Over the past year every voluntary organisation or community group in Bedfordshire and Luton should have received a Community Mapping Questionnaire to assist infrastructure organisations develop a better understanding of the diversity and size of the sector. The findings from these questionnaires have been published in a new report ‘State of the Sector 2006’ and were presented at a recent conference by Voluntary and Community Action’s David Allen and John Gelder.

To summarise, there were 1,700 organisations throughout Bedfordshire and Luton known at the start of the project. This figure is now 3,826 - an increase of 225%, with 1214 operating specifically in South Bedfordshire and a further 321 operating countywide.

The report analyses the number of organisations and a percentage split for the five areas where these organisations operate (South, Mid and North Bedfordshire, Luton and countywide) for

• 42 different key areas of work
• 35 different types of client groups
• levels and sources of funding
• numbers of paid staff, volunteers, committee members and service users
• number of registered charities
• BME led organisations
• 34 different organisation needs.

Of the 961 organisations that indicated an organisational need, 54% of organisations identified fundraising and funding advice, 37% volunteer recruitment and 26% marketing and promotion.

Participants at the ChangeUp funded conference (also titled State of the Sector) heard about infrastructure organisation's work to sustain and improve the overall provision and support to local voluntary and community sector organisations and were able to contribute ideas for future initiatives.