ACEVO has published its annual report and accounts for the financial year 2024–25, highlighting a year of purposeful investment, strong member engagement and sustained focus on supporting civil society leaders through an increasingly challenging landscape.
Since 2023 ACEVO has made planned investments of surplus reserves into staffing to strengthen its ability to serve members, develop services and build the capacity required to meet the evolving needs of sector leaders. This year ACEVO continued that approach while delivering a new strategy shaped with and for members. The strategy focuses on leadership support and development, with the aim of inspiring, imagining and improving leadership across civil society.
Despite the financial pressures facing the sector, ACEVO saw encouraging signs of stability in member engagement. Retention reached 85% and engagement levels remained steady at 75%. Participation in the online community rose by 13.5%, and the annual conference, ACEVOFest, attracted record attendance. These indicators reflect the value members place on the ability to connect with a strong and supportive peer network.
Prudent use of reserves remained a priority. ACEVO planned to end the year with a deficit of £150,000 and instead ended the year with a substantially smaller unrestricted deficit of £106,000, aligned with its long-term financial strategy to invest reserves to sustain and enhance services for members.
Towards the end of the year ACEVO experienced the first small dip in its overall membership numbers for several years, ending the period with 1,750 members. This shift reflects the wider financial challenges faced across the charity sector, particularly among smaller organisations. Alongside this, demand for direct support also increased. The CEO in Crisis service saw an increase of 17.5% in the number of members supported, a trend that mirrors the increasingly complex operating environment for leaders. Demand for that service has risen by over 120% since 2021.
Mark Norbury, ACEVO’s chair of trustees, said “Civil society leadership has never been more needed and leaders are under real strain. It’s been important for us as a board to continue our investment in ACEVO’s team and membership. I’m delighted that the team has nonetheless performed so well, coming in under planned deficit, while sustaining high membership retention and engagement. A great team effort.”
Jane Ide, CEO of ACEVO, said “Once again ACEVO has demonstrated its value to its members and to the wider sector at a time when sector leadership is under increased pressure. While we are in no way immune to the realities of the economic challenges in which our sector operates the continued levels of commitment and engagement from our members demonstrate just how much value they place on our services.
In the current year we have continued to build on our strengths, launching new leadership development programmes for new and aspiring leaders, investing further in our much needed support services, driving forward the ongoing work of building antiracist leadership through the delivery of our groundbreaking Home Truths 2 programme, and continuing to play a leading role in influencing the environment in which our sector leaders work.”
The report is available on the website https://www.acevo.org.uk/about/annual-reports/