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6. Income Generation
Areas of Support
Figures 6a and 6b show the percentage of all organisations who have:
a) Used external support;
b) Have internal capacity; and
c) Anticipate future support needs;
In each of the specific income generation areas. The graphs are arranged in descending order of anticipated future support needs.
Figure 6a: External Support, Internal Capacity, Anticipate Future Support Needs
Figure 6b: External Support, Internal Capacity, Anticipate Future Support Needs
The main areas where organisations have used external income generation support are:
- Identification of funding sources: trusts and foundations (24%)
- Identification of funding sources: government - local and national (20%)
- Support to complete funding applications (18%)
The main areas where organisations have internal capacity for income generation are:
- Reporting on funding received (60%)
- Support to complete funding applications (52%)
- Identification of funding sources: trusts and foundations (49%)
The main areas where organisations anticipate needing income generation support are:
- Developing an income generation or funding strategy (29%)
- Identification of funding sources: trusts and foundations (26%)
- Identification of funding sources: government - local and national (23%)
The highest reported use of external support was for very traditional methods of income generation: identifying funding sources and support to complete applications. There were relatively few organisations who reported internal capacity or use of external support for trading activities, social business approaches and tendering. Only 2 organisations reported using external support to help access loans, and this was the lowest anticipated future support need.
Similar to the financial management topic, identifying costing levels is an area where support has not been used in the past but becomes a high priority for future support.
Internal Capacity & External Support Costs
Figure 6c shows that the cost of internal support for income generation is less than 10% of annual turnover for the majority of organisations.
Figure 6c: Internal Cost of Income Generation Support
Figure 6d shows the cost of external income generation support for each financial size of organisation. Interestingly the majority of all organisations with an income of under £2m spent less than £500 on external income generation support while the majority of those with of larger financial size spent over £5,000 on support.
Figure 6d: Cost of External Income Generation Support
Figure 6e shows that just over half of participating organisations report income generation support is mainly paid for, while almost 30% report receiving it mostly for free.
Figure 6e: Income Generation Support Received Free of Charge
Figure 6f shows that the majority (80%) of organisations reported that external income generation support was providing value for money. 10% of organisations reported that external paid-for income generation support had not been value for money.
Figure 6f: Value for Money of External Income Generation Support
Figure 6g shows that external income generation support is mainly required either once per year (44%) or once per quarter (41%).
Figure 6g: How Often External Income Generation Support is Required
External Support Provision
The table below shows which agencies and organisations have provided external income generation support and the average quality score of that support.
Source of Support | % of All Organisations Using Support | Mean Support Quality Score (Max 5) |
|---|
Local Authority | 11.7% | 3.8 |
|---|
Local CVS | 10.2% | 3.2 |
|---|
Private Company * | 8.8% | 3.4 |
|---|
Other * | 8.8% | 3.8 |
|---|
Local Enterprise Company / Business Gateway | 7.3% | 3.6 |
|---|
SCVO | 5.1% | 3.1 |
|---|
Another local voluntary organisation provider * | 4.4% | 4.5 |
|---|
Charitable Trust * | 4.4% | 4.7 |
|---|
Intermediary body for your sector * | 3.6% | 4.0 |
|---|
Another national voluntary organisation provider * | 3.6% | 4.0 |
|---|
Communities Scotland | 1.5% | 3.5 |
|---|
* A list of specifically identified providers is presented in Appendix A
Local Authorities and Local CVS offices are the most common sources of external support for income generation, used by 12% and 10% of all organisations respectively. However, use of other sources of support was almost as common.
Interestingly, compared with the priority that income generation was given in the focus groups, there was a surprisingly low overall proportion of organisations reporting accessing external support in this area.
Support from local CVS offices and SCVO are reported as relatively low (but not poor) quality, while other voluntary sector organisations are reported as providing the best quality support. The lack of tailored support for finding funding streams for different types of organisations was identified in the focus groups as a key problem with existing income generation support from more generic voluntary sector support providers.
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