Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund Evaluation Report
An evaluation of the Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund, part of the wider 2023 VCSE Cost of Living Programme.
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In 2023, the UK Government announced the VCSE Cost of Living (CoL) Programme, a £101.5m support package provided by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). This programme aimed to help frontline delivery organisations deal with the cost of living challenges. Part of the support package was the Community Organisations Cost of Living Fund (CCLF), a £76 million package to support voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations in England facing increased demand for their services and increased delivery costs.
The CCLF ran from July to October 2023 and was administered by an intermediary grant maker (IGM), The National Lottery Community Fund. The main aim of the CCLF was to ensure that organisations delivering critical frontline services were able to maintain delivery or increase in volume and/or expand the scope of their activity to meet increased demand.
The evaluation of the CCLF was undertaken by Ecorys UK and Dr Diarmund McDonnell of Braw Data Ltd and ran from October 2023 to March 2025. The overall aim of the evaluation was to assess the extent to which the CCLF delivered on its objectives and to help build an evidence base on VCSE organisational resilience and the impact of interventions on end beneficiaries. The evaluation used a mixed-method approach, this involved interviews with programme stakeholders, case studies with VCSEs, 2 waves of surveys with VCSE applications, Bayesian Process Tracing and the analysis of management information (MI).
The report sets out the key process, impact and economic evaluation findings of the CCLF. Some of the key findings from the evaluation were:
- The CCLF positively impacted organisations’ ability to maintain and increase the number and range of services during the funded period,
- In the short term organisations were able to cover high delivery costs and avoid unplanned use of their reserves,
- The funding helped organisations to sustain their workforce and strengthen staff capacity, and
- The funded services addressed the immediate needs of beneficiaries.