Some Facts and Figures about the Voluntary & Community Sector

What is the voluntary and community sector?

The definition of the VCS used by the Home Office is:

`Registered charities, as well as non-charitable, non-profit organisations, associations and self-help groups and community groups. Must involve some aspect of voluntary activity, though many are also professional organisations with paid staff, some of which are of considerable size. Community organisations tend to be focussed on particular localities or groups within the community; many are dependent entirely or almost entirely on voluntary activity.`

Tiers

First-tier organisations are those working directly with people on a defined activity to meet charitable objectives, eg women's refuges, training projects, cancer care. They may also be referred to as client delivery, grass roots, street level etc.

Second-tier organisations are those working directly with other VCS organisations to meet charitable objectives, eg councils for voluntary service, voluntary development agencies. They can be generalist or specialist and may be referred to as providing business-to-business support, infrastructure or co-ordinating organisations.

Third-tier organisations primarily support second-tier organisations.

The Tees Valley VCS Forum considers itself to be both a second tier body (as it provides a strategic infrastructure and co-ordinating role) and third tier organisation also.

Not-for-profit

Some organisations in the VCS operate on a not-for-profit basis but cannot register as charities because their primary purpose is political change, eg Amnesty International, which has a separate trust for the areas of its work that have charitable objectives.

Others operate as social businesses, where profits are used to further social objectives. The introduction of a new form of legal entity, the Community Interest Companies (CIC) , means that organisations can register their not-for-profit status and lock assets into their social purpose.

Charities Statistics for North East (source Guidestar 2006)

Number of charities 5268

Income £865m (43.4% is earned)

Paid staff 17000 (average of 3.2 per charity)

Which beneficiaries do they serve?

46% Children and Young People

25% Elderly

23% Disabled

6% BME

What are their activities?

Culture and Leisure 22%

Economic Well Being 17%

Education and Life Long Learning 34%

Environment 9%

Health and Well Being 15%

Housing 3%

Roles

Service providers 1302

Infrastructure 494

Grantmakers 1394

Advocacy research and information 1114

Volunteering some key national facts and Figures (source Institute of Volunteering Research)

22 million adults are involved in formal volunteering each year

90 million hours of formal voluntary work takes place each week

Six out of ten volunteers say volunteering gives them an opportunity to learn new skills

Only half of all volunteers get involved because they were asked to help

90% of the population agree with the notion that a society with volunteers shows a caring society

The economic Value of formal Volunteering has been calculated to be in the region of £40 billion per year

The total public sector support for volunteering is estimated to be in the region of £400 million per year

For every £1 volunteer involving organisation spend supporting volunteering they can expect a notional payback of up to 14 times that

Young people, contrary to popular thinking, do support the idea of volunteering. To successfully involve young people organisations need to recognise their need for flexibility and variety among other things

Charities in the UK (source Charities Commission)

At the end of March 2007, there were 190,477 charities registered. Of these 21,683 were subsidiaries or constituents of other charities.

When this income is broken down by individual charities we find that many are very small organisations indeed, and that the financial wealth of registered charities, measured by their annual income, is concentrated in just a few very large charities. This is demonstrated in the following figures:

the majority of registered charities have an income of £10,000 or less. They represent nearly 60% of registered charities but have less than 1% of the income recorded.

around 8% of charities receive over 90% of the total annual income recorded.

the largest 651 charities (0.39% of those on the register) attract over 49% of the total income.

Financial contribution of carers to the UK economy (source Carers UK)

The cost of replacing carers support nationally through the NHS would be £57billion. Carers look after family, partners or friends in need of help because they are ill, frail or have a disability. The care they provide is unpaid. Three in five people will become a carer during their lifetime.