OTS Campaign Programme withdrawal 'breaches Compact' 2

Fundraising | Tania Mason | 16 Nov 2009

NAVCA has accused the Office of the Third Sector of breaching the Compact in withdrawing £750,000 in funding from the Campaigning Research Programme, and urged charities minister Angela Smith to reverse the decision.

In a strongly-worded letter to the minister, NAVCA chief Kevin Curley said that if the decision to cancel the funding had been made before grants were awarded, it would have been “less disturbing”, but to cancel after grants had been awarded and without consultation “will be seen in the local sector as an expression of OTS’s non-compliance with the Compact”.

He reminded Smith that NAVCA had promoted the programme and helped many local charities and community groups to submit proposals. Lots of groups had already been informed by Capacitybuilders that their applications were successful, and will now “think it unfair and unreasonable to take their grants away”, Curley said.

He told the minister that she did the job of championing the sector in government at central and local levels “really well” but this decision is “bad grant-making practice” and sets a poor example.

Curley (pictured) concluded by saying that the Hardship Fund – the new beneficiary of the funding – was a valuable expression of government support for local organisations. But, “the benefits gained in the short term by transferring £750,000 from the Campaigning Fund to the Hardship Fund will be far outweighed by the damage done to OTS’s role as an exemplar of good funding practice and to the Compact”.

Some of the groups that were due to receive campaigning grants suspect the decision was motivated by the government’s fear about the unpopularity of some of the causes that had been selected. These included asylum seekers, transgendered people, travellers and ex-offenders.

The OTS admitted the move did breach the Compact but said it was more important that charities were supported through the recession and this was why the Hardship Fund was deemed more urgent.

OTS Campaign Programme withdrawal 'breaches Compact'

Organisation: Capacitybuilders | National Association of Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA) | Office of the Third Sector
People: Angela Smith | Kevin Curley

Comments

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Andy Gregg
Chief Executive
30 Nov 2009

In the thick of it?
At a time when the voluntary and community sector is already feeling under threat, the decision of the Office of the Third Sector to cancel Campaigning Research grants to 32 small charities (7 of them London based) is extremely damaging. The Minister recognises that her decision is a clear breach of the Compact - and this at a time when the Compact is about to be "refreshed". The independence of the sector and our ability to campaign is something that we must continue to protect however difficult the circumstances and the OTS decision is particularly damaging in this respect.

Some of us were hoping to ask the Minister questions about her decision at the recent LVSC Conference but unfortunately she was unable to attend due to illness. Had she been there I would have wanted to ask her whether her decision resulted from pressure from above (Number 10?) due to the nature of some of the groups that capacity builders had put forward to receive the funding. The word is that it was the nature of some of the campaigning groups that had been chosen (and the fact that No 10 was worried about Sun and Daily Mail headlines) that led to the Government's embarrassing decision to pull back the grants having already informed the groups that they would be receiving them.

Those of us who have been watching "In the Thick of It" can almost see Malcolm making that phone call!

[Reply]

Stephanie
Online community manager
18 Nov 2009

If you have been affected by the OTS decision to withdraw the campaigning fund, react http://twurl.nl/i215ly #otscampaign

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