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Help and guidance

Our help and guidance content includes step-by-step guides, downloadable templates and interactive tools to help you run your voluntary organisation

Setting up

Learn about the practical steps you need to take to set up your own organisation

  • Setting up

Deciding to set up a new charitable organisation

Access our guidance to help you decide if you should set up a new charity, voluntary organisation or community group

  • Setting up

Choosing your legal structure

What you need to consider when choosing your legal structure and the main characteristics of different legal structures

  • Setting up

Understanding charity status and registration

Find out what charity status is and if you need to register as a charity

  • Setting up

Understanding social enterprise

Find out about social enterprises and their associated legal structures

  • Setting up

A charity's governing document: What it should include

Find out what information should be included in your charity's governing document

  • Setting up

Running a charity

Guidance and tools to help you run your charity or voluntary organisation

  • Employing and managing staff
  • Setting up
  • Closing down

Employing and managing staff

Practical guidance to help you recruit, manage and develop paid members of staff, including a useful introduction to employment law

  • Employing and managing staff

Open letter to the chancellor on the impact of increased employer National Insurance Contributions for charities

We’ve written to the chancellor calling for urgent action on the planned increase to employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for the voluntary sector

  • Employing and managing staff
  • Funding and income

Trustees’ Week 2024: Celebrating trustees’ dedication and impact

This Trustees' Week we celebrated the role of trustees across the UK and explored the challenges and opportunities in trustee recruitment and retention

  • Involving volunteers
  • Governance

Can we Bank on the Banks? New Report Highlights Ongoing Challenges

  • Collaboration
  • Financial management

Why Investing in Volunteering is Money Well Spent

  • Funding and income
  • Involving volunteers

NCVO Strengthens Board with New Appointments

  • Leadership
  • Governance

Overcoming sticking points in strategy development: A conversation with Sini and Sam

  • Business planning and strategy
  • Impact and evaluation
  • Consultancy

Small Charity Week 2025: New match funding campaign to boost small charities

  • Funding and income
  • Campaigning

New members join Small Charities Advisory Panel to strengthen the voice of small charities

  • Campaigning
  • Governance

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh announced as NCVO’s new Royal Patron

  • Inside NCVO

Our financial position and the importance of timing

Learn more about your organisation's financial position and understanding the timings of financial challenges

  • Financial management

Insolvency and cashflow forecasts

Learn more about what insolvency means and how cashflow forecasting can help

  • Financial management

Taking control, adopting a people-centred approach and seeking professional advice

Guidance on taking control of your situation, adopting a people-centred approach and seeking professional advice

  • Financial management

Managing your energy costs

Learn about what support is available for managing energy costs and being energy efficient

  • Financial management

Key stages of collaboration

Learn about the key stages of collaboration and what they mean for your organisation

  • Collaboration

What is collaborative working?

Collaborative working, also known as joint or partnership working, covers a variety of ways that two or more organisations can work together

  • Collaboration

Benefits and risks of collaborative working

Decide whether collaboration will help you achieve your aims by learning about the potential benefits and risks

  • Collaboration

Should you collaborate?

A checklist of questions to help you decide whether to work collaboratively on a given project.

  • Collaboration

Top tips for collaboration

Tips to help voluntary organisations collaborate effectively with the right partners

  • Collaboration

The collaboration spectrum

This page explains the different ways that voluntary organisations may collaborate in order to bid for and deliver a commissioned contract

  • Collaboration

Leading change and transformation (2 days)

This practical two-day course for aspiring and existing charity leaders will teach you how to adapt to an ever-changing environment. Learn how to successfully deliver meaningful change to improve your team or organisation

Advanced project management (1 day)

Are you confident in your general project management skills but looking to strengthen your expertise? This course moves beyond the basics of project management to better understand techniques, activities and principles within a charity context.

Managing people in the charity sector (2 days)

This course will equip managers in the voluntary sector with the skills and techniques they need to effectively manage paid members of staff

Good practice in volunteer management (1 day)

This course provides an introduction to the key principles of good volunteer management and how to apply them in your organisation

Advanced data protection (2 x 0.5 days)

This advanced course is specifically for data protection leads or officers in charitable organisations.

Governance Forum

Our Governance Forum is a space for charity governance professionals and those who support good governance to come together, learn and network

Boost your personal influence and impact (0.5 day)

Learn practical tools and techniques to increase your capability, confidence and impact when seeking to influence others – both within and outside your organisation

Charity finance strategy (1 day)

This course will give you an overview of how to build a simple finance strategy. We’ll introduce tools to help you build the financial resilience of your charity

Data protection essentials (2 x 0.5 days)

This essentials course is suitable for anyone within an organisation that handles the personal data of staff, service users, beneficiaries, volunteers, customers, members or supporters, and needs to know the basics of data protection for voluntary organisations.

Safeguarding essentials for trustees (0.5 day)

This introductory course explains the key trustee responsibilities for safeguarding, following guidance from the Charity Commission