NCVO is calling on civil society organisations to let it know how public spending cuts are affecting them, by inviting them to complete a rolling and publicly accessible survey on its website.

The idea is that people enter data as they experience cuts in their funding.  The information is publicly available so people can see the running tally as it mounts.

NCVO intends that the data collected will help inform all organisations across the sector as they take forward programme and policy priorities with government.

The survey focuses on the current financial year, from April 2010 to April 2011.

Three organisations have so far entered details of cuts – Harrogate District Community Transport, Arcola Theatre Production Company, and Reading International Solidarity Centre.  Together the cuts total £376,000.

According to the website, NCVO is defining a cut as “a statutory body in central, regional or local government, including government agencies, local authorities, PCTs and others, informing you that you’ll receive less money than they had previously agreed to provide, as part of a grant, a contract or another formal funding arrangement.

“This may include them asking you to make efficiency savings as part of an existing contract or cancelling a grant which they had previously agreed to provide.”

However, it does not include funding applications that have been turned down.

Those organisations that don’t want to publicly share the details they enter can email the details to [email protected] and the data will be collected anonymously.