Third Sector Resilience Fund (TSRF): analysis of applications and wards

3. Grant Funding by Sector

Applicants were asked to provide details about the sector in which they operate. This data is summarised in Table 1.

Table 1: Grant Awards by Sector

A large number of organisations did not specify a sector from the options provided in the application form. As a result, a wide range of organisations come under the "other" category in this analysis. These include, for example, TSOs focusing on children's activities, education, religion/faith, community groups, social clubs, training, and animal welfare. "Other" accounts for the largest number of applications (935), the largest number of awards approved (391), and the third-largest share of the funding (£2,669.392). On average, grants awarded to "other" sectors were for £6,827, significantly smaller than the overall average of £16,792.

Excluding "Other", the sector receiving the largest share of TSRF funding was Health and Social Care, which received 27 per cent of funding awarded, amounting to £6,198,664. This sector also accounts for the largest number of applications (659) and the largest number of awards approved (255) of any single sector. The next-largest share of funding (13 per cent) was awarded to the Sport and Physical Activity sector (£2,992,896). This sector accounted for the second-highest number of applications (504) and awards (244). Applicants in both the Health and Social care and Sport and Physical Activity sectors reported a wide range of causes for the need for financial support. These varied from sudden loss of demand for paid-for services – such as childcare, training courses, sports clubs, activity groups and care provision – to loss of income from fundraising events and trading with the cancellation of events and the need to close premises such as shops, cafes, halls and sports club houses.

The three sectors receiving the smallest shares of funding – Life Sciences, Energy, and Travel/Transport – submitted the fewest applications and had the fewest awards approved.

As Figure 4 shows, the application approval rate between sectors ranged from 37.5 per cent of applications approved to 60 per cent of applications approved. The sector with the highest application approval rate was Travel/Transport, with 60 per cent of applications approved. It should be noted however that this figure is affected by the small number of applications from this sector (15). Creative Industries had the second-highest approval rate (55.9 per cent), followed by Financial and Business Services (54.2 per cent) and Circular Economy (53.7 per cent).

Despite accounting for the largest share of funding, the Health and Social Care sector had the second-lowest application approval rating (38.7 per cent), with Energy having the lowest (37.5 per cent).