Councillors agreed at a strategy meeting on Monday evening that current strategic Partner Programme which was worth just over £500k to key charities in the borough would now be placed with a fund worth £342k.
With the closure of other grant funding this will deliver a saving of £250k for the borough which faces a cost reduction plan which needs to deliver £40 million.
The new Infrastructure Support and Capacity Building Fund will enable support to be provided to more than 300 voluntary organisations in Sutton to ensure they are sustainable and can continue to serve the local community. The new fund was welcomed by Sutton Centre for the Voluntary Sector (SCVS) and Volunteer Centre Sutton (VC Sutton) the main infrastructure organisations in the borough.
But councillors also agreed to retain in full the Sutton Community Fund which all voluntary organisations can apply for small grants to help them deliver their own services as long as they were in line with the fund priorities .( http://www.suttoncvs.org.uk/funding/sutton-community-fund/)