Less than one-third of the suppliers which have so far won the right to trade in the new Big Assist infrastructure-building scheme are voluntary or community organisations.

The Big Assist programme, launched by the Big Lottery Fund and NCVO last autumn, will see infrastructure bodies apply for grants for ‘vouchers’ worth up to £7,000 which they can spend on advice and support for capacity-building projects from a variety of suppliers in the Big Assist marketplace. Suppliers in the marketplace will then be rated, Tripadvisor-style, by the organisations receiving support from them.

The two organisations running the programme invited organisations and individuals to be suppliers, and have now listed 101 on the Big Assist website. Of the 101, nearly half (49) are private companies and another 18 are sole traders. Voluntary or community organisations account for 31 of all Big Assist marketplace suppliers. (A further three are classified as ‘other’.)

The £6m programme requires that suppliers have been running for at least two years, provide at least one type of service a Big Assist customer may need and is financially stable, among other criteria. Applications for becoming a supplier are still being accepted and an announcement about awards is expected in the next few weeks. 

An NCVO spokesman said that the organisation is adding new suppliers every day, and expects to be including dozens more over the coming months. 

"We’re very pleased to have a strong range of high-quality suppliers as part of the Big Assist programme, all of whom are experienced in working with voluntary and community sector organisations," he said.

The Institute of Fundraising yesterday announced that it has been approved as a supplier on the site. Acevo, Navca and Social Enterprise UK are some of the other larger umbrella bodies which have been so far selected as suppliers.