Capacitybuilders is a non-departmental government body established in 2006 to run the government’s ChangeUp programme, which aims to help the sector ‘change up’ a gear in terms of its ability to do what it does.  

The £80m, three-year ChangeUp programme was originally launched in 2004 by the Home Office under then-minister with responsibility for charities Fiona Mactaggart.  The national part of the programme comprised six ‘hubs of expertise’ whose objectives were to boost charities’ capacity in terms of their IT, their workforce, their governance, their financial management, their impact, and their use of volunteers.

But power struggles within the sector about who should administer the hubs resulted in the Home Office putting the whole affair at arms’ length, and creating Capacitybuilders to manage the ChangeUp programme on its behalf. Simon Hebditch was its first chief executive, and under him Capacitybuilders scrapped the hubs and replaced them with nine National Support Services. Compared with what the hubs got, their budget has been slashed, from £28m over three years to £16.8m for 2008-11, and responsibility for them has been shared out amongst a much greater spread of sector bodies than before.

In April 2008, Hebditch resigned from the job. In January 2009, Matt Leach started in his place.  

The nine National Support Services are on the themes of:

• Governance – led by NCVO
• Change – led by NCVO
• Campaigning – led by NCVO
• Performance - led by Charities Evaluation Services
• Income – led by Acevo
• Communications – led by Media Trust
• Equality – led by Women’s Resource Centre
• Collaboration – led by Bassac
• Volunteering – led by Volunteering England