A charity which offers training to future sector leaders has revealed that two of its flagship programmes have shut.
Charityworks announced on Monday that its leadership development programme and main 2027 project, delivered by consultancy Koreo, had closed “with immediate effect”.
Founded in 2009, the charity said that the closures were due to circumstances outside of the board’s control.
Andrew Hall, Charityworks chair, told Civil Society that “unexpected and sudden” developments had forced the board’s hand.
“The situation changed very quickly and the board was left with no responsible option but to close the programmes,” Hall said.
“The board is working at pace with legal advisers and professional support to understand the situation fully and to determine the most responsible way forward.”
Hall added that the charity’s immediate priorities had been to contact its trainees, host organisations and applicants about the closures.
In its most recent accounts, the charity stated that the leadership development programme has run for more than a decade.
Meanwhile, the 2027 scheme, launched in 2017 “originally with a 10-year timeframe”, was a paid training programme for working-class people looking to work in grant-giving.
Places not filled
From September 2024 to August 2025, some 63 places were filled on the learning development programme, labelled a “disappointing outcome” in the charity’s accounts for that year.
“This past year has continued to be challenging for the sector and for the charity resulting in this reduced number of placements being offered by employers,” it stated.
On the 2027 programme, 10 placements were made that year. It aimed to make 150 placements in total over the course of the programme.
Income from the leadership development programme fell from £432,000 in 2023-24 to £295,000 in 2024-25.
The 2027 initiative also faced a drop from £67,400 in the former year to £41,900 in the latter.
Charityworks’ expenditure on the leadership development programme fell from £342,000 to £252,000 over that period.
It also cut its expenditure on the 2027 project in half from £90,700 to £42,900.
Grants for the 2027 programme also dwindled to nothing in 2024-25 from £23,800 the year prior.
The East Sussex-based charity was registered with the Charity Commission in 2010 and has five trustees.
It has seen its income fall year-on-year since 2022-23, from £745,000 to £443,000 in the financial year ending 31 August 2025.
Its expenditure fell sharply in the same period from £720,000 to £421,000.
Charityworks did not confirm whether it would shut.
