Çigdemim neighbourhood association in Turkey: What the Big Society can achieve without any government funding

Costs and savings

Given that the neighbourhood association is a truly bottom-up initiative, it involves no costs for government. Quite the opposite: the activities of the neighbourhood office has improved the quality of life of many local residents, and in particular, improved educational levels of disadvantaged groups and reduced the need for some kinds of public sector spending.

The annual budget of the neighbourhood association is about 30.000 Turkish Lira, which mainly comes from membership fees, revenues from activities and donations and sales from recycling. However, the association has more resources than its small budget – the board members invest about 6-7 hours per week in volunteering and the remaining members volunteer on average about 1-2 hours per week, according to the estimates of the vice-president Fatih Aksoy.