Viewfinder One survey results

COMPLETE RESULTS IN TABLE FORMAT More »

The Current Political Situation

It has been a difficult year for the sector and as a result it has some stark messages for newly elected politicians.

Of the 275 responses to Viewfinder, over two thirds of organisations believed that the suspension of devolution has had a negative effect on the voluntary and community sector. Even more telling was that almost three quarters of respondents (of which 31% agreed strongly with this statement) believed that since the re-introduction of direct rule there has been a lack of political drive to further initiatives within the voluntary and community sector.

Respondents to the survey strongly articulated marginalisation and isolation in the political process since suspension. The suspension of the Civic Forum was considered a big loss, with 57% of respondents believing it has had a negative effect having access to articulate views to government.

But what will be the longer term impacts of this year’s political uncertainty on the sector? Almost half of the respondents (47%) believe that the suspension of devolution will result in irreparable damage to the sector. Clearly we will have to wait and see if such pessimistic predictions come true but what this survey has shown is that opinion is strongly in favour of the return of the devolved administration.

Peace III

As the sector still comes to terms with Peace II (a whopping 91% believed that its administrative arrangements were unnecessarily complicated) the survey tested opinions on the possible introduction of Peace III.

89% of respondents felt that the failure to introduce a Peace III programme would have a negative impact on the sustainable development of the voluntary and community sector. In terms of what the focus of Peace III should be, 87% believed that it should have less of an economic focus than Peace II and instead concentrate specifically on reconciliation issues.

The provision of funds at short notice and a small grants scheme both received overwhelming support with almost nine out of every ten organisations agreeing this would be a worthwhile development.

Business involvement

Management committees are the backbone of the voluntary and community sector and trying to ensure they are representative and effective is always a problem for organisations. The survey focused on the level of engagement by business on committees. In total 47% of organisations stated they have business representation on their committees with 80% believing that business involvement provides a degree of specialist knowledge that is otherwise lacking on their committees.

Credibility (69%) and the ability to access additional funding (56%) are also seen as advantages to having business involvement.

The Euro

The voluntary and community sector, like the rest of the UK , is in limbo until the Treasury decides that the UK is ready to have a referendum on replacing Sterling with the Euro. We asked a number of questions to assess how big an issue it is and the level of preparedness of the sector for the Euro.

Just over four out of every ten organisations were not sure about the impact of the introduction of the Euro on the voluntary and community sector. However, 45% of organisations responding to Viewfinder did feel that the impact would be significant.

Although not the greatest revelation, it is interesting to see how organisations are preparing for what they themselves have said will be a significant event for the voluntary and community sector. Approximately half of all organisations will do some preparation if the Euro becomes a certainty, such as preparing to convert stored financial information and training of cash-handling staff and volunteers. Only a very small percentage of organisations have done some preparation and although the survey didn’t ask, the likelihood is that these organisations work on a cross border basis.

COMPLETE RESULTS IN TABLE FORMAT More »

The Viewfinder survey was circulated to 906 NICVA members during November. A total of 275 organisations responded which equated to a 30% response rate. The next Viewfinder survey will go out in January 2004. For further information about the survey or how to include questions in future Viewfinders contact Siobhan O’Hagan at NICVA.

NICVA would like to thank all those individuals who took the time to complete this survey. Your contribution is most appreciated.