations, however with grants being the primary source of income for the majority of organisations, sustainability is a major issue due to the short-term nature of grant funding and the (relative) lack of funding available for running costs i.e. staff, rent, utilities etc.
- A high proportion of organisations receiving support from WVCA (58%) are led by or have been set up by individuals from BAME backgrounds. This is both a reflection of the diversity of the population of the city and highlights the impact WVCA continues to have in terms of being a trusted provider and reaching wider groups and communities across the city. We are always keen to identify if communities are underrepresented in terms of statutory service provision.
- ‘Health and wellbeing’ issues are a key focus for new and established groups
- Volunteering is a key part of Infrastructure VCS Support.
- Within our Wolverhampton Volunteer Centre, 200 organisations are currently registered offering in excess of 400 volunteering opportunities.
It’s more important now than ever that we work together in partnership and support each other.
If you would like more information, please remember to check out our website and newsletter regularly – there is always new information, and opportunities are always presenting themselves.
If there are any issues that you would like to raise or anything that you would like to hear more about, please contact me.
Thank you,
Sharon Nanan-Sen
Chief Executive Officer
WVCA