Background on the voluntary and community sector

Voluntary sector organisations are value-driven, in that they exist for the good of the community. Their primary purpose is to promote social, environmental or cultural objectives to benefit society as a whole, or particular groups within it.

Voluntary sector organisations are independent of government. This important principle is enshrined in the 'compact' agreed between the sector and government. They are different from the statutory sector, which provides those services that must be provided by law, such as social services, NHS hospital treatment, and schools. However, voluntary sector organisations may provide statutory services on behalf of local and national government.

What do they do? 

Because of its diversity, it is not easy to define the voluntary sector. Voluntary sector organisations vary enormously in size, from small local groups staffed exclusively by volunteers, to large national charities that are household names with complex infrastructures and many hundreds of staff. Broadly speaking, however, the sector can be said to comprise organisations that are:

• Independent of government and constitutionally self-governing (although governance structures can take a number of forms, charities, for example, are defined by the purpose of the organisation and whether or not they conform to charitable law, rather than by their legal structure)
• Value-driven - in other words, they exist for the good of the community, in that their primary purpose is to promote social, environmental or cultural objectives in order to benefit society as a whole, or particular groups within it
• Not established for financial gain - they re-invest any surpluses to further their primary objectives (rather than distribute surpluses to shareholders, for example)

The sector is sometimes referred to as the voluntary and community sector. Community sector organisations are generally small, local groups serving a particular neighbourhood, dependent on local volunteers and often without the infrastructure to produce complex monitoring or evaluation reports that may be produced by larger charities.

Other terms are also used. The third sector, for example, is generally thought of as a more embracing term that encompasses the voluntary and community sector, but also includes social enterprises (ie businesses that have primarily social objectives, and whose profits are reinvested in the business rather than distributed to shareholders), mutuals and cooperatives (membership-based organisations run on a democratic basis for the benefits of their members), and other non-profit organisations (such as independent schools, universities or quangos).