13 November, 2026

We’re used to asking how organisations can start, grow and survive. But perhaps we need to get better at helping them end.

Around 12,500 UK civil society organisations closed, merged or handed on their work in 2025, up from around 8,000 a decade earlier. Some of those endings were planned and orderly, leaving behind a useful legacy. Others happened abruptly, causing significant disruption for staff, volunteers and the communities they served.

That’s why three civil society focused organisations, PBE, The Decelerator and Braw Data, have launched Closing Time, a new partnership aiming to build the first national evidence base on how and why civil society organisations end, and ultimately create guidance to support better endings.

We think this is important. Closure is still synonymous with failure. Leaders persevere, funders fund and boards search for another plan. By the time stopping becomes unavoidable, there may be fewer options for doing it well.

Perhaps there’s something to learn from the circular economy. When a product reaches the end of its life, the goal isn’t to preserve it forever, but to preserve its value: reusing what works, recovering useful materials and minimising what gets lost. In an organisational setting, this would involve programmes being transferred, knowledge shared, employees supported, assets redeployed and relationships handed on.

A resilient civil society isn’t necessarily one where every organisation survives. Perhaps it’s one where the value organisations create can outlive them.

By Patrick Bapty