Third Sector Trends has been surveying the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector every three years since 2010.
In 2025, 8,680 responses were received across England and Wales. This is the only large-scale and fully representative longitudinal national survey in the UK, which can produce robust and detailed comparative analysis at regional and national level.
This is the latest of five national reports from Third Sector Trends in England and Wales 2025.
Summary of the report is outlined below.
Workforce
Third Sector Trends makes estimates on the size of the workforce for all types of organisations including charities, Community Interest Companies, Mutuals, Registered Societies and Community Amateur Sport Clubs – so employee estimates are higher than those of the NCVO UK Civil Society Almanac.
The third sector in England and Wales employs about 1.15 million people, constituting an average of 3.1% of employment in regions.
It is estimated that there has been a small increase of around 25,000 full-time equivalent employees nationally since 2022.
The full cost of employees to voluntary organisations is estimated at £43.7bn which represents around 67% of total organisational expenditure.
In England and Wales, regular volunteers number around 4.3 million people who contribute 308 million hours of work valued at between £3.8bn (at National Minimum Wage) and £5.6bn (at 80% median wage) in 2025.
Many third sector organisations (TSOs) have seen regular volunteer numbers increase over the last two years, but 38% report that they have yet to recover volunteer numbers to pre-pandemic levels.
This strongly suggests a substantive decline in numbers of regular volunteers from 4.7m to 4.3m in England and Wales since 2022. That represents a fall of around 22,500 full-time equivalent regular volunteers.
Middling-sized and newer organisations have been the most successful at recovering numbers of regular volunteers. Many TSOs in the poorest areas (45%) have struggled to recover to pre pandemic levels of volunteers compared with 35% in the most affluent areas.
The situation for trustees is most acute in smaller organisations where more TSOs have been losing trustees than those which have gained them. Given that a majority (64%) of TSOs have income below £50,000 this strongly suggests substantive overall decline in trustee numbers.
As Rob Williamson, Chief Executive of Community Foundation North East states: "It's encouraging to see the voluntary sector workforce is growing. But volunteers and trustees are the heart and soul of the Third Sector, especially for smaller organisations. Whilst post-pandemic we have seen some recovery in the number of people coming forward to be volunteers and trustees, we know recruitment is still a real challenge for many of the charities we support, and there is clearly still some way to go."
Sector optimism is high
The third sector is full of highly committed and ambitious leaders who want to make a positive difference. Inevitably, this produces competition over finite resources. In such a situation, there are bound to be winners and losers, but most leaders remain optimistic that their current resource levels will remain stable or increase.
Almost 30% of leaders expect that their income will increase over the next two years while 55% think it will remain the same; only 16% believe it will fall.
A quarter of TSOs think that support from the private sector will increase and 60% feel that it will remain similar; only 15% think that support will decline.
Grants from charitable trusts and foundations, 27% of TSOs believe grants will increase and 52% think they will remain about the same: only one fifth of leaders think that grants will decrease.
Optimism about funding from statutory agencies is much lower. Only 17% of TSOs think that statutory support will increase while half think it will remain the same. A third expect that statutory support will decline.
Volunteer support, perhaps surprisingly, given the findings presented in this report, is also considered in an optimistic light: 27% of TSOs think support will increase and 60% think it will remain the same. Fewer than 15% of voluntary organisation expect that volunteer support will decline.
Investing in organisational effectiveness
Ensuring that people are highly motivated and properly equipped with the skills needed to do front-line and managerial work is generally thought to be an important aspect of organisational effectiveness.
It may be a matter for concern that only 28% of TSOs state that trustee development and training is a high priority.
Investing in staff training of employees has declined since 2020 from 67% to 61% of TSOs whereas for regular volunteers it has fallen from 36% to 33%.
Training budgets for staff are held by 93% of the biggest TSO employers compared with just 23% of the smallest.
Leadership and management skills are important – especially in fields such as people management, business planning and improving managers’ and trustees’ skills so that they make effective operational decisions.
The reality is that TSOs prioritise income generation support above all these other aspects of organisational development.
That may cause many TSOs problems further down the line because badly made decisions about money can be damaging reputationally and in operational terms.
Professor Tony Chapman, Durham University, who leads the Third Sector Trend project commented: “A majority of leaders in voluntary organisations are in an optimistic frame of mind and 75% of them have set their sights on bidding for funding to do something brand new. That is good news, because it shows that the voluntary sector is hungry to develop new initiatives to achieve more social impact.
Vitality, optimism and ambition are key drivers for success in voluntary organisations. But organisational leaders need to be careful about what they wish for. If their energies are focused too closely on raising money, there is a serious risk that other factors that sustain organisational wellbeing, such as volunteer, staff and leadership development are neglected.”
Where do voluntary organisations go to access support?
Organisational development is often tackled in house, but many organisations go to outside providers to help them.
Employment issues: 43% of TSOs tackle employment issues in-house but a majority seek external support. The most popular source is via local private-sector providers (25%) while (19%) go to local third sector infrastructure organisations (LIOs).
Volunteering issues: a majority of voluntary organisations deal with these issues in house (63%), some go out externally for support from LIOs (21%) or local trusts and community foundations (10%).
Governance and leadership issues: about half of voluntary organisations deal with such issues in-house (54%) while many go to local LIOs (20%) or local trusts and community foundations (12%).
Income generation issues: are predominantly dealt with internally (66%), but 17% of TSOs go to local trusts and community foundations as first port of call, followed by LIOs (9%).
Financial management issues: around 18% of voluntary organisations go to professional firms (such as lawyers, investment managers or accountants) for help, but most deal with these issues internally 65%.
Local social and public policy issues: are tackled in-house by nearly a half of TSOs but some go to LIOs (22%) or directly to local public sector organisations (17%).
How do leaders feel about their responsibilities?
The apparently unshakable optimism of many voluntary organisations’ leaders is heartening, given the operational difficulties they can face in an uncertain and fast-paced political, economic and social operating environment.
Working collaboratively with other voluntary organisations: 80% of respondents were involved in partnership working at some level. Very few felt worried about collaborations they were currently involved with. On the contrary, 11% felt excited about that prospect and 35% were quite excited.
Putting ourselves forward for awards to show how well we're doing: while 54% of TSOs state that is not something they are interested in; amongst those organisations which are interested - 38% find this a more exciting prospect than a worrying one (7%).
Bidding for funding to do something brand new: 75% of TSOs were actively involved in trying to get funding to do something new, amongst whom 41% of leaders were excited, while 25% were worried – only 32% were unconcerned.
Campaigning to get the general public to see things our way: nearly two thirds (63%) of leaders were currently involved in campaign work to persuade the general public to see things their way. Some were very excited about this (11%) while another a third of leaders engaged in campaigning were quite excited (32%). Worries about campaigning were affecting about 15% of leaders –3% were worried enough to be losing sleep about it.
Managing difficult interpersonal relationships (i.e. with volunteers, trustees, staff): only 4% of organisational leaders stated that his issue was of no relevance to them. 18% of leaders were worried about such issues (and 5% were losing sleep). About 7% were quite excited about getting interpersonal relationship problems sorted out.
Managing with the financial resources we have to hand: only 8% of TSOs were acutely concerned (“keeps me awake at night”) while another 24% were quite worried. That 15% of respondents were quite or very excited about managing with financial resources they have to hand (and that 53% were neither worried nor excited) is encouraging.
Two thirds (67%) of leaders in TSOs which are struggling financially worry about managing within their current budget and 25% are ‘losing sleep’ over the issue.
In financially thriving organisations, only 20% of leaders are worried while 28% are quite or very excited about dealing with current levels of finance.
As the report’s author, Professor Tony Chapman states: “While life in the third sector can be challenging and sometimes the pressure feels relentless, that does not mean that the people who lead organisations lose their verve. This research shows conclusively that confidence and ambition of most organisational leaders remains high. This message is an important one because it signals, to those commentators who continually prophesise doom for the third sector, that their warnings go largely unheeded.
Leadership in voluntary organisations is, in many ways, an unenviable task given the uncertain environment within which they work. It is gratifying, nonetheless, that this report shows how optimistically minded so many leaders are. This is a vital story to tell if the third sector is to renew itself by continually bringing in new people to lend it support, to work, to regularly volunteer and lead.”
Diversity in sector leadership
In 2019 Third Sector Trends introduced new questions to provide baseline data which has been tracked in 2022 and 2025.
A majority of TSOs are led by graduate chairs and CEOs (~67-70%) and this has changed little over the last six years.
The percentage of women chairs has remained similar (~42-45%), but the proportion of women chief officers has increased from 55% in 2019 to 67% in 2025.
The percentage of chairs with disabilities was higher before the pandemic (18%) but has since declined steadily to 7% in 2025. Chief officers with disabilities declined from 12% pre-pandemic to 8% in 2022; their numbers have since recovered slightly to 9%.
The percentage of minority ethnic chairs continues to decline, from 10% in 2019 to 7% in 2025. The situation for chief officers is more promising, with an increase from 7% in 2019 to 10% in 2025.
Retired chairs remain in the majority, but their proportion has fallen steadily from 64% in 2019 to 57% in 2025.