Why smaller charities & non-profits should be bolder

Over the last 6-12 months we’ve seen a small avalanche of coverage about the importance of the voluntary sector. here are just a few examples:

• Recent research by Enthuse finds that 83% of the public believe charities are more important than ever and getting more important. Charities are the most trusted British institutions and almost three quarters of people have given to charity in the last 3 months.

• Against a long term trend of declining volunteering, Rosterfy’s 2026 report on the State of UK Volunteer Management found that almost half of charities reported an increasing in volunteer numbers in the last year.

• The government continues to make positive noises about the role of the voluntary sector, launching its Civil Society Covenant in 2025 (although you’ll forgive us some scepticism, given how many compacts, covenants and so forth we have seen over the last 40+ years).

To counterbalance this, Charity Excellence reported that almost two thirds of charities struggle to find support, financial or otherwise and the government itself published data showing that small and micro charities remain “almost entirely absent” from public contracts.

From our perspective this final point is neither surprising nor worrying. In our view the role of smaller non-profits is precisely not to be a substitute for the state in the way that several larger charities seem to want to be.

We believe that smaller non-profits (who make up more than 95% of the third sector by numbers) are the glue that holds society together. They are more agile, creative and practical than public services can ever be. They are more trusted, and much more likely to galvanise people to give of themselves for the benefit of everyone because they are rooted in the lived experience of the people they aim to help.

Through our work supporting hundreds of smaller non-profits through programmes like Community Catalyst, we see first hand just what a force of nature these, often tiny, organisations can be.

Real people, helping real people because they care.

Why would we want them to become dependent on state procurements, constrained by the regulatory and contractual straightjacket that public service delivery inevitably (and properly) brings?

We don’t want that at all. Let’s leave that to the bigger providers.

There is a (declining) role for government grant support for smaller non-profits, but the sector’s real power comes from the generosity of the ordinary people, charitable foundations, companies and philanthropists who support smaller non-profits. Through that support they should know that they have real credibility, because those supporters see the positive impact they have.

As the state continues to struggle to meet growing demand for public services, we agree with Kate Lee, chief executive of the NCVO, who recently said that the non-profit sector needs to stop thinking of itself as a “safety net” or extra option for government.

We think that increasingly the sector is the primary answer to many of the deep-seated and pernicious challenges facing our communities today.

Kate is right in our view, the sector is far too apologetic about its role.

Smaller non-profits should stand tall, shout loud about their impact and boldly ask for more. More funding, more volunteers and more recognition.

We’re not saying that it’s easy. Competition for support remains the most intense we have known in the quarter of a century or so we have been fundraising. The unstoppable and rapid rise of AI and other technologies, relentlessly rising demand for services and the decline of local infrastructure support continue to represent an existential crisis for smaller non-profits.

But the answer, for us at least, is not rooted in timidity. The answer can only be found in confidence and courage. The boldness to JFDI (look it up because I’m not writing that word in our blog!).

A couple of months ago we wrote that we don’t have a silver bullet to address the existential crisis. and we still don’t. But the answer must lie in the strengths of smaller non-profits (agility, creativity, practical solutions, trust and local engagement) extended and enhanced through confident collaboration with each other: not in begging to government for scraps that create a dependence and constraints that will strangle those very strengths.

Our message is go for it!

W’d love to accompany you on that journey and help where we can.

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Want to find out more? Contact us at julian@almondtreeconsulting.co.uk to discuss your organisation’s needs.