My name is Deborah Miller. I am a mature student who took early retirement in 2004. I am now at Dundee University where I am undertaking a part time PhD into the Funding of Voluntary Organisations in Scotland.

I am currently about to complete my third year. Having worked in and around voluntary organisations, I have been very aware of the difficulties which voluntary organisations encounter when trying to secure sufficient funding to carry out their aims and objectives. As a subject, the funding of voluntary organisations is huge, so I have narrowed it down to looking at how voluntary organisations, whose primary interests are linked to social work, and who are based in Edinburgh – where I live ─ cope with the funding problems which they encounter. I am particularly interested to look at whether the Government's initiatives , such as the Compact, the Concordat, the setting up of OSCR, and the removal of ring fencing around pockets of funding sources, have made it easier and less time consuming for voluntary organisations to access Government and local authority funding.