Charity chief executives’ membership body ACEVO has announced lower fees for leaders of smaller charities in an effort to improve accessibility.
ACEVO announced this week that it had reduced its membership fees by £50 for leaders of charities with incomes below £500,000.
This means leaders of charities with incomes under £100,000 will now pay £149 a year, while those with revenues of £100,000 to £500,000 will be charged £219.
The body has also removed its £45 joining fee for all new members and unveiled ACEVO Connect, a £50 membership option for leaders of charities with incomes under £100,000 and those who are between roles or retired, which will launch in September.
Coinciding with Small Charity Week, ACEVO said the changes aim to ensure that “charity leaders of organisations of all sizes can access the support, connection and practical help they need”.
“We know that many charity leaders, particularly those in smaller organisations, are working in an increasingly difficult environment, with rising demand, financial uncertainty and constant pressure on limited resources,” it said.
“We’ve heard clearly that cost can be a barrier, and we’ve been thinking carefully about what we can do to make ACEVO more accessible without compromising the quality of the support and community we offer.
“These changes are part of that. ACEVO exists to support charity leaders, and we want to make sure that support is available to as many people as possible, whatever the size of their organisation.”
CRA changes membership charges
Meanwhile, the Charity Retail Association (CRA) announced last week that from 2027, it would no longer charge charity members based on their number of brick-and-mortar shops.
Instead, it will charge members according to their overall retail income and use income bands to calculate the charge.
CRA said this will be “a fairer and more consistent way of charging you according to the size of your operation”.
The body said it was not changing its membership fee structure to make more money, hoping that charity membership revenues would remain similar to current levels.
“However, if we don’t take this action, we foresee a significant decline in our overall income over time, which will severely compromise our ability to provide the services we currently offer and potentially lead to cutbacks in both staff and services,” it said.
Since its establishment in 2000, CRA has charged its members based on the size of their physical retail estate.
The charity said at that time, online trading in charity retail was “almost unknown, and shops were pretty consistent in size – the 500 sq ft ‘standard’ shop being fairly universal”.
“Since then however, the world has changed significantly, and we believe it’s time for our charging method to reflect more accurately the way our members are doing business.”
Increased shop sizes
Figures published by CRA show that between 2020 and 2025, its membership increased from 410 to 461, while the average number of shops per member fell from 22.3 to 19.4.
CRA said if the decline in the number of physical shops continues, there will be a severe impact on its income over time.
It reported a steady increase in the proportion of its members’ online income, from 3.3% in Q1 2023 to 5.9% in Q4 2025, and in the size of individual shops.
“Although we do now charge for an online presence, it’s a flat fee which doesn’t reflect the growing proportion of income from this source,” CRA said.
On the increase in the average shop size, CRA said across its membership, there were 166 superstores at the end of 2025, a 7.1% year-on-year increase. By contrast, the number of standard shops fell by 2.6%.
“It’s clear that the increase in size of shops is connected to the decrease in the number of shops; opening a superstore will obviously have an effect on the number of smaller shops in the same area,” it said.
“For all these reasons, it’s clear to us that the number of bricks and mortar shops alone is no longer an accurate way of gauging the size of a charity’s retail operation.”
