‘To find unrestricted funding is gold dust to us,’ charities tell corporates

Charities have issued a plea to corporate funders to offer unrestricted grants to allow them to adapt to changing circumstances, in particular recruitment and retention challenges.

The call has emerged in a survey of 250 charities that found that four in five (81%) want corporates to provide unrestricted funding to meet pressing needs.

They say that too often corporate partners require charities to apply for funds for a specific project, which they are unable to use to ensure they can keep staff and recruit the best people for roles.

Three quarters say staff recruitment is a challenge and more than a third say they have struggled to recruit in the past six months.

One in five (21%) say they are “significantly understaffed” and three quarters say they are “moderately understaffed”.

Three in four charities say their future is “more in doubt today than it was before the pandemic”, the survey also found.

“To find unrestricted funding is gold dust to us, because we can use it flexibly and we can use it on our core endeavours,” said Farm Ability chief executive Coralie Hopwood, who is among the charity leaders that researchers spoke to.

“It means we can more easily adapt to changing circumstances as we go through the year.”

The survey has been carried out by Benefact Group, among recipients of awards through its £1m Movement for Good Award scheme. This has handed charities 500 grants of £1,000 so far this year, with a further 120 grants of the same amount to be handed out later this year.

With the help of your supporters, you've put yourself on our #movementforgood map! Congratulations again to the latest 250 winners: https://t.co/GygptSLNXR pic.twitter.com/3n2XvLCZlR
— Benefact Group (@benefactgroup) October 19, 2022

“We wanted to produce this report to help charities and businesses better understand how they can get the most of their partnerships,” said the Group’s impact director Chris Pitt.

He added that he hoped its findings would help “prepare charities and their business partners to better support each other in the uncertain days ahead.”