[WiLT] Half of funders 'refuse to negotiate terms and conditions'

[WiL Admin]

Half of funders 'refuse to negotiate terms and conditions', according to
Directory of Social Change

Critical Conditions report shows lack of flexibility from government departments
and trusts and foundations

Charities are being forced to compromise what they do to secure grants because
funders refuse to negotiate terms, according to a report published by the
Directory of Social Change yesterday.

Sixty-one per cent of government departments and 45 per cent of trusts and
foundations surveyed for Critical Conditions, which was released at the DSC's
annual Charity Fair, said they did not negotiate terms and conditions with
applicants.

"When funding terms and conditions are non-negotiable, applicants can be faced
with a take-it-or-leave-it situation," said report author Jay Kennedy, policy
officer at the DSC, a sector training and publishing organisation.

"If they refuse to sign the agreement, they could lose their funding. If they
sign and ignore the terms, they may jeopardise their project, organisation and
beneficiaries."

The report also shows that only 46 per cent of central government funders make
their terms and conditions fully available, compared with 72 per cent of trusts
and foundations. The Cabinet Office is among the government departments that do
not make terms and conditions publicly available, it says.

Kennedy said this prevented charities from making "fully informed decisions
about whether to apply".

Charities should ask to see the small print if it was not included in
application forms, he said.

Forty-three grant administrators from 14 central government departments and 29
trusts and foundations responded to the survey.

>From Third Sector Online at http://ecm.hbpl.co.uk/re?l=ew155oI450l1k5I10


Critical Conditions Summary Findings

Central government grant programmes and larger trusts and foundations are most
likely to have terms and conditions that cover their grant funding:
* 100% of central government respondents said that they had terms and conditions
for their grant programmes
* 86% of the trusts and foundations that responded had terms and conditions
* Responses from companies suggested that they are least likely to have terms
and conditions.

Terms and conditions from trusts and foundations are more transparent than those
for central government:
* 54% of central government respondents said their terms were fully available
compared with 72% of trust and foundation respondents
* Only 23% of central government respondents claimed they made terms and
conditions available online for anyone to access, while the figure for trusts
and foundation respondents was 53%
* Responses from companies suggested that they are least likely to make terms
and conditions available.

Government departments receive most requests from applicants to negotiate terms
and conditions yet they are the most resistant to negotiating them. Trusts and
foundations seemed more flexible but a large percentage still preferred not to
negotiate:
* 61% of central government respondents stated that they were not open to
negotiating any terms and conditions with applicants despite a majority of them
having had requests to do so by some applicants
* 45% of trust and foundation respondents were not open to negotiating terms,
with * 20% of them receiving requests to negotiate
* None of the companies included in the study said their terms and conditions
were non-negotiable, yet they had the lowest percentage of requests to
negotiate.

The full report contains more analysis and recommendations for both funders and
applicants.  Download a full copy of Critical Conditions here.
http://www.dsc.org.uk/NewsandInformation/PolicyandCampaigning/Policypositions/TermsandConditions/main_content/CriticalConditions2009.pdf

From
http://www.dsc.org.uk/NewsandInformation/News/CriticalConditionsSummaryFindings