Part I
The Map
What the UK charity sector actually is
What the UK charity sector actually is
The sector is not one thing. It includes 170,000+ registered charities, social enterprises, community groups, and more.
The main types of organisations you'll encounter
Frontline charities, infrastructure bodies, trusts, campaigning organisations, and everything in between.
The three regulators you need to know
The Charity Commission, OSCR, and CCNI — who regulates whom across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Charity structures in plain English
CIOs, charitable companies, trusts, and unincorporated associations — what they are and when each is used.
What trustees, executives, and staff each do
The distinct roles, responsibilities, and tensions between governance and operations.
Part II
The Money
How money flows through the charity sector
Where charity money comes from
The income architecture: donations, grants, contracts, trading, legacies, and why the proportions matter.
Fundraising, grantmaking, and commissioning
Three different mechanisms for moving money — and the power dynamics behind each.
Why core costs are always political
The overhead myth, the starvation cycle, and why underfunding core costs threatens the whole sector.
How trusts and foundations fit into the system
What foundations are, how they make grants, and the ecosystem that connects them to delivery charities.
What regranting is and why it confuses people
When funders give money to intermediaries who distribute it further — and why this happens.
Why full cost recovery matters
What it means for funders to cover the true cost of delivery, and why it rarely happens.
Part III
The Mechanics
What every new charity worker needs to understand
Governance and trustee duties
The legal duties, the Charity Governance Code, and what good governance looks like in practice.
Fundraising rules and regulation
The Fundraising Regulator, the Code of Practice, and what the rules actually require.
Reporting, annual returns, and impact
What charities must report, to whom, and the growing importance of impact measurement.
Safeguarding basics
What safeguarding means, who is responsible, and what changed after the Oxfam scandal.
Part IV
The Debates
What people argue about — and why it matters
Power in grantmaking
Who holds power when money moves from funder to grantee.
Decolonising development
The push to shift power, money, and decision-making to the Global South.
Trust-based funding
Should funders give unrestricted grants and trust charities to spend wisely?
Impact measurement
Is the demand for measurable outcomes helping or hindering the sector?
Campaigning and neutrality
Where does charitable purpose end and political campaigning begin?
AI and the future of charity work
What AI means for service delivery, fundraising, grantmaking, and governance.
The overhead ratio myth
Why judging charities by their overhead percentage is misleading.
Full cost recovery
The structural underfunding of core costs and what it does to charities.
Reserves: prudence or hoarding?
How much money should charities hold back, and who gets to decide?
Mergers and collaboration
When should charities merge, partner, or close — and who resists it?
Fundraising ethics
Where the line falls between effective fundraising and unacceptable pressure.
Commission-based fundraising
Should fundraisers be paid a percentage of what they raise?
Part V
The Role Guides
What your specific role needs you to understand
If you work in fundraising
Income targets, donor stewardship, Gift Aid, GDPR, and what fundraisers often get wrong about the rest of the organisation.
If you work in grantmaking
Programme design, due diligence, power dynamics, and the application burden you create.
If you work in programmes
Theory of change, outcomes, safeguarding, and why fundraisers keep asking for case studies.
If you work in operations
Finance, compliance, SORP, reserves, HR, data protection, and the unglamorous work that holds everything together.
If you are a trustee
Your legal duties, the questions you should be asking, and the line between governance and management.
If you lead a charity
Managing the board, financial sustainability, sector politics, and the internal political economy.