Charity leaders work together effectively but are cautious about “yielding control” through formal funding partnerships, according to academic research.
The paper from the University of Durham, called Going the Distance, draws on 15 years of research.
It says cooperation between charities has increased over this time and that voluntary organisations make “quite good neighbours to one another”.
But charity bosses remain “suspicious” that they will have to give up power if they enter into formal partnerships with other voluntary bodies, the academics found.
The paper also warns that medium-sized charities, defined in the exercise as those with annual incomes of between £200,000 and £1m, are more vulnerable to financial shocks than large or small organisations.
The research project started in 2008, and has studied the financial progress of 50 charities based in north east England and Cumbria.
The report notes that cooperation between charities is “time consuming” and says the leaders of third sector organisations “found themselves more or less continually balancing a range of relationships with other organisations in their own sector and with organisations in the public and private sector.”
Charity bosses generally manage these partnerships “smoothly”, the academics say, but add: “The inherent financial uncertainties that leaders must manage tends to reinforce their determination to protect organisational autonomy.
“This is why most third sector organisations are pretty cautious about yielding control over aspects of their activities by working in formal partnerships or consortia to win larger sums of money from contracts or programme grants.
“So while this study shows that organisational leaders are generally quite good neighbours to one another, they can be suspicious about formalising ties that may ultimately constrain their freedom, and especially so if they perceive dangers of financial or reputational damage.”
The report says government austerity policies have contributed to the pressure, and says: “We have heard many stories of organisational leaders being stuck in fraught meetings for hours and hours arguing about how to deliver a good service at knock-down prices.”
It also identifies medium-sized charities as the most vulnerable to financial changes.
Medium-sized charities “appear to be more vulnerable financially and can be exposed to significant risks if income fluctuations are rapid and unanticipated”, the research says.
This contrasts with small charities, which are “less reliant on financial resources than they are upon volunteers giving their time”, and large charities, which have the resources “to withstand the effects of short-term income fluctuation and have time to adjust to longer-term change”, the research says.