a third threatened by the drop in subsidies

For twenty years now, the Mobil’emploi association, located in Quimper (Finistère), has been bringing precarious workers, often former long-term unemployed people, to their workplace. It transports around a hundred of them on its scooters, in its cars and in its vans, driven by drivers who are themselves in integration. But 2026 may be the year we run out of fuel. The end of its essential mission for the local economic fabric. Because its cash flow suddenly deteriorated in 2024.

However, the accounts were in balance until then. “We brought together our ten employees and our twenty drivers to warn them that the situation was very complicated,” says François Bernardelli, secretary of the association. There will perhaps be a job protection plan. We are not confident about the future.”

At issue: the 17% drop in the department’s subsidies. They represent almost a quarter of the association’s budget. The local authority must scale back, affected by the drop in state funding and the increase in its costs. Mobil’emploi costs have also increased.

Maintenance bills for its vehicles by garages have exploded since the war in Ukraine. And the salaries of its employees have had to be increased by 16% since 2022, under the collective agreement for workshops and integration projects. “These increasing costs prevent us from investing,” notes François Bernardelli. And force us to take the vehicles beyond the limits we had set for ourselves.” Which further increases repair costs. If the other subsidies – those paid by the State and the intercommunity – have not changed, Mobil’emploi’s only chance would be to obtain an exceptional contribution from a public partner.

An essential role

Mobil’emploi is not an isolated case among solidarity associations. “Our recent study on their cash flow shows that a third of them are likely to disappear,” warns Pascal Brice, president of the Federation of Solidarity Actors (FAS). Social plans have already been launched at Secours catholique, APF France Handicap or Aid. Almost all of them are suffering from the inflationary crisis and the reduction in public allocations, which often represent 90% of their budget.

Added to this are subsidy payments that are slow to come due to budgetary uncertainty. Structures are forced to take out bank loans, which further weakens their finances. The delay in a state subsidy, for example, put ValOrise, near Saumur (Maine-et-Loire), on the verge of liquidation this year. This association fighting against food waste only managed by launching a citizen appeal to collect the missing sum. “We are lucky to be quite well known in the region,” breathes Peggy Jousse-Peralta, its founder.

This disengagement of public authorities could have dramatic consequences, warns Pascal Brice: “Homeless people, women victims of violence, the unemployed, drug addicts will be left abandoned. Not taking care of them poses a problem of human dignity, but also a threat to public peace. We have been alerting the public authorities for months because there is a sort of suspicion among them that the associations will still be there. That they will just have to dip into the cash to leave. This is not true. Yet they are the ones who hold the country.”

Aware that public money will become scarcer due to the debt crisis, the FAS has proposed ways to the government to make significant savings in the voluntary sector. Like planning the opening of accommodation structures over the long term rather than ordering associations to do so in the event of a temporary crisis. “In an emergency, we buy land that is too expensive. We must stop managing public finances on a small-scale basis,” says Pascal Brice.

Use sponsorship

The future will probably involve more corporate sponsorship. ValOrise has already started this shift. During her recent fundraising round, she received money from the Yuka application and the La Tourangelle oil mill. It also seeks to establish long-term partnerships with corporate foundations.

But this will only be possible if the tax reductions granted to companies that practice sponsorship or launch foundations are not cut, as proposed in a state report in July. “In which case, that would mean that the State no longer wants an association in France,” sighs Peggy Jousse-Peralta.