Where is Everybody? Finding and supporting the smallest voluntary sector organisations

This talk examines the challenges and opportunities facing small voluntary and community organisations in England. Using the metaphor of the "microbiome," it highlights how the smallest voluntary sector organisations—comprising an estimated 335,000 unregistered groups alongside 132,000 registered ones—are essential components of public service delivery, community support, and care for the environment. And yet we have no true idea of how many of these organisations there are, where they are, or how they help. The current estimates of the size and shape of the voluntary sector are based on extrapolation. This has implications at the local and national level: it is currently not possible to understand the range of and gaps in provision across Cornwall or advocate powerfully for the value of the voluntary sector at a national level. This talk covers what might be done about this, and how the question of finding the microbiome leads into a wider national conversation about the quality and consistency of the data we have on the voluntary sector. 

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