Power of Small project report

The external environment is incredibly challenging for small voluntary organisations (‘Smalls’, which we define as having annual income under £1m). While all voluntary organisations are experiencing growing pressure, the impact on Smalls is particularly acute.

Need is rising, costs are increasing and resources – such as income, staff and volunteers – are becoming scarcer. As inequalities deepen, demand on Smalls continues to grow, often without a corresponding increase in support or capacity.

Smalls are a vital part of the country’s social infrastructure. Ranging from grassroots to national and international organisations, they work across a wide range of causes – supporting community cohesion, strengthening civil society, and improving lives in the places people live and beyond.

Enabling Smalls to fulfil their potential is a key aim of the Power of Small project. By developing a more coordinated and comprehensive support offer, NCVO and our infrastructure partners can help small organisations build the capacity they need to deliver impactful, effective work.

Creating spaces for organisations and individuals to learn from one another will also strengthen the sector and encourage collaboration and sharing. To this end, we are also seeking to build strong relationships across the small voluntary sector community.

The closure of the Small Charities Coalition in 2022 and the Foundation for Social Improvement (FSI) in 2023 left a significant gap in the infrastructure support for Smalls. These closures compounded challenges for organisations already navigating a fragmented and under-resourced ecosystem.

Insights from the Small and Mighty report and feedback from FSI members, the small charities advisory panel, NCVO members (particularly via our small charity helpdesk) and partners from the Civil Society Group helped shape our understanding of this evolving landscape.

The Power of Small project aimed to build on that learning by mapping and enhancing our collective understanding of the wider ecosystem in which small voluntary organisations operate.

Infrastructure exists at multiple levels – local, national, specialist and thematic – and each plays a unique role in enabling small charities to thrive. As outlined in the Infrastructure Analysis Report (2023), the UK is home to nearly 700 infrastructure bodies, with local infrastructure organisations forming the majority.

However, funding pressures, service rationalisation and a lack of strategic investment have weakened infrastructure at every level. Rather than duplicating functions, the future must lie in coordinated collaboration.

Stronger links between local and national infrastructure – especially between generalist, cause-specific and community-led organisations – are essential to ensure Smalls can access timely, trusted and relevant support, wherever they are.

Local and national infrastructure bodies each have a critical role to play in supporting Smalls, but their strengths lie in different areas.

Local infrastructure is often embedded within communities, providing direct, place-based support tailored to the needs of small organisations.

National infrastructure, meanwhile, tends to operate at a broader level – developing tools, shaping policy, building capacity and creating conditions that benefit the whole sector.

This distinction matters. Infrastructure is valuable not because it supports individual voluntary organisations, but because it strengthens the systems and the environment in which they operate. However, both local and national bodies are under growing financial pressure, with many national organisations reliant on membership and trading income. This is often reinvested to support those least able to pay.

In this context, supporting Smalls effectively requires a more strategic and better-connected approach between local and national infrastructure – ensuring that Smalls can access joined-up, coherent support and are equipped to thrive collectively as well as individually.

We believe that a well-supported, well-resourced and capable local voluntary sector is a necessary condition for developing strong, resilient communities. From the pandemic to the cost-of-living crisis, recent years have shown the value of community-led action, and the urgent need to invest in the organisations that make it possible.