A research project aiming to map the increasing number of civil society organisations closing and analyse the impact on communities has launched.
PBE, Braw Data and the Decelerator today revealed a joint project with a long-term ambition to work with regulators, policymakers, infrastructure bodies and funders to help more sector organisations that are closing to “end well”.
It estimates that around 12,500 civil society bodies – including registered charities and community interest companies (CICs) – in the UK closed, merged or handed on their work last year, up from around 8,000 a decade earlier.
This equates to 4.6 closures per active organisations in 2025, up from 3.4 in 2015, forming an overall picture of “organisational churn with more endings and more beginnings”.
CICs have a particularly high turnover rate, a blog post announcing the research reads, as they are “starting and ending at much higher rates than other types of civil society organisations”.
“Whether that reflects healthy renewal or growing precarity is a question we’ll return to as the analysis deepens in 2027,” it says.
“What is already clear is that endings are a larger part of civil society’s life than they were.”
Called Closing Time, the project is being funded by Unbound Philanthropy, AB Charitable Trust, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Talent Fund.
Researchers plan a map of national closures early next year alongside a “framework for better and worse endings” aimed at funders, regulators, infrastructure bodies and advisers.
Jon Franklin, co-chief executive of PBE, said: “Demand for the services and support offered by charities, social enterprises and CICs continues to rise, but more of these organisations are ending.
“This is a critical issue for the social sector and policymakers to understand and plan for.”
Iona Lawrence, co-founder of the Decelerator, said: “How we handle endings now will help determine whether civil society is diminished or renewed.
“We hope this work helps the sector face these questions together, with courage, and plan for endings with the same care, ambition and creativity we give to beginnings, knowing that every ending shapes what comes next.”
Diarmuid McDonnell, co-founder of Braw Data, said: “Braw Data is proud and excited to contribute to a better, more informed understanding of how civil society organisations emerge and end.”
