A new £100million fund to help the charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises that are most vulnerable to public spending cuts was due to be opened at the end of November and managed by BIG Fund, announced Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd on 5 November.
Mr Hurd said: “The Big Society agenda will give charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises more opportunities to secure stable independent funding. But we recognise that this will not happen overnight. To help address this problem, we have worked quickly to open a £100million short-term fund to help charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises make the transition to becoming providers to public of services, to work with us to build a Big Society and make the most of the opportunities it will bring for them.”
The Government is also developing a Big Society Bank that will use money from dormant bank accounts to help capitalise the sector and build capacity. This is on top of around £470million, including the £100million transition fund, announced in the spending review to directly support the sector.
Peter Wanless, CEO of the BIG Lottery Fund, welcomed this new opportunity to support the sector: “BIG is delighted to be working with the OCS in administering this hugely important fund. We will work with them to ensure that this money helps excellent organisations throughout England prepare effectively for the future. We will be drawing on relevant expertise from ACEVO, and CapacityBuilders, among others, to achieve that.”
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