On 1 September, Reach announced with great sadness that Reach would begin a managed closure after 45 years of connecting charities with people who want to volunteer their skills. The response was extraordinary. The outpouring of support for Reach, together with rapid coordination across a group of funders and personal donors, has transformed the charity’s position.
We are delighted to confirm that enough funding has now been pledged to secure Reach’s future for the next two years. After carefully assessing this new position, the Board has taken the decision to reverse the planned closure with immediate effect.
Our closure process will now be halted and Reach Volunteering will remain open. Charities and groups can continue to recruit volunteers and trustees through our platform, people can search and apply for volunteering opportunities, and our TrusteeWorks search service will resume taking on new clients.
This funding package gives us the time and stability we need, not only to continue our vital services, but also to continue our work of reshaping Reach to build a more sustainable organisation. This includes implementing plans to further improve efficiency, strengthen earned income and make better use of digital and AI-enabled tools.
What has changed?
This reversal in fortunes is hard to grasp. As far back as May it had been clear that without new funding commitments we would have to close. We tried everything within our power to secure funding, but we were unsuccessful. The board therefore reluctantly made the decision to plan for closure. We started implementing this plan in July and, following redundancy consultations, staff started their notice periods on 1 September. We are therefore quite far down the closure path.
However, since our decision to close was announced, a collaboration of nine funders and donors has come together to create a package that enables us to continue up to the end of 2028 and transform with confidence. We are very grateful to The William Grant Foundation, City Bridge Foundation, The Clothworkers Company, The Henry Smith Foundation, The Lloyds Bank Foundation, The Greater London Authority, This Day, People’s Postcode Lottery, and a generous private donor for moving so quickly to offer funding.
This unprecedented move was made possible by the remarkable efforts of a small number of people who understood what Reach’s closure would mean for volunteering across the sector and were determined to find a way through. Our thanks go to everyone who worked so hard to achieve this dramatic turnaround. We are also deeply grateful to the very many people who shared what Reach has meant to them. Those messages reinforced for us, and perhaps for funders too, the true value of what we do.
There is plenty to learn from our experience and we are pleased that the funders intend to collaborate in future to explore wider questions about the long-term sustainability of social infrastructure. We hope this signals the start of a new approach to supporting infrastructure. We are keen to contribute to meaningful conversations about this, because our organisation staying open is not the same thing as the sector having a strategy for infrastructure and resilience.
Next steps
Our most immediate task is to reverse the closure process, including renewing contracts, undoing technical changes to our platform, and consulting closely with our staff team. We are immensely proud of the commitment and professionalism they have shown throughout this difficult period but are conscious of the emotional toll it has taken. We will therefore take a short pause to reset before beginning the important work of reshaping Reach. We expect to be able to do all of this with minimal disruption to the service. We will share more details in our forthcoming FAQs.
As ever, we are both inspired by, and grateful to, the wider community, for their kindness and support during a challenging period. It has buoyed us through the closure process, helped bring about this amazing reversal in our fortunes, and given us the resolve to dust ourselves off and begin again.
