Third Sector Resilience Fund (TSRF): analysis of applications and wards

Summary

This report provides an analysis of the data from applications to the Third Sector Resilience Fund (TSRF) and the awards made through the fund. The TSRF was open from March to September 2020 to provide emergency funding for third sector organisations (TSOs) in Scotland which had been affected financially by the inability to generate their usual levels of income as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown restrictions. It provided these TSOs with funding to enable them to pay essential costs such as rent, utilities and the costs of staff who were not furloughed for up to four months. The aim was to enable them to survive the lockdown period so that they could resume operations once restrictions began to be lifted.

This report provides analysis of the distribution of funding across sectors, local authority areas, SIMD categories, and sizes of organisation. It also uses the financial data provided in TSRF applications to comment on the overall financial situation of TSRF applicants and grant recipients.

The key findings in this report are:

• £22,652,823 has been distributed in TSRF grant funding to 1,349 separate organisations, with an average grant size of £16,792
• 2,996 organisations applied for TSRF grants, with an application approval rate of 45 per cent
• TSRF grant funding has supported organisations which collectively employ almost 14,000 members of staff
• £2,900,247 was approved in TSRF loans to 29 TSOs, although not all loans awarded were taken up. The size of the loans approved ranged from £25,000 to £250,000, with an average size of £100,009
• The Health and Social Care sector received the largest share of grant funding (27 per cent), with £6,198,664 distributed to 255 organisations. Physical Activity and Sport received the second largest share of grant funding (13 per cent) with £2,992,896 distributed to 244 organisations
• TSOs which operate across Scotland, rather than in a single local authority area, received the largest share of grant funding (28 per cent), with £6,418,746 distributed to 170 organisations. Glasgow City and the City of Edinburgh were the local authority areas receiving the largest proportion of funding, receiving 12 per cent and 7 per cent of the funding respectively
• TSOs based in SIMD quintile 1, the most deprived 20 per cent of postcodes, received the largest share of grant funding (22 per cent), with £5,078,877 distributed to 316 organisations. Organisations based in SIMD quintile 5, the least deprived 20 per cent of postcodes, received the smallest proportion of funding (15 per cent), with £3,421,375 distributed to 153 organisations
• The majority of grants were awarded to small organisations, with 69 per cent of awards going to TSOs with an annual expenditure/turnover of less than £250,000
• 38 per cent of applicant organisations had financial reserves sufficient for fewer than two weeks expenditure costs at the time of application. 49 per cent had reserves sufficient for less than one month of expenditure