Leading a small charity is one of the greatest privileges — and one of the hardest jobs nobody prepares you for.
Whether you are a founding trustee, your charity's only employee, or leading a small team carrying a remarkable breadth of responsibility, The Small Charity Leader is being built for you.
For small teams carrying big responsibilities, and for the people keeping small charities moving.
Built around the reality of leading a small charity.
Source: NCVO UK Civil Society Almanac 2024, using 2021/22 data. NCVO categorises organisations below £100,000 as micro and small.
80% of UK voluntary organisations have an annual income below £100,000.
These micro and small organisations form the overwhelming majority of the sector. Yet much of the leadership advice, training and charity-sector content available still assumes access to larger teams, specialist staff and greater organisational capacity.
The Small Charity Leader is being built especially around the reality of these organisations: volunteer-led charities, sole employees and small teams carrying big responsibilities with limited time, money and specialist support.
Income is not the only measure. Some charities above £100,000 share exactly the same operating reality and will recognise themselves here too. What matters most is not a rigid threshold, but whether a small number of people are carrying a wide range of responsibilities with very little room to spare.
You are a jack of all trades, expected to be master of every one.
These leaders are not lacking ambition, talent or commitment. They are carrying significant responsibility with limited time, financial capacity and specialist support.
CEO. Fundraiser. HR department. Strategist. Safeguarding lead. Communications. Finance team. IT support. The one who puts the kettle on.
All before lunch.
What we're building
The Small Charity Leader starts with a regular podcast: practical conversations with people who understand the constraints, pressures and possibilities of leading a genuinely small organisation.
We'll bring together experienced charity leaders, useful specialists and honest lessons from what has worked — and what has not.
Over time, the ambition is to build a supportive community where small charity leaders can share experience, ask better questions and feel less alone in carrying the responsibility.
What the podcast and community will provide.
Practical leadership
Real decisions, real constraints and ideas people can use immediately.
Governance and trustees
Governance without unnecessary jargon, including recruiting, supporting and working effectively with trustees.
People and culture
Recruitment, management, difficult conversations, delegation and building a healthy team.
Funding and finance
Honest conversations about financial pressure, fundraising, sustainability and making difficult choices.
Strategy and vision
How to create direction, protect the organisation's purpose and grow without losing what makes it valuable.
Running through all of it: encouragement for the days leadership feels lonely, and enough honesty to admit when something is genuinely hard.
Topics we're exploring first.
What should founding trustees focus on first?
How do you stop doing everything yourself?
What does good governance look like when nobody has much time?
How do you recruit trustees who genuinely strengthen the charity?
How do you lead through financial pressure?
How do you grow without losing your culture and purpose?
How do you look after yourself while carrying responsibility for everyone else?
About Alex.
Hi, I'm Alex. For more than twenty years, I've worked with children, young people, schools and charities.
I began by spending four years as the sole employee of a small charity in Devon, where I experienced first-hand what it means to carry almost every part of an organisation yourself.
I now lead The Bridge Youth Project in Salisbury. Over many years, I have helped grow it from a small organisation into a more established regional charity working across schools and communities.
Alongside my executive roles, I have served as Chair of Trustees for an educational charity and as a Foundation Trustee within a multi-academy trust. Those different perspectives have given me experience of leadership, governance, growth, partnerships and the everyday practical realities that sit behind a charity's mission.
I'm not creating The Small Charity Leader because I have every answer. I'm creating it because I believe there is a need for more honest, practical and relevant support for people leading genuinely small organisations, and because those leaders have a great deal to learn from one another.
I live and work in Salisbury with my family. Outside work, I enjoy music, walking with Tilly the dog, living out my Christian faith and deploying an unreasonable number of dad jokes.
Experience of leading small charities, governing them and helping them grow.
Help shape the first season, from the beginning.
Get the first episodes, occasional practical leadership ideas, and opportunities to help shape the first season.
What's the hardest part of leading your charity right now?
This will help shape the first season and future resources. It is kept separate from the founding community form, and answering here will not add you to any mailing list.
For the 80% operating below £100,000.
For small teams carrying big responsibilities.
For the people keeping small charities moving — whatever their turnover.
Built around the reality of leading a small charity.
You shouldn't have to lead alone. Join us from the beginning.
Join the founding community