Why flexible funding is crucial to London Community Chaplaincy
Why flexible funding is crucial to London Community Chaplaincy
Pam Cullen, Executive Director and Chaplain at London Community Chaplaincy with participants on a youth program.
Grassroots organizations like the London Community Chaplaincy that “work behind the scenes and outside of the media”, as Pam Cullen, Executive Director and Chaplain at the Chaplaincy, put’s it, face different problems to larger organizations that may receive government funding.
“As a not-for-profit without government funding, we’re always piecemealing things together, so we get a grant from here, a grant from there, a little bit from here, and a little bit from there… I’m pretty impressed with the work we do on our budget because though we have limited financial resources, we have a huge impact - we usually welcome 100 kids a week in our after-school programs across two locations, with just two full-time employees, two part-time staff and student placements,” Pam explains.
Around two-thirds of the funding the Chaplaincy receives comes for designated programming needs. The other third, which allows the organization to be flexible in its running, is difficult to come by. Some of it comes from a wide cross-section of faith communities across London, which you’d possibly expect given the heritage of the organization, but much of it comes down to the generosity of donors.
Not only is unrestricted funding difficult to come by, but so is predictable or longer-term funding that Pam can rely on being available at the same time next year.
“New projects are easier and often more popular to fund, which means we’re always thinking about the exit. So the longer-term commitment you have from a funder, the less brain power needs to be spent on replacing funding, which is one less thing that needs to be solved next month!”
Participants taking part in a youth program at London Community Chaplaincy
That’s why long-standing donations from The Making A Difference Fund, which helps fund staff positions at the Chaplaincy, are so important. Staff funding can be sparse as many donors, foundations, and funds want to fund programs because, on the surface, it’s these programs that make the difference. But Pam sees this differently.
“I think it’s something we have to re-frame, because at the heart of London Community Chaplaincy is relationships. I have seen successful program after successful program across the City of London, and often if you push participants on why the program made a difference to them, they say that the people running it believed in them. So when you want to fund a program remember it’s not the basketball that makes the difference!”
For more information about London Community Chaplaincy’s work visit their website, and for another example of how the Making A Difference Fund’s multi-year funding commitments are benefiting non-profits in London, check out our podcast with Bill Smith, Executive Director of KidSport London.