Problems in obtaining funding has been a common issue for NGOs over many years, but 2024 feels to be one of the harshest times in living memory.

Every organisation will have its own specifics, but there is a shared funding environment of

• general public sector austerity since 2010
• local authorities drastically reducing grant giving
• high inflation, especially in basics like fuel, and
• very high inflation in building repairs.

There is also a shared environment of rising poverty and demand for basic living needs due to rising inequalities. Where we used to read about poverty we now have reports of destitution.

There have also be disappointments / broken promises / bad faith; for example when we were told the billions of EU structural funds would be replaced in full by new UK funds. Who remembers the Shared Prosperity Fund, anyone? These disappointment (or worse, you choose) were linked to the policy failures in Levelling Up, not least when so many of the pre-existing ‘levelling up’ community and regeneration funding streams had been scrapped by 2012.

With a general election now underway the lobbying in the arts, heritage, and social welfare sectors will be intense. One suspects that nervous parties will not want to make funding commitments for deep fear of being seen as economically incompetent by hostile media.

Looking back to 1997, the Labour Party manifesto promised to match the Conservative Party’s financial plans for the first two years in government. This turned out to be quite a canny pledge. Once in government the overall spending limit was maintained, but what it was spent on changed quite radically and quite quickly. There was also the Private Finance Initiative, a flawed funding mechanism as it turned out, but it rapidly built lots of new hospitals and schools.

But this time the sums will probably be harder to balance because the levels of need and neglect are so much deeper, and PFI is off the table.

Which probably leads us to the need to rebalance taxes – who pays more, and how much. My guess is that manifesto promises will be limited, along the lines of “no more taxes for working people” which should leave enough wiggle room; plus linking tax to need, such as taxing unearned income to pay for removing the two-child benefits cap.

So for third sector organisations this political nervousness will probably lead to a lobbying strategy of – fingers crossed.