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Four charities that helped other charities have closed, and one has gone into administration

Qurexa Editorial Team17 October 20267 min read 0 0
Four charities that helped other charities have closed, and one has gone into administration

What happened

On 15 October 2026, Dame Julia Unwin, Chair of the Charity Commission, gave a speech at the regulator's Annual Public Meeting in London. It was titled "A precious treasure: sustaining charities, building communities and protecting public trust". Most of the news in it was not good. She reported that the Directory of Social Change has gone into administration. She also named four organisations that have closed: Getting on Board, the Foundation for Social Improvement, the Small Charities Coalition, and Children England. What these bodies had in common is important. They did not mainly help the public directly. They helped other charities. They trained trustees, advised small charities on fundraising, and spoke for the sector. In her words, the infrastructure organisations that support charities are under serious strain. One piece of better news: Reach Volunteering's future is secured until the end of 2028. She also gave figures on the Commission's own work. Last year it assessed over 11,700 applications and registered 4,650 new charities. Its regulatory compliance caseload rose 23%, and requests for regulatory action rose 7%. The Commission itself is getting more money. The government has given it a funding uplift of around 25% a year on average over three years, mainly for digital services. She cited an estimate from NCVO that volunteering is worth around £18 billion a year. On the Commission's role, she argued that an independent regulator is vital for protecting public trust, and that it should decide cases on evidence rather than on public or media pressure. She also noted that a government consultation on tougher powers against hateful extremism was published the day before her speech, and said the Commission supports it provided the measures carry proper safeguards. She condemned the intimidation faced by RNLI volunteers. Her broader argument was that charities are essential to economic growth and community wellbeing. She called them "a prerequisite, not a happy by-product".

Why this matters

There is an odd shape to these numbers, and it is the shape that tells the story. New charities are still being set up: 4,650 of them registered last year. So the appetite to start something is clearly there. At the same time, the organisations that existed to help small charities survive have been closing. That means more people than ever are starting charities, with less help available on how to run one. Running a charity properly is harder than most people expect. You need to understand trustee duties, which are legal duties. You need to keep accounts and file them on time. You need policies on safeguarding if you work with children or vulnerable adults. You need to know what you can and cannot do with restricted funds. None of this is obvious, and almost nobody arrives knowing it. That is what organisations like Getting on Board and the Small Charities Coalition were for. Their closure does not make the headlines that a big charity scandal does, but it makes the next scandal more likely, because mistakes made from ignorance are the most common kind. The £18 billion volunteering figure is worth sitting with too. That is an estimate of unpaid work, which never appears in any budget. The people doing it are mostly in small organisations: the ones with no paid staff, no HR department, and nobody to ask when something goes wrong. And the rising caseload at the Commission, up 23% on compliance, fits the same picture. More problems are arriving at the regulator at the same time as fewer organisations exist to prevent them.

What the evidence actually says

A few distinctions are worth making, because this is the kind of story that gets flattened. Administration and closure are not the same thing. The Directory of Social Change has gone into administration, which is a formal insolvency process. It can sometimes end with part of an organisation continuing. The four named bodies have closed. Nothing in the speech says the sector as a whole is collapsing. New registrations are healthy. What is described is a specific weakness in a specific layer: the organisations that support other organisations. That layer is the hardest to fund, because donors naturally prefer to give to front-line work rather than to training trustees. On the £18 billion volunteering figure, note that it is an estimate from NCVO and it is cited, not produced by the Commission. Valuations of unpaid work depend heavily on the assumptions used. On the Commission's funding, a 25% average annual uplift over three years sounds substantial, and the speech says it is mainly for digital services. That means better systems rather than more help for charities, so it should not be read as replacing the support that has been lost. On the extremism consultation, be careful about what was said. The Commission supports it provided the measures have proper safeguards. That is conditional support, not endorsement, and the condition is the part that matters. Finally, the point about deciding cases on evidence rather than public or media pressure is a statement of principle from the regulator's own chair. It is a reasonable principle. It is also, by its nature, the sort of thing that is easier to state than to demonstrate.

Practical advice

If you are a trustee of a small charity, the closure of these support bodies means you need to know where help still comes from. The Charity Commission publishes free guidance on GOV.UK, including the essential trustee guide, and it costs nothing to read. Local councils for voluntary service still exist in many areas and often run free training. Reach Volunteering is still operating, with its future secured until the end of 2028. It matches people with skills to charities that need trustees and volunteers. If your board has a gap, that is the obvious first place to look. If you volunteer or want to, the £18 billion figure is not an abstraction: it is made up of individual hours. Small local organisations tend to need treasurers, trustees and people who can handle paperwork far more than they need extra helpers at events. If you give to charity, this story is a reason to think about who you give to. Unrestricted donations, which the charity can spend as it needs, are far more useful to a small organisation than a donation tied to one specific project. Core running costs are exactly what has been hardest to fund. You can check any registered charity on the Charity Commission's online register before giving. It shows accounts, trustees and whether filings are up to date. And if you are thinking about starting a charity, consider first whether an existing one already does what you want to do. Joining one is usually more effective than founding another, and it is a great deal less work.

What to know

Dame Julia Unwin, Chair of the Charity Commission, spoke at its Annual Public Meeting in London on 15 October 2026. The Directory of Social Change has gone into administration. Getting on Board, the Foundation for Social Improvement, the Small Charities Coalition and Children England have closed. These were organisations that supported other charities. Reach Volunteering's future is secured until the end of 2028. The Commission assessed over 11,700 applications and registered 4,650 new charities last year. Its compliance caseload rose 23% and requests for regulatory action rose 7%. It is receiving a funding uplift of around 25% a year on average over three years, mainly for digital services. NCVO estimates volunteering is worth around £18 billion a year. The Commission gave conditional support to a government consultation on tougher powers against hateful extremism, subject to proper safeguards. Free Charity Commission guidance remains available on GOV.UK, and the charity register can be searched by anyone before they donate. Sources: GOV.UK (Charity Commission for England and Wales), "A precious treasure: sustaining charities, building communities and protecting public trust", 15 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/a-precious-treasure-sustaining-charities-building-communities-and-protecting-public-trust ; GOV.UK, Charity Commission for England and Wales, https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/charity-commission This article is for general information and is not legal, financial or governance advice. Trustees should rely on official Charity Commission guidance and take professional advice where needed.

#charities#volunteering#Charity Commission#community#voluntary sector#public trust

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