Beyond Survival: Is It Time to Rethink How We Design the Community, Voluntary and Not-for-Profit Sector?

One of the greatest challenges facing Ireland’s community, voluntary and not-for-profit sector is not a lack of leadership, innovation or commitment. It is the limited capacity organisations have to think and act strategically and about their impact while operating within systems that continue to prioritise short-term delivery.

That raises a bigger question—not simply about how organisations are led, but about how the sector itself has been designed.

Over the past two decades, the role of the sector has changed beyond recognition. Organisations are no longer solely charitable providers of local services. Today they are major employers, trusted community anchors, advocates, innovators and increasingly, partners in delivering essential public services.

At the same time, the challenges facing communities have become more complex. Rising mental health needs, housing and homelessness, domestic abuse, ageing populations, disability services, social isolation and climate resilience all require responses that are collaborative, preventative and long term.

Yet while expectations of the sector have evolved, many of the systems surrounding it have remained remarkably unchanged.

Operations continue to be organised around annual funding cycles. Organisations frequently compete for resources despite working towards many of the same outcomes, while success is still more commonly measured by programme delivery than collective impact.

Leadership teams spend significant time navigating funding uncertainty, workforce shortages, governance responsibilities, compliance requirements and increasing demand—often leaving little opportunity to shape the wider systems within which they operate, despite their best efforts.

None of this reflects a failure of leadership. It reflects a growing mismatch between what society now expects from the sector and the conditions in which it is expected to operate.

The Pink Elephant in the Room

Whenever the sector discusses its challenges, the conversation almost always returns to funding. Understandably, funding uncertainty affects everything—from workforce planning and service continuity to innovation and collaboration.

Funding however is only part of the story and maybe the more important question is whether the structures supporting the sector are still fit for purpose. The more important question may be whether the structures supporting the sector are still fit for purpose.

If government increasingly relies on community and voluntary organisations to deliver essential public services, what kind of sector is it trying to build? One that survives from funding round to funding round? Or one with the capacity to innovate, collaborate, influence policy, embrace technology and help shape solutions to some of society’s most complex challenges?

We increasingly expect organisations to be strategic, yet too often overlook whether the wider system creates the conditions for strategic leadership to flourish.

Signs of Change

There are encouraging signs that this conversation is beginning. The recent commitment to addressing pay disparities within Section 39 organisations acknowledges something the sector has understood for years: sustainable services depend on a sustainable workforce. It is an important recognition that people are not simply programme costs—they are the foundation upon which services are built.

But sustainability extends beyond the workforce. Do organisations have the capacity to invest in leadership, digital transformation, evaluation, collaboration and innovation alongside service delivery? These are no longer optional extras. They are becoming essential organisational capabilities.

Thinking Like a Sector

Perhaps one of the greatest opportunities lies in moving beyond thinking about organisations individually and beginning to think about the sector as a connected system.

Many of the challenges organisations are trying to solve are shared: recruitment and retention, workforce planning, digital capability, policy influence, research, evaluation, technology, funding and community engagement.

Does every organisation need to solve these challenges alone? Or is there greater potential for shared infrastructure, collective leadership and stronger backbone organisations that coordinate learning, influence policy and build capability across entire subsectors?

Ireland already has examples of what system leadership can achieve. Mental Health Reform has demonstrated the value of bringing organisations together around a shared policy agenda. Cuan is strengthening coordination across the domestic, sexual and gender-based violence sector. The Wheel has become an invaluable voice for the wider community and voluntary sector.

If we are serious about the future of the sector, the focus cannot be solely on strengthening individual organisations. We must also strengthen the infrastructure that supports them.

What infrastructure does the community, voluntary and not-for-profit sector need if it is to thrive over the next twenty years?

From Representation to Transformation

What’s increasingly clear across the sector that many of the same challenges are being experienced, regardless of organisation size or subsector.

Chief executives talk about recruitment and retention. Boards talk about governance and sustainability. Teams talk about capacity, digital transformation and rising demand. And across all levels, there is a consistent focus on annual funding cycles.

If these are shared challenges, the question is whether there are more collective ways of thinking about the solutions.

The recent Section 39 pay agreement demonstrates that when Government recognises a structural issue, it can redesign parts of the system around it. The challenge is whether that same willingness can now be applied, for instance, to the wider funding ecosystem.

Annual funding cycles, fragmented commissioning and programme-based funding were designed for a different era. As expectations placed on the sector continue to grow, and the role of the sector having changed significantly over the past twenty years, why hasn’t the way it is funded changed alongside it?

This is where the opportunity lies—not only in how organisations are supported individually, but in whether there are stronger structures for shared learning, strategic dialogue, collective evidence and coordinated advocacy on issues that no single organisation can solve alone. The question is how we create the conditions for the organisations closest to communities to help lead them.

Collective Responsibility

The future of the community, voluntary and not-for-profit sector depends as much on becoming more connected as it does on individual organisations becoming more resilient.

Government, funders, representative bodies, boards, chief executives, communities and service users all have a stake in what comes next.

The conversation is no longer simply about how we fund organisations. It is about how we design a sector capable of meeting increasingly complex social challenges—and whether we are building the strategic capacity to do so. Because if we continue to expect organisations to solve problems of growing scale and complexity, we must be equally prepared to rethink the systems within which they operate.

This brings us back to the question at the heart of Article 1: how do we create the conditions that enable strategic leadership across the not-for-profit sector? The question is no longer whether the sector needs to change. It is how we strengthen the conditions that enable strategic leadership across the not-for-profit sector.