Umbrella body NCVO plans to shift its primary focus from service delivery and is considering opening up its membership to ethical businesses as part of its new long-term strategy.
In its strategy, published today, NCVO said it would prioritise four main “drivers” – growing a strong, representative membership; strengthening data, evidence and AI leadership; driving advocacy and strategic influence; and innovating through partnerships and new impact models.
“To achieve our ambitions we need to move away from a model focused mainly on delivering services,” the strategy reads.
“Instead, we will bring together people, ideas, skills and relationships from across civil society and turn them into useful evidence, stronger influence and shared tools.”
NCVO membership is currently open only to “voluntary bodies” such as charities and excludes for-profit businesses such as B Corps, which commit to meeting high standards of social and environmental performance.
However, the strategy reads: “We will consider how growing our membership categories in areas such as B Corps can widen connections for all, benefiting a broad range of organisations of all sizes and categories that want to contribute to a stronger civil society.”
It says NCVO will build a “broader, more representative and more engaged membership community that reflects the diversity, scale and complexity of modern civil society”.
Free membership for more small charities
From today, NCVO is increasing its annual income threshold for free membership from £30,000 to £50,000, which it said would enable 1,200 existing members to avoid paying when they next renew.
The umbrella body estimated that an additional 9,000 charities in the sector would now qualify for free membership under the change.
In its strategy, which does not cover a specific time frame, NCVO pledged to “help smaller charities when they need advice, support and connection”.
It also said it would “improve accessibility and relevance for smaller and underrepresented organisations”.
Specific services such as the small charity helpdesk – which it said would “evolve” earlier this year – are not mentioned in the strategy.
However, an NCVO spokesperson said the helpdesk would continue, as would its practical support, training and consultancy services.
Fewer priorities for advocacy
In its strategy, NCVO also pledged to focus its political influencing on a “smaller number of high-impact priorities”.
It vowed to support more collective action through partnerships and enable other organisations to lead where they have expertise.
“We will focus our partnership work on issues that affect civil society as a whole, rather than on leading thematic campaigns or issue-specific coalitions where members or specialist organisations are better placed to lead,” the strategy reads.
NCVO vowed to invest in its data use, develop its capability in AI and help organisations across the sector make use of the technology.
The umbrella body’s spokesperson confirmed that its flagship annual Civil Society Almanac, which was not published last year, would return in 2026.
Strategic review
NCVO said the strategy – called Together for a Stronger Society – was developed following a strategic review involving over 800 members, partners, staff, trustees, funders and sector experts.
Incoming chair Jude Sheeran said the strategy “aims to address the immediate challenges of our sector while helping to build a stronger civil society in the longer term”.
“We will not rest until our sector is financially and operationally resilient, deeply connected, and influential among the decision-makers that we and those we serve depend on,” he said.
NCVO chief executive Kate Lee said: “This strategy is our commitment to stand alongside civil society, to help it become more resilient, more connected and more influential than ever before.”
