The Small Charities Coalition (SCC) will close this spring after 14 years, its trustees have said.
The board announced the decision at the end of 2021, saying that they had “exhausted all possibilities” for securing the SCC’s future. Trustees acknowledged that access to funding had been a “perennial issue” for the charity.
The SCC will now work with small charities to help them secure support from other sources before it is wound up later this year.
Challenging financial model
The SCC’s most recent accounts, for the year to March 2020, noted that the charity had a “challenging financial model, where it is heavily reliant on funding from grants and foundations”.
The SCC received support from 17 foundations in 2018-19 but just 10 in 2019-20, according to its filings with the Charity Commission. This included five-figure grants from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Lloyds Bank Foundation, the Tudor Trust, and Garfield Weston. The SCC’s income from training also dropped sharply, from £66,000 to £16,000.
As a result, its income fell by more than half between 2018-19 and 2019-20, from around £340,000 to £125,000.
The SCC spent £220,000 in 2019-20, recording a deficit of around £95,000. It also recorded a small deficit in 2018-19.
Proud
In a statement, the SCC board said: “This has been an extremely difficult decision.
“It has been taken after the trustees and SCC’s team have exhausted all possibilities to secure funding that would have put the charity on a secure, sustainable financial footing to continue its work in support of thousands of small charities.”
The statement added that “securing the financial sustainability of SCC has been a perennial issue. Like many charities, large and small, we faced our own challenges around finance and fundraising.
“Sourcing funding absorbs significant time which, with a small staff, made it difficult to meet our commitment to serve small charities”.
The SCC said it was “immensely proud” of its achievements since it was founded in 2008, and thanked its staff, funders and supporters for their work with the organisation.
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