Drawing on Reserves

A poll shows that more than a quarter of charities have had to use reserves in the past year to keep services going and many have also cut services. The Charity Finance Directors Group have warned that where levels of reserves were strong for charities at the start of the recession that this reliance will not be sustainable for long. A local casualty that many CVS's in West Sussex have worked with is the Brighton-based Working Together Project. It is both sad and shocking that they have announced their closure in March. This is a group that successfully raised funds to organise some of the best training for the voluntary sector. They worked hard to remain sustainable but without the mixture of grants, fundraising and generated income they simply cannot carry on. We are all the poorer. Partnership opportunities are to be lost as a result, voluntary groups will have to look elsewhere to find suitable courses (not just any courses but courses carefully tailored to needs delivered by trainers who understand how voluntary and community organisations work) and trainers will no longer have a central point of reference. This is not some johnny-cum-lately organisation created to profit from the voluntary sector but had been established for 12 years, was actually pretty good at raising funds and worked hard to deliver efficiently and effectively. All their considerable efforts to keep afloat have drawn a blank. Thanks to all at WTP for all your effort,  support and partnership.