Funding Volunteering
Ref: F5 001 Updated: June 2005
Introduction
Volunteering is not for free. volunteer expenses, paid volunteer managers, volunteer recruitment and support, all require funding to be delivered properly. Lack of resources is one of the most frequently cited explanations for not being able to deliver best practice in volunteering. For most agencies volunteer costs will be only one element of a funding application, but there is increasing evidence that funders are looking at evidence of good practice in volunteering as one of their criteria for funding. City of Edinburgh Council now asks questions about volunteering in its main grants form. Some European funding applications consider volunteer time as match funding. Many Charitable Trusts and government funding bodies have volunteering as high priority areas.
Who will Pay for What?
In 2003 we asked some of the main funders what they would be prepared to pay for in volunteering. Responses have been collated in the table that follows. These are responses in principle only, there is no guarantee that if your application includes these elements it will be successful. These are only a small selection of potential funders of volunteering, see overleaf for a list of other contacts, including the Voluntary Action Fund - the only fund with volunteering as its main priority.
It is always worth checking eligibility and current funding themes before proceeding with an application.
We asked two sets of questions:a) Would you consider funding this?, and b) How important would it be for this aspect of good practice to be included in the application? The following table illustrates their responses. Staffing refers to salary funding for a dedicated volunteer manager or for administrative assistance in running a volunteer programme. Social inclusion refers to costs associated with involving volunteers with additional needs, for example disability transport, extra staff time to support a volunteer with mental health problems etc. We also asked if ongoing projects, or only new projects would be considered for funding.
Funding Contacts
Some grant giving organisations which may consider funding for volunteering. Below are a few contacts that you may find useful.
Abbey National Charitable Trust Age Concern Scotland Awards for All Big Lottery Fund Camelot Foundation Comic Relief UK Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations' Trust
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Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Help the Aged Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland Robertson Trust Nationwide Foundation
Scottish Community Foundation Voluntary Action Fund
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Useful Resources
Volunteer Centre Edinburgh (VCE) holds information about funders, including sample guidelines and directories, contact VCE on 0131 225 0630. Both SCVO and EVOC have FunderFinder - a database of grant making trusts with search capabilities.
To use FunderFinder contact EVOC on 0131 555 9100, or SCVO on 0131
556 3882. Information on many grant makers is available at www.funderfinder.org.uk
You can also order guides on the major grant making trusts from
The Directory of Social Change website at www.dsc.org.uk or contact
DSC
Books on 020 7209 5151.
Other websites worth visiting are www.cafonline.org and www.fundraising.co.uk.