Acevo is to move into the same building as NCVO next summer, but denies it is the first step towards a merger of the two umbrella bodies.
“Merger is not even on the cards,” insisted Acevo’s deputy chief executive Peter Kyle. “It hasn’t entered into any of our discussions at all, either internally at Acevo, at board level, at staff level, at directors’ group level, not even between me and Stephen, and it’s certainly not played any part in discussions between us and NCVO."
However, he admitted it was a “significant move” that would be of interest to plenty of people in the sector. Acevo’s board only made the decision yesterday and Kyle was keen to announce it quickly.
“I didn’t want it to trickle out because a lot of people have vested interests in talking our relationship, so it’s good to get it out there. We are aware that the relationship we have with NCVO is something that people are very interested in and one that a lot of people want to see improved going forward.”
But he insisted the move shouldn’t be confused with “other shotgun marriages currently going on in the sector which are marriages of convenience because of finance and circumstance”.
“This isn’t that,” Kyle said. “This is two organisations that are in a position of strength at the moment – particularly Acevo is in a position of strength - and this is our way of thinking very cold-headedly about how we can continue to increase our services to our members and deliver on behalf of the sector.”
He said the two organisations have been working well together behind the scenes on a whole range of issues for some time now, while not announcing it publicly.
“I think our relationship goes wrong when we announce one big grand project that we’re working on together and then that piece of work takes on all the baggage of our two organisations and our two memberships. Then all the hopes and cynicism that’s out there in the sector all gets focused on one project.”
Instead, recent work has focused on the two policy teams getting together and “having very frank exchanges of opinion”, along with preparation work for some of the work streams for their strategic partnerships with the Office for Civil Society. “That has opened the door to this kind of thing being possible,” said Kyle.
Not ‘homogenisation’
Acevo will not be moving into the new fourth floor being built at the NCVO’s 'civil society hub' at King’s Cross – it is expecting to occupy half of the second or third floor. It definitely won’t be sharing a floor with NCVO, however Kyle said he was very keen to improve the social relationships between NCVO and Acevo staff.
“I’ve personally been pushing very hard for our two organisations to get to know each other a lot better socially. But this doesn’t mean that Acevo’s culture is going to change. I want to make very clear to those people for whom Acevo gets up their noses, or the other extreme, who absolutely love us – they should rest assured that we will still get up their nose or they will still love us. This isn’t a step towards homogenisation of the way we do things.
“We need to retain the good bits of the friction between our organisations and find ways of overcoming the negative bits.”
Acevo has occupied its current building at 1 New Oxford Street since 2005. Kyle said the move is not driven by a “need” to make cost savings but the move “does make very good economic sense”. There are no plans at the moment to share any back-office services such as IT but he said this would undoubtedly be explored once Acevo has moved in.
The civil society hub at Regent’s Wharf is already home to Volunteering England and Bond as well as NCVO.
Maude: Acevo and NCVO 'same sort of organisation'
As well as sharing offices, Acevo and NCVO will also be sharing a seat on the board of the Big Society Trust, the new group set up to ensure the Big Society Bank (now called Big Society Capital) stays true to its mission.
The Trust's board includes Baroness Jill Pitkeathley, founding member of Acevo and president of Volunteering England; founder of Community Links David Robinson and Peter Holbrook, CEO of the Social Enterprise Coalition.
However, Acevo and NCVO will be sharing a seat on the board, with Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo and Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, rotating every three years.
Sir Stephen will take the position for the next three years.
Explaining the move yesterday at the launch of the Trust, minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude said the two should rotate as “they are the same sort of organisation and cover the same territory”.
