Although household-name charities often get the limelight, the reality is that most charities are small. Of the hundreds of thousands of voluntary or charitable organisations in the UK, 96% are small charities with an annual income of less than £1 million.
Supporting small charities and their chairs
In a small charity, the chair and trustees are likely to be involved not just in governance but in actually running the charity day to day too. That can make it more difficult to separate out governance decisions from day-to-day tasks.
That’s why we have a library of resources for supporting small charities and their chairs. Click to read our resources for smaller charities. Governance is what we specialise in.
Until recently, the Small Charities Coalition (SCC) was the obvious place for chairs of small charities to go. Sadly after 14 years of championing small and mighty charities, Small Charities Coalition closed on 31 March 2022, but it has handed over some services which we highlight below along with other sources of support for small charities.
Resources to support small charities
NCVO have a range of support and advice for small charities, including their small charity helpdesk.
- Find out about their small charity helpdesk and how to get in touch.
- Charities and voluntary organisations with an annual turnover of less than £30,000 can become NCVO members for free.
- For all their support aimed at small charities, visit the NCVO website.
Local infrastructure organisations offer information and support for charity and community groups in their area. You can find your nearest on the NAVCA website. NAVCA is the membership body for local infrastructure organisations across England. Its members support around 200,000 local charities and voluntary groups.
Small Charity Support is a CIO that offers resources specifically supporting small charities. They have a range of resources, policies, and guides to download.
ACRE covers every rural county in England. They help small rural charities with set-up, governance, regulation and finding local sources of grants. They have specialist support for charities that run Village Halls and community buildings.
WCVA membership is open to any charity, voluntary group, community group, or social enterprise working in Wales and is free for organisations with an income of less than £50,000.
Community Matters offers help and support to predominantly very small charities (especially those that manage a community building) across the whole of the United Kingdom. You can access their factsheets and get their free newsletter.
Directory of Social Change also offers services, information and advice to small charities. This includes free Zoom sessions; video content; podcasts; and The Governance App.
Charity Excellence – a free-to-register website with many searchable documents and resources, and data and funding finder tools.
A voice for small charities
SCC also played a key role in being a voice for small charities. They drew decision-makers’ attention to the specific contributions and needs of smaller charities.
NCVO is leading a development project to research and test the support that ‘Smalls’ (voluntary organisations with under £ 1 million of income) need from infrastructure bodies to be resilient and thrive over the coming years. The Association of Chairs is a partner in this project.
The impact of this project will be in the strength of the design of the longer-term, sustainable programme of support for Smalls across the country.
Learning from Small Charities Coalition (SCC)
When the SCC announced closure in December 2021, its trustees and staff, in collaboration with other infrastructure bodies and funders, considered how they could secure a positive legacy to support small charities going forward.
In addition to securing ongoing delivery of some of their services, they also commissioned an independent final evaluation report, Small and Mighty: A report on the life and legacy of the Small Charities Coalition. The report reflects on both the successes and challenges facing Small Charities Coalition, itself a small charity. It provides a powerful case study of themes that will be familiar to other small charities. It also draws useful wider lessons for those who seek to support small charities.
At AoC, we worked closely with SCC. We wish our former colleagues well and thank them for the excellent work they did for small charities over the last 14 years.
