Many small charities are at risk of closure because they will not collaborate with others, according to a report from the FSI.

The report, Collaboration: more than the sum of the parts, reveals that as many as one in ten small charities are struggling to stay afloat and see closure as likely.

But despite this, less than ten per cent are collaborating with other charities to pool resources and deliver services, the research says.

The report quotes data gathered from 708 respondents, between the period 1st March 2016 to 22nd April 2016, shows that 26 per cent of small charities are experiencing declining funds while 32 per cent have reported a rise in workload.

“This means that small charities lack the fundamental resources to stay open,” the report says.

Pauline Broomhead, chief executive of the FSI, said the research indicates “quite strongly that small charities don’t collaborate enough in any meaningful way”.

“This is a real loss for the sector as there is no doubt that small charities are extremely good at coming up with solutions to some of the most serious social problems facing the world today,” she said.

“In isolation, they may be too small to take a great idea or a great solution to a wider beneficiary audience but partnering up with another organisations, like LGBT Consortium, can set the wheels in motion,” she said.

According to Broomhead, the sector's failure to collaborate, poses the risk of "missing out on a vital opportunity" and "wasting time on superficial partnerships that don’t add any real and lasting value to the support and services we deliver".

The most common form of collaboration among small charities is networking - with 90 per cent of respondents who do participate in some form of collaboration, saying they regularly take part in networking activities.

Just three per cent of respondents said they were involved with merger activities.

A total of 34 per cent said they were not involved with any collaborative work at all.

According to the report, the failure of small charities to commit sufficient resources to the development of significant collaborations, "risks losing sight of the end game of a more effective and sustainable small charity sector equipped with solutions and resources to implement change for the most vulnerable in our society".

"The benefits of collaboration could prove vital to the continued successful delivery of services," the report states.