Each month, we’ll share a snapshot of what we’ve launched, updated or delivered to support you as a member, from new events and resources to opportunities to shape our work. It’s all part of ensuring your membership provides you with what you need, when you need it. Not yet a member? This is just a taste of what’s on offer – we’d love to welcome you to the network.
New resources and services
Policy update: December 2025
In a rapidly changing political environment, staying connected to the latest thinking and practice across our sector is vital. At ACEVO, we aim to highlight emerging issues that shape how leaders operate. These policy updates provide sector news and insights linked to ACEVO’s organisational priorities, including governance, regulation, chairs-boards and diversity, whilst also highlighting our influencing work and any relevant legislation.
Support: Join a peer learning group
We’re relaunching our peer learning groups: safe, structured spaces to reflect, learn, and grow with fellow charity leaders. There are distinct groups for aspiring CEOs, new CEOs (0–3 years in role), and growing & established CEOs (3+ years in role). Each group starts with a facilitated session before moving to a self-led format. Sessions are free (just a refundable deposit to secure your place) and offer support, fresh perspectives, and meaningful connections with peers across the country. Peer learning is at the heart of our leadership support.
Blog: Top 10 blogs of 2025
Over 90 blogs were published on the ACEVO website in 2025. Great content created by partners, collaborators, staff team and the amazing ACEVO community of leaders. We know it can be hard to find time to consume all this content, so here are the 10 most popular this year (in number of page views).
Blog: Recruiting a new chair – the CEO’s involvement
Recruiting a new chair is a significant moment for any charity. Susan Daniels shares how the National Deaf Children’s Society approached the process, from skills audits and mindset to the CEO’s role in supporting a transparent and balanced recruitment. Her reflections offer practical guidance for CEOs preparing for future chair appointments and the partnership that follows.
Blog: Tips to manage absence from work as a CEO
Isobel Hunter reflects on navigating a sudden health diagnosis while leading a small charity, and what her experience taught her about delegation, trust and recovery. From empowering teams to planning a phased return, her eight practical tips offer reassurance and guidance for any CEO preparing for or supporting a period of leave. It’s a thoughtful and generous piece that highlights how caring for yourself is also an act of leadership.
Blog: Using IT tools to organise your tasks
Using IT thoughtfully isn’t about perfect systems or mastering every new feature. It’s about reducing noise, making workloads clearer and giving leaders the space to focus on what matters. Start small, keep it simple, and let the tools you already have support you more effectively. The challenge is knowing where to start. With so many productivity tools available, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed before you’ve even begun. The tips on this blog offer a straightforward, practical approach.
Special offer: Protect discount
Following a webinar on whistleblowing for ACEVO members last year, Protect is offering a discount to those of you interested in using its services, including training and consultancy, benchmarking, and membership access. The offer is valid until the end of January 2026:
- £100 off for staff training (£195 instead of £295)
- £1k membership discount for level 1 (£1500 instead of £2500)
- Reduced price for self-assessment benchmark and free model policy
If you are interested, please email Protect directly mentioning the discount code ACEVO25.
Events added to the calendar
Webinar: Moving beyond year one as a CEO
Online, open to non members
After twelve months of learning, recalibrating, building relationships and navigating complexity, many CEOs find themselves asking a new set of questions: How do I consolidate what I’ve learned? How do I lead with confidence in the wider system? What does sustainable, strategic leadership look like now?
This webinar on 19 January explores how systems leadership can help CEOs move effectively from the intensity of year one into a more grounded, outward-facing stage of personal and organisational development.
Member meeting: Feminist leadership as a regenerative model for the charity sector
Online, only for members
This dynamic, research-informed session on 20 April explores how feminist leadership can serve as a regenerative model for the charity sector – one that sustains both people and purpose in the face of complexity, trauma, and limited resources. Drawing directly on leadership practice at Rising Sun Domestic Violence and Abuse Service and collaborative research with Hult International Business School, this session examines how compassionate, trauma-informed leadership can coexist with accountability and organisational resilience.
Member meeting: My next three months (spring check-in)
Online, only for members
This digital gathering on 21 April provides a safe space for leaders to reflect on their experiences and learning and to think through priorities and how they want to approach the next quarter. Senior support advisor Tom Andrews will lead attendees through a series of questions they will answer privately. The first half of the session will focus on looking back, and the second half on looking forward, with a brief pause in the present.
Open meeting: All about membership
Online, open to non members
This digital meeting on 22 April is an opportunity for the ACEVO team to welcome you to our community of leaders. You will also meet other new and potential ACEVO members and learn how we can support you and how you can make the most of our network.
Member meeting: Seeing beneath the surface – how leaders notice, interpret and shift culture
Online, only for members
This session on 28 April will help leaders build awareness of the subtle cultural risks that can surface (or remain hidden) in civil society organisations and introduce practical, reflective tools to recognise and address them before they escalate. It will increase your confidence to interpret those signals, reflect on your own leadership impact and begin honest internal conversations about culture, power and inclusion.
Member meeting: Taking over from a founder – leading a charity beyond its origin story
Online, only for members
Taking over from a charity founder is a distinctive and often delicate leadership transition – one that asks incoming CEOs to honour a legacy while confidently setting a new direction.
This online session on 6 May features an in-depth conversation with Rachel Grocott, who brings rare, first-hand experience of succeeding founders in two different high-profile campaigning charities
Member meeting: New CEO
Online, only for members
An opportunity for CEOs and leaders who have been in their roles less than a year, to connect and learn from one another in an informal setting. The gathering on 12 May will feature facilitated discussions, breakout discussions and a time to reflect with the wider group.
Workshop: When the governance doesn’t fit – reimagining governance for strategic change
Online, open to non members
This practice-focused day on 13 May helps CEOs rethink or re-focus governance as a strategic enabler for change rather than a regulatory system to be managed.Through facilitated exercises, scenario-based discussion and peer learning, participants will explore how leadership practice and governance design interact and how to diagnose and reshape governance process, so it amplifies, rather than constrains, organisational ambition.
Workshop: Leading with confidence in challenging times
Online, open to non members
Challenge, change, and crisis can emerge in any organisation. When issues arise, charity leaders are often called upon to provide stability, guidance, and reassurance – not only to their teams but also to beneficiaries, supporters, and the wider community. Whether you want to strengthen your preparedness, are anticipating difficult moments ahead, or are already managing significant pressure, this workshop on 17 June offers a supportive space to build practical skills for leading confidently through uncertainty and organisational strain.
Workshop: Stronger together – building (and re-building) and leading effective teams
Online, open to non members
This workshop on 8 July is designed for charity leaders who want to move beyond theory and leave with clear, usable strategies they can apply straight away, whether you’re working with existing teams, building a new team or re-building after organisational change. By the end of the workshop, leaders will have a toolkit of proven practices to boost team performance, tackle challenges confidently, and create a positive, results-focused culture.