Support for small charities
Around 60% of our members are from small charities.
We know you face unique challenges as the chair of a small charity. As well as offering our own support and events, we have put together this page about other sources of advice and help for small charities.
Support for chairs of small charities
In a small charity, the chair and trustees are likely to be involved not just in governance but in charity operations too. That can make it more difficult to separate out governance decisions from day-to-day tasks.
Our collaborative community, events, training, and bespoke resources, written by chairs, for chairs, will be helpful to many chairs of small charities.
Below we highlight other sources of support for small charities.
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Membership starts at just £60 a year.
Help for small charities
NCVO has a range of support and advice for small charities, including its small charity helpdesk.
- Find out about the small charity helpdesk and how to get in touch.
- Charities and voluntary organisations with an annual turnover of less than £30,000 can become an NCVO member for free.
- For all the 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 and support specifically for small charities. It has a range of resources, policies, and guides to download.
Members of the ACRE Network cover every rural county in England and can provide help and support to small rural charities over 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, a podcast, advice on funding, books and the Governance App: www.thegovernanceapp.org.uk
Charity Excellence is a free-to-register website with many searchable documents and resources, as well as data and funding-finder tools.
A voice for small charities
NCVO is leading a development project, the Power of Small, to research and test the support that small charities (voluntary organisations with under £1million 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 a longer-term, sustainable programme of support for small charities across the country.
Learning from SCC
Until 2022, the Small Charities Coalition (SCC) was the obvious place for chairs and trustees of small charities to go with questions about running a charity. When SCC announced its 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 its services, SCC 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 the 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 to those who seek to support small charities.