Participants highlighted the uncertainty, discontinuities and abbreviated time_frame_s of funding processes in the sector. The complexity of these processes is captured in the words of one participant:

You have to make your applications to 101 different funding sources; you can’t do anything about it until someone says ‘yes’ that’s OK; then you’ve got to report back on it after it’s been done; if you don’t spend all that $ because you’ve done it efficiently, in some instances there’s an obligation on you to pay that $ back. You have so many people you’re reporting to.

The consequences for social economy practitioners include (among other issues):

* difficulty of managing multiple funding sources;
* administration costs;
* failure to acknowledge the difference between programs and projects;
* the demands of focusing on core business but also packing projects all of which must be funded;
* short term vs sustainable funding; and the
* need to have many people with many different skills on staff.

A key question raised was: "How do you lift/diversify your funding _base_?" Participants noted that most funders from the government, foundations and private segments were more likely to fund start-up capital works than services. Finally, as one participant concluded: Funding in the Social Economy is like lining up for rations.