Programme Evaluation 2014-15

Running Costs
In addition to the costs of staff time and materials to deliver projects across the North West, F4C’s funding
allocations include appropriate sums for key back office functions, such as project reporting, communications, HR,
insurance and IT. Given the diversity of the ‘portfolio’ set out in Table 2 above, these costs will vary according to
the scale and complexity of the projects concerned. Because it is a small organisation that receives no core funding
and has no reserves, but which relies on an exceptional degree of professionalism and commitment from its
workers to achieve an impressive range of project outputs and outcomes, the role of F4C’s Chief Executive in
effectively managing staff and resources is paramount. Central to this is maintaining a sustainable income stream
from successful funding bids and new contracts.
This factor was recognised in F4C’s 2013-14 Evaluation: this recommended the implementation of a focused but
flexible skills audit and strategy, fully linked to F4C’s bidding strategy, to maximise the organisation’s resource
base without compromising its charitable objects 2 . As indicated in the more compact structure of F4C’s current
portfolio, the range and scale of income sources in Charts 1 and 2 above, and moves towards more ergonomic
forms of internal management and reporting, the organisation has made significant progress in that direction.
A logical extension of this would be to explore the possibility of making bids to appropriate bodies, such as
charitable trusts, to develop and extend the strategic/back office aspects of F4C’s work. This would help the
organisation further its charitable objectives by securing a dedicated, funded role for forward planning, monitoring
and review of its outreach activities, and thus provide more time and space for partnership development.
Photo 2: The Let’s Cook Global Project, undertaken in partnership with Tomorrow’s Women, Wirral supported
women to cook, learn and eat together while gaining Chartered Institute of Environmental Health Food Safety
and Nutrition qualifications
2 Faiths4Change (2015) Programme Evaluation Report 2013-14, p.4
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