The Community Funding Agency and the voluntary sector: Purchase of service contracting in Otago/Southland

The purpose of this article is to study the efficacy and deficiency of purchase of service contracting in helping the voluntary organisations in the Otago/Southland region in New Zealand and the Community Funding Agency (now defunct) achieve a set of specific objectives. The findings are based on the information collected from (a) the responses of 57 participating voluntary organisations to the questionnaire mailed to them, and (b) face-to-face, open-ended interviews with 28 voluntary sector managers, the three outreach workers operating in the Otago/Southland area at the time of writing and eight people formerly associated with the Community Funding Agency at senior management level. The data obtained through field research are verified with prevailing literature–local as well as international.