26/02/10 - Your case for funding - an aid to negotiation

CHEX (Community Health Exchange) has recently received from one of our network organisations – Edinburgh Community Food Initiative (ECFI) a ‘Position Statement’ (in which they have carefully laid out the funding position in which they find themselves.

The ‘Position Statement’ includes the following information

·        The impact that impending funding cuts will have detailing loss of jobs and services

·        The work they are involved in that contributes to local and national priorities

·        The efforts they have made to find alternative sources of funding

·        The partnership and collaborative working that they are involved in that will be threatened by loss of funds

·        The actual figures compared to previous funding levels

The ‘Position Statement’ is being used to alert relevant decision makers to the organisation’s situation, together with implications of impact on their service provision.  

The CHEX Advisory Committee suggests that this is a useful model for others to follow and we have been given permission by ECFI to share their position statement with you.

Additional information you might like to consider when presenting a position statement

·        A table summary of the financial situation showing which services will be losing support and when

·        Pending funding bids which may also be affected by cuts to core funding

·        Additional funds that you brought into your organisation to complement statutory funding (a statement like “for every pound of Fairer Scotland Fund money we received our other grants brought in a further £??”)

·        Any income generating activity where you have brought in funds directly by yourselves

·        The contribution made by volunteers in terms of hours as well as total volunteer numbers (some organisations use the minimum wage rate to convert volunteer hours into monetary value)

·        Itemising the numbers of people who benefit from your service who will now be without a service

·        The loss of any partnership or collaborative work which will have wider impact because a bigger piece of work will not happen.

·        Do you host the activity of other groups or organisations that will now lose out too?

 

You may also like to look at our 2007 publication Routes to Sustainability for other ideas by following the link below.

http://www.chex.org.uk/uploads/routes_to_sustainability_briefing.pdf

 

Elspeth Gracey
Development Manager
Direct line 0141 222 4840

Community Health Exchange, CHEX

Scottish Community Development Centre 
Suite 305, Baltic Chambers
50 Wellington St
Glasgow G2 6HJ

Tel: CHEX Office 0141 248 1990 Fax: 0141 248 4938

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email elspeth@scdc.org.uk

Website: Check it out!  www.chex.org.uk <http://www.chex.org.uk>