Predominantly, our funding comes via a Service Level Agreement with Hillingdon Homes and London Borough of Hillingdon Housing Department to provide mediation for the residents of the borough. Some Housing Associations with stock in the borough also subscribe to our service giving their tenants access to mediation, while other Housing Associations buy us in on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us to see if your Housing Association subscribes.

We provide sub-contracted mediation in other fields such as Special Educational Needs and facilitation of groups in dispute.

We also provide training and consultancy in mediation and other related topics. This also generates an income for the organisation.

Our approach to funding differs from the traditional approach of charities in that we generate our income via contracts, subscriptions and Service Level Agreements.

We are quoted on the website of the Sustainable Funding Project run by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations as an example of an organisation that funds itself in this way.

We believe that operating like a social business or social enterprise means we can bring the benefits of business practice together with the social benefits of being a charity.

If we apply for grants it would be for a one off capital expenditure. Not for the ongoing costs of a project.  This means we don’t suffer the negative effects of short term funding of projects and there isn’t a tendency for the person employed under the grant to spend a lot of time raising money for the extension of their post – or to spend the last 6 months of their contract looking for another job!

This also means that if we get involved in something we can see it as a long term project. We are able to see that we have generated the funding to support it (or that it will generate its own income as it progresses) and that we do it on our terms and not on the often ambiguous terms of a grant maker.

For anyone interested in the idea of sustainable funding of charities, we would recommend the following website:

http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/sfp/inpractice/index.asp

 conflict resolution