Reach Volunteering announces closure

We are deeply saddened by the news that Reach Volunteering is closing its doors after 45 years of supporting charities and connecting them with skilled volunteers. Their closure is not due to a lack of need or impact - they contributed an estimated £60 million in professional expertise to the sector annually. Instead, it reflects a brutal reality: in today's severe funding landscape, even high-impact infrastructure organisations are finding continued operation untenable.

The news follows the closure of Getting on Board, The FSI and Small Charities Coalition, over recent years, marking a worrying trend of infrastructure funding falling through the cracks.

The Sector as a whole cannot keep doing more for less - it can't even keep going by just doing the same. It is completely unsustainable, and sadly these closures are becoming more 

common.

But when we see closures on this magnitude - and large infrastructure bodies at that, it is really very concerning.

In B&NES, we have worked really hard to build infrastructure support over the past four years, but 2026 has been a tough year, with many systems restructuring - financially we wait to see where all of the cards fall. We do not know if those cards will fall in our favour. Uncertainty is unsettling, planning is difficult and sometimes, completely impossible.

But in a system where we are hearing all about preventative health care and 'left shift', we cannot keep doing more of the same. The organisations that are relied upon will no longer be there - the conveners, connectors and problem solvers in infrastructure will also be missing in spaces that link those organisations back to important conversations and wider, strategic issues that matter.

In the past year, 3SG has built good relationships with these systems and we hope that they will step in and recognise the work that we do cannot happen on goodwill alone.

We need local and national Government, funders and philanthropists to think differently about infrastructure. It's there for a reason. It's the glue that keeps everything together. We all love new, exciting projects - it's what gives us that warm, fuzzy feeling. But what happens if the people that deliver those new, exciting projects can't pay their staff or their overheads? What then?

It's time to reframe funding infrastructure.

We need to think differently, before it's too late.

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Charterpath CIO has put together an Open Letter to funders, policymakers and business leaders in response to Reach Volunteering's closure, alongside a salient article about the news. Read more and find the letter here.