What do voluntary organisations do?

Need to know

Voluntary organisations carry out a range of different types of work.
Social services - a relatively broad category - is the largest subsector, representing almost a fifth of all voluntary organisations
Voluntary organisations that focus on international and research work make up most of the top 10 voluntary organisations by income.
Almost all parent-teacher associations, village halls and scout groups are micro or small organisations with an annual income of less than £100,000.

In the Almanac, we use the International Classification of Non-profit Organisations (ICNPO) to describe the activities of voluntary organisations.
Organisations are classified into 18 subsectors. Some of these categories are very broad. Social services, for instance, includes youth services, family services including domestic violence shelters, services for disabled and elderly people, and support groups. Other categories are focused on one particular type of organisation, for example parent-teacher associations (see table below).
This classification system is not perfect. In reality, many organisations undertake multiple activities (for example, housing and advice) while the ICNPO classification groups organisations into a single category based on their primary activity. However, this still allows us to look at and compare discrete groups of voluntary organisations.
NCVO has been involved in work with Dr Christopher Damm of the University of Sheffield and David Kane on a new UK Charity Classification System, designed to better reflect the diversity of charities. We hope to feed this work into future Almanacs.
For more information see our page on the ICNPO classification.

Social services remains the largest subsector - both for number of organisations and total income. In 2019/20, there were 31,560 organisations involved in social services or 19% of all organisations, with a combined income of £13.3bn.
The next largest subsector is culture and recreation, with 24,565 organisations or 15% of the sector, and a combined income of £6.5bn. This was followed by religion at 16,155 (10%), with an income of £3bn.
For more information on the number of organisations, income, and expenditure of each subsector, see our page on ICNPOs.

Organisations focused on international development and research make up most of the top 10 largest voluntary organisations by income.
Motability has become the UK’s largest charity (by income) and the first charity with over £1bn in income in any one year (due to a second large endowment from its corporate arm). Save the Children International is the second largest charity after being top for several years, with an income of £905m in 2019/20.
Msi Reproductive Choices (otherwise known as Marie Stopes International), is a new entrant to the top 10 list in 2019/20 with income of £308m.

80% of voluntary organisations are micro or small (income less than £100,000). This is the case for almost all parent-teacher associations (99%), village halls (98%) and scout groups and youth clubs (93%). This is not surprising as these types of organisations are very locally focused.
Subsectors with the largest proportion of large, major and super-major organisations (income more than £1m) are health (10%), umbrella bodies (10%), employment and training (9%), and research (9%). These organisations are more likely to operate nationally.
Out of 64 super-major organisations (income more than £100m), 17 were social services (27%) and 11 each were health (17%) and international charities (17%). This is disproportionately higher than their overall proportion of the voluntary sector.