Research carried out by MPEN has found that Voluntary and community sector (VCS) infrastructure organisations in Greater Manchester want to dramatically increase the amount of earned income they generate in the next three years. However, 87 per cent of the organisations interviewed believe that they have a skills gap regarding business orientation and only 40 per cent could pay the market rate for critical items of business support.

Andy Wynne, co-ordinator of Manchester Progressive Enterprise Network, who carried out the research, said: We urgently need to bridge the gap between the pressure on the sector to move towards more entrepreneurial activity and the limited capacity of hard pressed voluntary sector organisations to make the necessary adjustments in culture and approach.
The research was carried out in the context of three inter-related policy agendas: social enterprise, the voluntary sector infrastructure review and voluntary sector service delivery. Whilst the focus is on infrastructure organisations the findings will also be of interest to the frontline VCS.

Fifteen specialist and generalist infrastructure organisations (such as Councils for Voluntary Service ) were interviewed for the research. This gave a sample size of 50 per cent of the VCS infrastructure organisations in the Greater Manchester sub-regional consortium.
A copy of the report, which was funded by the Active Community Unit through GM Voluntary Sector Support, can be downloaded below.