Building on recent analysis from Ansvar Insurance highlighting pressures facing Essex charities, new Charity Commission data shows that while 92 charities were registered in Essex during 2025, 107 were removed from the register.
Although removal from the register can include organisations merging or completing their purpose, the figures reflect a challenging environment as charities respond to rising costs, changing demand and increased competition for funding.
While many organisations are not facing immediate collapse, the voluntary sector is having to work harder to maintain stability. It is within this environment that sustainability must be viewed not only as an organisational challenge, but as part of a wider conversation about long-term resilience across communities.
The analysis highlighted several approaches charities are considering to strengthen sustainability, including greater collaboration, building stronger relationships with supporters, and reviewing how resources are managed. While these actions remain important at an organisational level, the wider challenge facing the sector also requires a more coordinated approach, looking at how funding, partnerships and community support can work together across Essex.
At Essex Community Foundation (ECF) we operate within this landscape as an independent charitable trust distributing funding on behalf of donors across Essex. Since we were founded in 1996, we have awarded £60 million in grants to voluntary and community organisations, and now manage over 200 funds, and distributing around £4 million annually to support local need.
In the current financial year alone, ECF has awarded 441 grants and supported 180 individuals, distributing £2.58 million against more than £7.58 million in funding requests from 951 organisations and individuals. These figures demonstrate the scale of pressure within the system, where demand significantly exceeds available resources.
One way to help reduce these pressures is through stronger alignment between new activity and existing provision within communities.
As Perry Norton, Head of Development at ECF, explains:
“Understanding local need and existing provision is critical when new organisations are being established. Taking time to assess what is already in place within a community, alongside the demographic and demand profile of the area, helps ensure that new activity is aligned with genuine gaps rather than unintentionally duplicating existing support.”
Without this understanding, there is a risk of increasing fragmentation across the sector, with more organisations competing for the same funding and adding pressure to already stretched resources.
A growing response to this challenge is the increased use of place-based funding, which sits within ECF’s approach to grant-making. This recognises that demand is not uniform across Essex, and that communities experience different levels of pressure depending on local circumstances.
Rather than distributing resources broadly, place-based approaches seek to align funding more directly with specific local need, ensuring support reaches the areas where it can have the greatest impact.
The UK Government’s Our place to give: a plan for growing place-based philanthropy reinforces this direction, highlighting the importance of connecting philanthropy more closely with place and encouraging stronger collaboration between government, local partners and funders.
For donors and businesses, this strengthens the connection between investment and impact, encouraging collaborative approaches such as match funding and joint working. This helps ensure funding decisions are linked to local priorities and that philanthropic investment complements wider community support.
Alongside this, there is a continued focus on protecting the long-term future of existing charitable assets through the transfer of trusts and funds where original governance structures can no longer be maintained independently.
In some cases, ECF can take responsibility for governance and administration, ensuring funds continue to support communities while preserving their original charitable purpose.
A key example is the Marconi Companies Charitable Fund, rooted in Chelmsford’s industrial history and originally established from Marconi’s approach to employee welfare and long-term support for staff and their families.
Following its transfer into ECF, the fund continues this intent, with resources now supporting people facing hardship across Essex today.
Another important shift is how non-financial support is delivered, with increasing focus on making volunteering more strategic rather than ad hoc.
This means looking beyond task-based volunteering towards skills-based support, where expertise is aligned with specific organisational needs. Charities can benefit from skills in areas such as governance, finance, HR, safeguarding, communications and organisational development, strengthening capacity and impact without increasing costs.
This reflects a wider understanding that effective support is defined less by volume and more by fit, ensuring contributions match what charities can realistically use and where they can have the greatest impact.
In April, our A Joint Vision for Civil Society in Greater Essex launched
In response to wider system changes, including Local Government Reorganisation, devolution and changes to healthcare systems.
Bringing together VCSE, public sector organisations and wider partners, our Joint Vision is endorsed by more than 60 organisations and sets out a shared ambition for a stronger and more resilient civil society.
The Vision focuses on three priorities: recognition, genuine partnership and investment.
It calls for organisations to work together to develop community-led strategies rather than operating in isolation. This means better alignment of expertise and resources, earlier involvement of the voluntary sector in shaping services, and greater collaboration to address gaps in provision.
It also highlights the importance of investing in civil society and moving away from short-term, reactive approaches towards longer-term, place-based funding that allows organisations to plan, innovate and focus on prevention.
Ultimately, the pressures facing Essex’s voluntary sector represent sustained structural change rather than short-term disruption.
Long-term sustainability will depend not only on individual organisations adapting, but on how well the wider system works together across funding, place, partnership and delivery.
Approaches such as place-based funding, trust transfers and strategic collaboration reflect this shift, helping to build a stronger and more resilient civil society capable of responding to future challenges.