Resources / Insights

Support for Smaller Charities

Support for smaller charities today means more than just funding. With volunteer numbers falling, staff turnover rising and executive teams stretched thin, smaller charities need practical tools that reduce admin, protect people’s time and keep governance running smoothly – without adding to anyone’s workload.

Key Points:

Formal volunteering in England has fallen to its lowest recorded level
Nearly two-thirds of small charities report volunteer recruitment difficulties
85% of small charity leaders have experienced poor mental health due to their role
The right governance platform can cut hours of admin and reduce team fatigue

The numbers don’t lie

The picture facing smaller charities in 2025 is genuinely tough. Formal volunteering participation in England has fallen from 27% in 2013/14 to just 16% in 2023/24 – the lowest level since data collection began.

For larger organisations, that’s a recruitment challenge. For smaller charities, it can be existential.

Small charities are being hit hardest, with 65% reporting volunteer recruitment difficulties over the last 12 months – up from 58% the previous year. At the same time, 68% of organisations now expect to depend more on unpaid help due to financial uncertainty – a significant jump from previous years – because they cannot afford to replace paid staff.

That creates a painful bind: more reliance on volunteers at exactly the moment when volunteers are harder to find and keep.

People are burning out

The knock-on effect lands squarely on the people holding things together – trustees, exec leads and the small teams running operations on shoestring budgets.

85% of small charity leaders have experienced poor mental health due to their role, with 20% reporting severe impacts including burnout.

Board-level recruitment is in a similar state. 79% of charities have at least one vacant board position, with 61% of those vacancies lasting more than six months. When trustees do step in, they often find themselves buried in admin that has little to do with the mission they signed up to support.

Staff turnover across the charity sector hit 19.6% in 2023 – and smaller charities tend to feel that churn most acutely. Every departure takes institutional knowledge with it, and recruiting and onboarding replacements eats into the time and energy that should be going elsewhere.

Where Governance360 fits in

Governance360 was built by former trustees who lived these exact problems. That matters, because a lot of governance software is designed for corporate boards or large organisations with dedicated company secretaries. Smaller charities don’t have that luxury.

The platform is designed to reduce the friction that causes fatigue – the chasing of papers, the scramble before meetings, the difficulty getting new trustees up to speed quickly.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

Board packs prepared in minutes, not hours. Documents, agendas and supporting papers are stored and shared in one place, so no one is formatting PDFs at 11pm before a meeting.
Faster onboarding for new trustees and volunteers. When turnover happens – and it will – having a clear, accessible record of decisions, policies and priorities means less time bringing people up to speed.
Clearer accountability across the exec team. Action tracking means nothing gets lost between meetings, and everyone knows what they’re responsible for.
More time for the work that matters. When admin is handled efficiently, trustees and staff can focus on strategy and delivery rather than governance paperwork.

None of this replaces good people or strong leadership. But it does mean that the people you have aren’t worn down by avoidable admin.

Key takeaways

Volunteering is in long-term decline – and smaller charities are absorbing the impact most severely.
Burnout is widespread – 85% of small charity leaders have experienced poor mental health linked to their role.
Turnover is costly – nearly 1 in 5 charity staff left their roles in 2023, taking knowledge and capacity with them.
Admin is a hidden drain – time spent on governance paperwork is time not spent on mission.
Purpose-built tools make a real difference – software designed for smaller charities, by people who understand the sector, can meaningfully reduce the burden on stretched teams.