23 February 2007
The future of public service delivery by the voluntary sector needs careful consideration, the charity regulator warned this week as many organisations are not recouping all their costs.
A Charity Commission survey showed that the majority of charities were not always paid the full costs they incurred providing public services: just 12% recovered all their costs. In addition, more than two-thirds of all funding agreements for public services were for just one year.
Launching the survey results at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations' annual conference on February 21, commission chair Dame Suzi Leather said the results showed charities were facing hard choices.
'Short-term funding, partial cost recovery and the risk of mission drift are a reality for many undertaking this work. With 88% of charities failing to achieve full cost recovery for service delivery, can we really sustain the belief that this can be in the best interests of charities, beneficiaries, or the sector as a whole?' she said.
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