Frequently asked questions

NCVO’s new strategy sets out our long-term direction and the role we will play in helping civil society thrive.

It is built around a clear purpose: to create the conditions for civil society to thrive by strengthening resilience, connection and influence across the sector, so organisations can deliver impact now and for generations to come.

The strategy focuses NCVO’s work around four connected drivers: growing a strong, representative membership; strengthening data, evidence and AI leadership; driving advocacy and strategic influence; and innovating through partnerships and new impact models.

Together, these areas will help NCVO provide greater value to members, strengthen civil society’s collective voice and support the organisations and communities working every day to build a fairer, more connected and more inclusive society.

Our last strategy was launched in 2021. A lot has changed since then. Civil society is now operating in a period of growing pressure and rapid change. Charities, voluntary organisations, community groups and social enterprises are facing rising demand, financial pressure, workforce and volunteer challenges, increasing inequality and a more complex operating environment.

At the same time, political, economic and technological change are reshaping how organisations work, how communities engage and how civil society can create impact.

Through the strategic review, members, partners, staff and stakeholders told us clearly that the sector needs a stronger collective voice, better collaboration, clearer representation, more trusted evidence and organisations that can help improve the wider conditions in which civil society operates.

The review was also planned as NCVO’s current strategy comes towards its end. This strategy builds on what has come before, while responding to the changing needs, pressures and opportunities facing civil society now.

This strategy is NCVO’s response to that context. It sets out a clearer and more focused role for NCVO, making sure we focus where we can make the greatest long-term contribution.

“Together for a stronger society” reflects the central idea behind the strategy: that no single organisation can strengthen civil society alone.

Civil society is strongest when people and organisations come together around a shared purpose. NCVO’s role is to help create the conditions for that to happen by connecting members, strengthening evidence, supporting collaboration, influencing policy and amplifying the collective voice of the sector.

The strategy is built around the idea that membership, evidence, advocacy and partnerships must reinforce one another to create lasting change.

This strategy sets out a clearer and more focused role for NCVO.

NCVO’s previous strategy was developed in a very different context, shaped by the impact of the pandemic and the changing needs of members at that time. The external environment has continued to shift, and this strategy responds to the pressures, opportunities and expectations facing civil society now.

Rather than trying to do everything, it focuses on where NCVO can make the greatest long-term contribution: building collective voice, strengthening evidence and insight, influencing the wider environment, enabling collaboration, and helping create the conditions in which organisations and communities can thrive.

It also moves NCVO towards a more connected model, where membership, evidence, advocacy and partnerships work together rather than being treated as separate areas of activity.

In practice, this means moving away from a model focused mainly on delivering services, and towards a role that brings together ideas, skills and relationships from across civil society and turns them into useful evidence, stronger influence and shared tools.

This is NCVO’s organisational strategy. It sets out NCVO’s long-term role, focus and direction.

However, it is rooted in the needs, challenges and opportunities facing civil society as a whole. The strategy is about how NCVO can make its greatest contribution to strengthening the wider conditions in which charities, voluntary organisations, community groups and social enterprises operate.

It is not a strategy that claims to speak for or direct the whole sector. Instead, it sets out how NCVO will use its membership, evidence, policy influence, convening power and practical resources to help strengthen civil society’s resilience, connection and influence.

This strategy has been shaped through one of the most extensive engagement and evidence-gathering exercises in NCVO’s recent history, involving 80+ individual participants in member focus groups, 220+ survey responses, and 65+ stakeholder interviews.

Over the course of the 2025/26 strategic review, NCVO worked with members, staff, trustees, partners, funders, infrastructure bodies, sector experts and external advisers to understand the challenges facing civil society, the changing role of national infrastructure organisations, and where NCVO can create the greatest long-term value.

This included engagement with the Strategic Review Advisory Panel, made up of 28 NCVO members, discussions with the Small Charities Advisory Panel, and multiple Board and staff engagement points across the review.

We combined all this insight with organisational performance data, environmental analysis, sector evidence and external consultancy reviews to understand where NCVO can create the greatest long-term value.

Members are central to the strategy.

NCVO wants to create more opportunities for members to engage, connect, share insight and help shape the issues that affect civil society.

The strategy aims to strengthen the value members get from NCVO through practical support, trusted insight, opportunities for connection and learning, and a stronger platform for collective voice, influence and action.

We also want our membership community to continue reflecting the diversity, scale and complexity of modern civil society, so member insight can more directly inform NCVO’s evidence, policy and influencing work.

Small charities play a vital role in delivering trusted, locally rooted and community-led support, often reaching communities and individuals that larger institutions cannot.

The evidence gathered through the strategic review consistently showed that smaller organisations are often the most exposed to financial fragility, digital exclusion, workforce pressures and rising governance and compliance demands, while also being least able to access infrastructure, insight and investment.

Through the strategy, NCVO will focus on strengthening the systems that help small charities succeed, including influencing policy, funding environments, infrastructure coordination, access to insight and collective voice.

Yes. As part of the strategy, NCVO is raising the threshold for free membership for small charities from £30,000 charity income per year to £50,000 per year.

This change means more organisations can access expert guidance, practical resources, networking opportunities, policy insight and a community of charities working together to strengthen society.

It's also an important part of our commitment to building a stronger and more representative membership. The more organisations that are connected, informed and engaged, the stronger civil society becomes.

Following launch, we will develop a five-year delivery plan setting out the priorities, activity and measures that will support the strategy from April 2027.

In the meantime, the strategy will start shaping business planning, prioritisation, team planning and engagement with members, colleagues and stakeholders.

The strategy is not a detailed delivery plan for every activity from day one. It provides a clear framework for focus and decision-making, helping NCVO prioritise where it can make the greatest contribution to civil society.

More detailed delivery plans will set out how the strategy will translate into activity, investment, measures of success and progress updates.