‘Hoovering up the Money’? : Delivering government-funded capacity-building programmes to voluntary and community organisations

The 'ChangeUp' and FutureBuilders initiatives have provided substantial funding to support and facilitate 'capacity building' in voluntary and community organisations and so enable them to contribute to the achievement of public and social policy goals. This paper builds on findings from a study of an early 'capacity-building' programme delivered between 1998 and 2005. We explore the challenges of implementing such initiatives for voluntary sector intermediary bodies involved in delivering them and for the voluntary and community organisations intended as the main beneficiaries. We conclude with a discussion about the implications for policy implementation