Member case studies

I joined ACEVO in my very first few days as chief executive at Friends of the Earth, and it is one of the best decisions I made. Eleven years and two CEO roles later — including my
current role leading the Wildlife Trust federation — I can say without hesitation that ACEVO has been a constant throughout my leadership journey.

At the Wildlife Trust, I work across a federation of 46 independent Wildlife Trusts, with 47 chief executives, 47 chairs, and 650 trustees in total. I always strongly recommend
that our Wildlife Trust chief execs join ACEVO too. When I reflect on why, I keep coming back to five things.

The network

It’s a bit of a cliché to say chief exec roles can be lonely, but it’s a cliché for good reason. Until you’ve been one, it’s hard to truly understand what it means to feel the buck
stops with you. There are things that come up in the role you simply can’t discuss with anyone inside your organisation. Having other chief executives to talk to confidentially — to learn from, bounce ideas off, and just be honest with — is invaluable.

ACEVO helps you build that network beyond your immediate issue sector, which matters enormously. Sometimes you need to have a frank conversation with someone who isn’t a close colleague or a peer working in the same space as you. Those wider relationships have opened up all kinds of unexpected thinking about how we can work together as
charity leaders.

Amplifying our voice

Chief execs are often too busy to keep on top of every development in charity regulation or parliamentary debate. ACEVO does that on our behalf — and crucially, it does so purely from the perspective of chief executives. There are other excellent organisations
supporting charities more broadly, and organisations supporting chairs and trustees, but ACEVO is unique in thinking specifically about these issues from our point of view. Over the past decade or so, there have been some genuinely hostile moments for the sector, and ACEVO has helped us get ahead of them, influence them before they became law, and understand how to respond when they did.

Events

ACEVO events are great in their own right, but they also do something just as important: they create space to step back and see the bigger picture. It’s very easy in a CEO role to
find yourself spending almost all your time managing, and very little time leading — and leading, to my mind, means having the helicopter view, not getting stuck in the day-to-day. I remember attending an ACEVO event several years ago where we were discussing AI, long before it was dominating the headlines. That kind of forward-looking thinking, with peers across the sector, is something I’ve always valued. In eleven years, I genuinely haven’t been to a bad ACEVO event.

Training

I’ve benefited from a huge amount of ACEVO training over the years. I went on the Dynamic Duo course early in my first CEO role and found it incredibly helpful. But what I’d say to anyone is: don’t dismiss the sessions you’re not sure are relevant for you.
Some of the most useful training I’ve done was the kind I went into feeling a little uncertain about — and came out thinking, I really needed that.

Support services

My advice here is simple: don’t wait for a crisis. Use the support services early, and especially around governance.

If I’m honest, in my early days at Friends of the Earth I put the minimum amount of effort into governance. I had a good relationship with my chair and assumed things were
fine. Looking back, I can see I thought it was mainly the chair’s responsibility. Later, I ran into real difficulties with a couple of trustees — something that, as every experienced CEO will tell you, eventually happens to almost everyone. When I called ACEVO’s support line, they were incredibly helpful. They gave me the confidence to know that what I was seeing was genuinely wrong, and the clarity to go back to my chair and address it properly. That conversation was reassuring and transformative.

But I wish I hadn’t waited. If you’re simply not sure about something, call. Don’t leave it until you’re in the middle of a crisis.

ACEVO is, I’m certain, unique as an organisation that thinks purely on behalf of charity chief executives. The networks mean you’re not alone. The training and events mean
you keep growing. And the support services mean that when things get hard — as
they will — there’s somewhere to turn. Make as much use of it as you possibly can. We’re all stronger for ACEVO.

When I first joined ACEVO, I had no idea how central it would become to my journey to becoming a CEO. I signed up thinking it would be a useful professional network. What I found was something far more powerful.

From day one, I was struck by the transparency, honesty and mutual support within the community. There was a level of vulnerability and generosity that I hadn’t experienced elsewhere. Peers engaged with one another not competitively, but collaboratively – sharing expertise, offering kindness and genuinely wanting to help. It felt like a cooperative community in action. Witnessing that culture of openness and solidarity played a significant role in shaping my ambition to become the CEO of a small charity.

I went on to join the Aspiring CEO programme, which proved transformative. It connected me with others navigating similar paths, and it remains a network I value deeply. In fact, before the programme had even concluded, I was offered my current CEO role – timing that felt both surreal and affirming.

Undertaking the programme was influential not only for me, but also for my board. It gave them additional confidence in my readiness and understanding of the role. More importantly, it gave me confidence in myself. It helped me recognise that I was ready to take that step – and that belief was pivotal.

Even at that early stage, I drew on ACEVO’s practical resources. The CEO salary report was invaluable. Like many in the charity sector, I find conversations about pay deeply uncomfortable. But having robust benchmarking data allowed me to approach negotiations with evidence and clarity. I was able to articulate what constituted a fair offer based on sector and location – and it was accepted. That alone justified my membership.

After stepping into the role, I upgraded my membership. Six months in, we faced a catastrophic partnership termination. I suddenly felt out of my depth. It was during this period that I truly understood the depth of support ACEVO provides.

The proactive guidance towards relevant tools and resources was a lifeline. The resource bank – filled with industry-leading research, publications and practical advice – helped me make sense of an overwhelming situation. Being able to share credible materials with my board also strengthened our collective decision-making.

At a critical point, my Chair and I attended the Dynamic Duo training together. In hindsight, it would have been beneficial at the start of our appointments, as it helps establish strong habits early. But undertaking it when we were both feeling the pressure of our roles gave us a structured, legitimate space for honest conversation. It strengthened our working relationship at a time when we needed it most. It was time and money exceptionally well spent.

I made it a personal commitment to attend as many learning events as possible. At my one-year appraisal, I reviewed the breadth of areas I had developed in, from finance, Charity Commission matters, change management, redundancy processes and more. Some sessions that hadn’t seemed immediately relevant later proved invaluable. Continuous learning became a cornerstone of how I approached the role.

The daily Community bulletin also became an essential part of my routine. I read every one. Not only is it an opportunity to contribute back, but it surfaces issues I didn’t even realise I needed to understand. The ability to search past discussions has filled countless knowledge gaps, and I remain deeply grateful to peers who share their experience so openly.

The “My Next 3 Months” programme was another powerful tool during a particularly intense period. It forced me to step back and think strategically about what felt, at times, like insurmountable challenges. Breaking the future into manageable increments made progress feel possible. It also created a small, trusted peer network that I continue to draw on.

I also received exceptional advice from Jenny Berry on a complex issue relating to unlocking restrictions on some of our restricted funds. She and fellow CEOs provided detailed, constructive feedback on my draft application. Beyond the technical advice, being able to tell my board where that guidance had come from strengthened their confidence in our approach. That external validation was hugely important.

However, the pièce de résistance of ACEVO’s offer for me has been the CEO in Crisis service. I have never encountered anything comparable as part of a professional membership.

During a period when we were developing a new operational model to avoid winding up the charity, navigating redundancies and supporting colleagues through profound change, the loneliness of leadership was acute. My friends and family, however supportive, could not fully understand the emotional weight of those decisions.

Through several sessions with Tom Andrews, I received both practical and human support. Some days it was about breaking the workload down into achievable steps – making an overwhelming day manageable again. Other days, it was about having a space where I could show vulnerability without judgement. That combination of structure and compassion was invaluable.

It was another member who first suggested I access the CEO in Crisis service. I now say to others: don’t wait until you’re at breaking point. If you get anywhere close, use it. Even with a strong Chair and supportive board, you need a confidential, independent space. That service alone is worth the membership.

My first eighteen months as a CEO have been eventful, challenging and at times daunting. Almost every day has presented something I had never encountered before. But in one way or another, ACEVO has helped me navigate every hurdle – equipping me with knowledge, strengthening my governance, building my confidence and reminding me that no one is expected to know everything.

Leadership can be lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. Through its community, learning, practical resources and crisis support, ACEVO has enabled me to lead responsibly, compliantly and effectively – while also taking care of me as a human being.

I simply would not be the CEO I am today without it.

It was very daunting going for a CEO role. I’ve been in senior leadership roles, worked on boards, chaired boards, been around CEO roles, but I never thought about really going for it. But then I kept going for interviews, and they kept asking me back, and then eventually they asked me to do the job. The previous CEO highly recommended ACEVO but she herself said that she’d never really got full use out of it, so I committed to getting full use of it over the course of my time here.

I’m coming up on my second anniversary in a couple of weeks as a first-time CEO and ACEVO have been instrumental in supporting and guiding me in my first couple of years in this role. Over the course of the first year, as I was bedding in as a first-time CEO, a lot of things came to a head. We had some governance issues, some structural issues, some staffing issues and some finance issues as well. And at the same time, we decided to move offices, and take on a new organisation where we would deliver events on an ongoing basis.

So, it was incredibly tough for me at that point. I reached out to ACEVO and I really can’t speak highly enough about their service. They were absolutely fantastic. It was really instrumental in helping me to look afresh at the issues and work through them. And we did work through them. I genuinely think we would have had more issues if I hadn’t had that person externally to lean on. To give guidance and a sandbox in which I could come up with the solutions myself.

If anyone hasn’t attended the ACEVO conference, I would highly recommend that as well. I’ve been to conferences a lot over the years and they can be tiring, very wearing, and sometimes not that useful. It’s a lot to take a couple of days out of your schedule when you’re in a senior role, but the ACEVO conference was absolutely fantastic. I made some incredible contacts, but one of the things I really appreciated was all the speakers. They were very honest, and it was very raw. We had CEOs up there who just came up and said, I failed, and this is why. It was so refreshing to have that level of honesty from the speakers. I’ve booked up for next year, and I’ll keep going to it if it stays like that.

My new chair is brilliant, and we’ve got a fantastic relationship, but we wanted to really strengthen that relationship and our governance function, so we booked onto the Dynamic Duo course from ACEVO and again, absolutely fantastic. It was worth every penny. We came away with a load of resources, a load of actions, and we’ve used it to guide, essentially, the last six months or so of our relationship and how we’re managing the board. It was so incredibly effective.

I don’t know how many people I’ve recommended ACEVO to, but I’ve become a real evangelist for it. I think one of the big things for me is that the organisation is personable, it’s full of human beings, people who are very honest, very reactive, very responsive. It’s not only good in terms of the resources, but it’s good for me, and my organisation, in terms of a sense check. I’m always refreshed by it, because what you do is you talk to people, and you realise that all of your problems have either been resolved by somebody, or somebody’s going through it now. We’ve all got the same things that we’re dealing with, it’s normally just a question of scale or timing. ACEVO resets me and I just really appreciate having it.

In summary, I highly recommend ACEVO and all of the services, support and resources we can get. ACEVO is absolutely fantastic, and has been really helpful, and we’ll be leaning on them again for the foreseeable future, I think.

I have educated myself through ACEVO. It has been a lifeline for me.

This was my first CEO job, I never had a leadership role before this one, and on my first day, I was searching for information on what a charity CEO does. Then I found ACEVO.

One of the most important resources for me has been the online community hub. I have asked questions, read other people’s questions, and even answered some. I have found a lot of help from members. It is a warm place where people share resources and policies. It always gets me thinking about something I should be considering that I had not thought of yet.

I have also used the six free coaching sessions, which significantly increased my confidence, and I found a mentor through ACEVO. I have attended workshops and signed up for almost every event. It has been an education in itself.

My chair was also a first-time chair, and we attended the Dynamic Duo together. It was incredibly helpful. It was a great way for me to help her understand what she needed to know. Instead of just telling her what to do, we could explore it together. We both enjoyed that day, and it helped us communicate more clearly about our needs from each other.

Some of the workshop trainers I contacted later to provide trustee training for us. I have built relationships with them that way, and it has been incredibly helpful.

ACEVOFest is an excellent networking event for me. I have attended two of them in person. The second time, I met people I had met the first time, and we were able to catch up and discuss how our charities and approaches to work had changed. It has been very helpful.

I feel like I have created my own MBA for charities through everything that ACEVO has offered. I am able to continuously educate myself. It is a good place to benchmark against, find new things for your work and personal development, and see what others are doing.

I am a big ACEVO fan.

Jamie’s nephew asked him, “What’s your job?”

Jamie’s response would typically be “Well that’s a silly question; you’re aware that I’m a chief executive.”

However, this response really didn’t provide the level of detail Jamie’s nephew expected!

In that instant, numerous potential explanations raced through Jamie’s thoughts,

“I keep all the plates spinning”

“I’m there to be the jack of all trades and the master of all trades”

“I’m there to provide the vision and operationally lead the entire organisation”

“I empty the bins and clean the toilets when the cleaner is off”

Yet none of them truly describe the role.

The reality of the breadth of what a chief executive role means in a third sector organisation is almost impossible to describe accurately, eloquently and succinctly. Early in Jamie’s career CEO vacancies were described as a figurehead, only there to network and externally represent the organisation.

Fast forward 25 years and CEOs are expected to have the most extensive set of skills and competencies in the world. They need commercial acumen for when they are tasked by trustees to increase unrestricted income by 100% in a week! They are expected to be magicians to treble the number of new volunteers overnight in response to capacity pressures! To have NATO level negotiation skills to navigate the relationships and tensions between volunteers, staff, trustees, commissioners, funders, clients, and the public. Chief executives are still getting used to switching the unmute button on in virtual meetings whilst understanding and developing a future-proof strategy for AI-driven business efficiency. Not forgetting to be experts in environmentally sustainability and driving the organisation to net zero.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

While some of this is said flippantly, the message is clear, when things are going well being a leader of a third sector organisation is rewarding and inspiring. However, the current environment is extremely volatile and things are constantly changing and emerging. This means that when things start to become challenging it can be incredibly easy to start losing ourselves. A recent post on LinkedIn resonated with Jamie, it featured several CEOs being exceptionally candid and forthright regarding their experiences with compassion fatigue.

The true value of ACEVO membership

It’s lonely at the top is a phrase that probably only truly makes sense when you’ve been there and experienced it, for Jamie that is where the true value of ACEVO membership comes in.

Here is what he told new ACEVO members at a recent online event.

“For me ACEVO is about a sense of belonging to a wider community of sector leaders.

It gives me the reassurance that there is somewhere to turn when I’ve exhausted my own internal Wikipedia or when a google search is no longer giving me answers I need.

It’s a safe space where it’s okay to go to learning events and start learning about something from scratch – because the rest of the room is there learning from scratch as well!

The fact that ACEVO has such a clear purpose keeps its work so relevant for each one of us.

Recently, after reading the weekly e-bulletin from ACEVO, I found myself greatly inspired by the words of Jane Ide, ACEVO’s CEO. Her message resonated so strongly with me that I felt compelled to reach out and commend ACEVO for its remarkable ability to stay so in touch with its members.

I had a challenging issue and as a last resort devised a final plan to try and resolve the conflict, but I panicked that I had become so entrenched in the issue and was going about it incorrectly. Upon contacting ACEVO, I received a response within an hour and I found myself engaged in a valuable two-hour coaching session. My initial approach was indeed the correct one, but what significantly transformed was the level of confidence I possessed as I entered the session.

I also love the fact that ACEVO is also not London-centric – proactively trying to reach out to its membership in different localities.

For me personally, my ACEVO membership is a two-way process. It’s about giving and receiving. I’ve given my time to be part of the annual ACEVOFest conference by speaking in a session about imposter syndrome, not because I feel that I am the leading authority on imposter syndrome, nor do I feel that I am the best third sector leader in the world. I have also volunteered as a mentor and I believe these experiences enhance my own leadership. I learn just as much from my mentees as hopefully they do from me.

ACEVO is a person-centred membership body. My advice about getting the most of your membership would be, get to know the team. The team is exceptionally friendly and highly knowledgeable. However, it’s equally crucial that their work is grounded in a thorough understanding of the membership’s needs. Make sure you are getting the weekly Monday bulletin and set aside 10 mins to read it – it’s worthwhile. Attend the online events, they are easy to fit and much more cost effective then attending face to face ones. They are designed for us as an audience, and they are informative and thought provoking. Also, familiarise yourself with the website resources. Reach out when you need something and see ACEVO as an extension of your leadership toolkit! Successful leaders keep learning and ACEVO is your one stop shop. You won’t be disappointed.”

360Giving is a small charity with a team of just 6 staff including me, but with a national reach. For those who haven’t heard of us, we support funders to publish their grants data and then we support people to use it to improve charitable giving.

While I have been working in the sector for over 25 years, this was my first CEO role when I joined 5 years ago.

I became CEO on the day of the first lock-down – so I didn’t meet some of my team in person until 18 months after I started in the role. I didn’t know my Board and the majority of them were very busy with the pandemic response and personal pressures and were very short of time. It was really lonely.

What 360Giving does is unique so I really don’t have any peers or natural places to meet other people doing similar things through my work. Most of my work and meetings are with funders, but we are not one of them. We are a charity but don’t deliver services to audiences other charities work with. We are an infrastructure organisation – but to funders instead of charities – so the other infrastructure organisations often don’t see us as one of them.

It was great to have the support of ACEVO when I joined 360Giving, including:

• Attending events to get updates on issues – and the conference was excellent for hearing from others about how they tackled them
• Going to meetings and seeing that everyone else was in the same boat and some of the things that I was experiencing wasn’t just because I was failing or finding things difficult. This increased my confidence.
• Using the community forum to be able to ask questions and learn from others but also to share information. I encourage you to make use of the forum.
• I also had a mentor through ACEVO when I was going through some governance changes at the same time as developing a new strategy. This was really helpful to have an external perspective.
• I wrote a blog which is on the ACEVO website, which is an opportunity to share ideas.

There are different types of support available at the times you might need it and I have some recommendations for how you can get the most out of your membership.

Firstly, actively engage. You will get more out of it when you put more in. I was quite active on the forum, especially at the beginning sharing a lot of information and resources, and as a result not only have I had more support from others on the forum, but have built connections outside that. For example, there are a couple of other CEOs of small organisations that I contacted or who contacted me through the ACEVO forum and we meet every few months to share challenges and provide mutual support.

My other suggestion is to treat the online events like in-person ones – particularly the conference. There is a lot to absorb and reflect on and take a proper time out to do so. In my first year the conference was great – but I was also doing other things in the breaks and had calls from my team which left me exhausted but also meant my thoughts were lost as soon as the day was over. Since then, I put my out-of-office on and switched off all emails and notifications and treated it like an in-person conference – I started a paper notebook for my reflections, making notes after sessions on what I wanted to follow up with people on and making sure I took time to absorb things. Like a little discussion with myself about the topic that I might have had with someone else at an in-person meeting. Even for webinars and other online events, I schedule 20 minutes after as the equivalent of ‘travel time’ to let my thoughts percolate before rushing to the next thing.

Try to think about what you need and ask for help at an early stage – between the ACEVO team and the rest of the community, there will be someone that can help – even if it is just reassurance.

Thank you to the ACEVO team for all the support!

There wasn’t a kind of light bulb moment that said I have to join ACEVO, but it was a more a gradual realisation about the level of the resources that I needed to take Iolanthe to the stage it needed to go to next and the sort of support I needed. Both were something that I could get through the ACEVO membership and its community, especially as I don’t have a management team!

It’s not uncommon in a lot of small charities to be very internally focused, mainly due to capacity. But I actually wanted to be able to share with my Board the the bigger environmental picture, a snapshot of this sector, where we are, and what’s going on those sorts of trends. They found it incredibly helpful, and I too found it incredibly helpful.

Being past retirement age (follow my skincare tips, obviously!), the people that I would normally talk to, at the end of the day, phone up a friend, have a bit of a moan, get some ideas, they’ve retired. There’s a real dissonance when I talk to people at times when they ask me “So how was your week?” and I’m like “Well, I had a board meeting, subcommittee meeting, strategy and policy discussions etc.” and then there’s silence or ‘Oh that’s lovely shall we move on?” I needed a community, I needed to find my group, or tribe. And I have and I’ve got some very good support.

The Community board has been brilliant for me. The first thing I did when I joined was to go on there and did what a lot of people do, I lurked (I’m very good at lurking!). After a while I start thinking there are some really good resources here – the search bar will be my friend! There were already lots of policies I needed and between the templates and the Community, I got everything that I wanted.  I then started do something more than lurk and search.  I started replying to posts and then I graduated to posting my own questions. One of them got picked up by ACEVO who said “Would you like to talk to us on the governance advice line” and that sounded like a good idea. The next time I had a governance question, I unhesitatingly went to the governance advice line and had a very creative and helpful discussion about a really quite unique dynamic that I was working through.

“In the course of that discussion, the mentoring programme was mentioned. Now I’ve been a mentor for a couple of times, but I’ve never been mentored. But as I said, I’m on my own, I need that sounding board. I’ve now got a mentor and I met with him a couple of weeks ago. We’re just having a chat and I said “I’ve got a new chair, and my new chair is new to being a chair. There’s a lot of newness going around here!” And he said “Well I went on the dynamic duo course with my new chair” which I thought was a really good idea, and  I’ll be doing that with my chair, hopefully next year.

There’s been a progression of how I’ve used things. I’ve dipped in and out of the different elements of the support available. And in a way it’s like lots of different circles. They’re different sizes. Some of them are going at different speeds because I’m using them more quickly than the others but they’re all there and they’re all working in harmony. That’s been incredibly helpful and supportive for me.

I’ve just gone through the third of the race equity series, in my previous role I was co-chair of the EDI group. This series has been incredibly thought-provoking and very, very powerful. And again, it’s been something I’ve been able to share with my board because there’s huge issues around maternal discrimination, it resonated strongly with them.

But at the other end of that spectrum, I’ve been doing the my next three months sessions. It is an essential luxury to be able to step off the treadmill for an hour and invest in yourself. It’s a very slow paced, very reflective hour that you spend, focusing on your whole self – not just the work persona that’s sitting there typing away, but all the other personas.

One of the exercises was, “what do you want to achieve for the next three months?” For some people it’s a very work orientated goal. For me, I want to get to the beach more! I live five minutes away from the beach, I can hear the sea, I can see the lighthouse in the distance. But do you think I get to the beach enough? No. So that was my target. The weather occasionally wasn’t in my favour but it does seem to illustrate the sort of holistic approach that ACEVO has for its members, to ensure the whole of us is supported and catered for. Whatever stage you are in your career.

I’m nearing the end of my career but I’m still learning. I’m still getting a huge amount from this membership. And I’ve encouraged people I know to join.  Unlike Groucho Marx who refused to join any club that would have him as a member, I am so pleased and proud to be a member of ACEVO. I think working together we can make this civil society even better and we can be even better in our roles, and we can make the charities that we work for even better.

“I joined ACEVO in 2022 when I became chief executive of Nottingham Trent Students’ Union. A colleague mentioned they’d been involved for a number of years and found it really useful, so I took a look at what was on offer and decided to join.

When I reflect back to that time and first starting my chief executive role, I can see that I was already feeling the pressures that come with the job. So I took the opportunity to have a new member call with ACEVO and hear about the benefits that could support me in my first CEO role.

The first activity I engaged with, was a facilitated Peer Action Learning Set. There were six of us in the group and we planned to meet for six sessions. Each time we met we would bring a current issue or problem we were trying to tackle. The cohort would ask questions to ease out the root cause, and ultimately try to help that member find a solution to their problems or find support. It was absolutely invaluable to me. So much so we still support each other through a WhatsApp group and through formal sessions that we now facilitate for ourselves. It’s been really, really beneficial and I have found talking about where we are on our journeys as leaders so worthwhile.   

I always read Jane’s early Monday morning ‘Leader to Leader’ email. It’s a nice start to the week and it helps to summarise those key issues we’re all facing. Sometimes, in this role, it feels like you’re the only one with a particular challenge or problem, so it’s really beneficial to hear that lots of us have almost identical problems or at least very similar problems and are facing similar pressures. Because it makes you feel less alone.

I’ve attended quite a few ACEVO events, both online and in person. I love the in-person events – even though they require a bit more commitment. But I do try and make sure I do a mix of both, especially on topics that I’m very interested in, such as climate leadership. Those sessions in particular have been very useful and I found them really beneficial.  

The Guides, tools and templates have been really, really helpful, and not having to start from scratch with a new policy or document is so handy and saves time. The online Community is also a great resource. I find it really useful to go into the Community and ask a question to other leaders, the response comes from such an informed place and is much better that Google. Here you usually find that others have got similar questions, or had similar problems or someone’s after a similar template. And again, this really helps to save you time and make you feel less alone.

How I use my membership varies. I might go a month and not engage at all and then I might engage with five things in one week. I get involved with what is relevant for me and that’s how I’ve gotten the most out of my membership, and how I intend to continue.”

How ACEVO helped a member develop and support their leadership skills  

Situation 

Katie first joined ACEVO in 2019 as an Associate Member when she was a senior manager at Alzheimer’s and Dementia Support Services (ADSS). Katie felt this was offered as a consolation prize for an unsuccessful application for the chief executive officer position and was told it would support her development. 

Katie wanted to make the most out of every developmental opportunity ACEVO membership offered. 

What happened next…. 

Fast forward to spring 2020 and Katie is in a new role as the joint interim CEO at ADSS, the world is in the middle of a pandemic and the first UK’s lockdown happens.  

This is compounded with some big governance changes at ADSS that needed to be made. 

Support with governance 

Katie used the Governance Advice Line and was relieved to hear that the advisor at ACEVO loved governance!  

“I remember thinking ‘hmm how odd’ (that someone likes governance!), but I can honestly say with all the webinars and support I now love the feeling that good governance enables” 

Building a professional network

“The online members’ events are fantastic, I learnt so much so quickly, it really helped me build up my support network with people I still work with closely outside of my ACEVO membership” 

Getting professional support

“During the first lockdown, I felt ACEVO was there giving us a warm hug. On other days I felt ACEVO challenged us to become the best leaders we could be during unprecedented times” 

Katie says all this support strengthened her relationship with the board, gave her confidence in her decision making and empowered her on the journey from joint CEO to CEO. 

Confidence building 

Katie says that she often doubts her ability, the monthly review meetings and the support and advice calls that ACEVO provides its members have been invaluable. 

“I have received some beautifully calm and kind coaching conversations with ACEVO, this helped me realise what deep down I knew I needed to do. When I have felt totally out of my depth during a statutory tendering process ACEVO suggested mentoring and this helped me write successful bids” 

Giving something back 

Katie is such an advocate she has even joined the new members’ calls to talk about her positive membership experience. 

She was also so inspired by the mentoring she received and she has now put herself forward to be a mentor herself. 

“I did this to give something back and totally understimated how fantastic this would be for my own development. It’s very valdating to be able to see and communicate how people can make small changes to get to where they want to go.”

What’s happening now? 

Katie is now a CEO at ADSS and the charity has doubled in size in the last nine months (thanks to all those successful bids!) and she now needs help with the growing pains, once again she turned to ACEVO. 

“The support and learning opportunities I get from ACEVO have been a huge part of my journey from senior manager, to joint CEO, to CEO. ACEVO has given me the courage, knowledge, kindness, confidence and a respect for governance that I wouldn’t have got anywhere else. ADSS has had a successful, but tough few years and there have been so many times when we have benefitted from the advice and support ACEVO membership provides. I wouldn’t be the CEO I am, without an ACEVO membership” 

Find out how an ACEVO membership helps new CEOs 

Situation  

Jay is CEO of Survivors’ Network – the rape crisis centre for Sussex for 4 years, this is Jay’s first role at this level.  

Jay joined ACEVO in 2020. At first she found the benefits that membership provided overwhelming and didn’t know where to start. 

Which ACEVO features helped Jay the most when she first joined 

All new members are offered a call when they join ACEVO.

“I really benefited from the new member call that I had with ACEVO. I also would really recommend attending the online new members’ meeting that really helped me to identify where to start” 

Jay also found the various one-hour online member meetings a good starting point and very helpful to help prioritise her own developmental needs. 

“The meetings are a unique opportunity to network with other chief executives and allowed me to have honest conversations with people outside of my current network. Also, through these networks I have made connections with other CEOs, that I still am in contact with” 

Jay has also attended the paid-for workshops and has found this investment very worthwhile. 

“I also attended the Dynamic Duo workshop and this really helped us improve our (chief executive and chair) working relationship” 

Jay also used the ACEVO mentoring resource. 

“I was matched with a CEO of a much larger charity, with a lot more experience and outside of the sector I am in and I felt the ACEVO team carefully considered who was the right match for me. The sessions have been very valuable, I talked to my mentor about my plan on how to approach an issue in a certain way and my mentor shared their experiences and provided some very useful tips”  

However, the service that Jay found the most useful was the CEO in Crisis.

“ACEVO was so helpful when dealing with my issue. They found someone from one of the larger charities who had experienced a very similar issue and arranged a 121 call with them. I would never have made this contact if it wasn’t for ACEVO, they were very generous and also offered their chair to meet with my chair, the whole experience was very reassuring” 

And to sum up her membership experience, 

“Whenever I have contacted ACEVO, the response has always been reassuring. They have always made me feel valued and in a role were sometimes it’s hard to feel valued, it’s always good to know that ACEVO are there and you will always feel supported” 

Giving something back 

Jay is now such an advocate of ACEVO she has even joined the new members’ meetings to talk about her positive membership experience. 

How ACEVO helped a member develop and support their leadership skills  

Situation 

Laura first joined ACEVO in 2019, she has always been committed to her own  professional development after finishing her MBA in 2013. Now, as a CEO working three days a week for the charity Ancient Tree Forum, Laura realised that she needed specific and targeted development that also helped her to build her network of peers. ACEVO membership met these needs and more. 

What benefits did Laura find most useful? 

“I started to attend the digital member meetings relevant to me at the time. Once I became more familiar with the ACEVO membership offer, I started to attend the member networking events, a brilliant long series of sessions of peer mentoring – carefully matched after conversations with ACEVO and 121 advice and support, all of which have been exceptionally useful.”

“The online community also deserves a special mention. It is my go to place for asking my peers their thoughts and experiences” 

Laura now tries to attend an event once a month and considers it part of her wellbeing.  

“This is even more important for me as I work from home, connecting with my peers in this way has been vital to my spirit through some difficult times professional and even personally” 

Laura says she would probably would not have stayed in her role so happily through such challenging times without the support of an ACEVO membership.  

“At critical times ACEVO have been there, I know if I ever need help again, no matter how big or small, ACEVO will be there to help my wellbeing and resilience, as well as my charity, as it has allowed me to be the best CEO I can be” 

ACEVO membership has meant that the Ancient Tree Forum has a clearer strategy – Laura found a great strategy consultant via an ACEVO member’s recommendation, a brilliant new trustee – advertised on ACEVO jobs. 

Laura also says The Ancient Tree Forum now has better governance, via the many conversations she has had with ACEVO members, including better financial management, better practices around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, the environment and strategy.