The £100m transition fund announced today by the government will be targeted at service-delivery organisations that have low levels of reserves and high dependence on public funding streams that are particularly vulnerable to budget cuts, civil society minister Nick Hurd said today.

In an interview with Civil Society immediately after the Chancellor delivered the spending review, Hurd said he would be consulting informally with the sector about the eligibility for the fund, but it was likely to be available to organisations with income of between £50,000 and £10m.

Some £10m of the funding will be disbursed in this financial year with the remaining £90m given out in 2011/12.

The Office for Civil Society will not be distributing the money itself and has already drawn up a shortlist of preferred suppliers to deliver the fund. The distributor will be appointed imminently, reflecting the urgency of the task. Once it is appointed, the "robust eligibility criteria" will be devised after conversations with sector representatives.

Hurd said it was a challenge to secure the funding in light of the parlous state of the public finances, but “we were determined to try and make the case and we won it, and were pleased to have support for it from a high level”.