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Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations
Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations
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Supporting Scotland's vibrant voluntary sector

Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations is the membership organisation for Scotland's charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. Charity registered in Scotland SC003558. Registered office Caledonian Exchange, 19A Canning Street, Edinburgh EH3 8EG.

Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

Join our membership community

for voluntary organisations in Scotland

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Exclusive membership benefits and support networks

A strong community of voluntary organisations of all sizes

Shape the future of the voluntary sector in Scotland

Join our membership community in just a few steps…

The right category for you depends on your organisation's income.

Answer a few simple questions to find the right membership category for you, review your membership benefits and join our community.

Check eligibility

FREE

(for organisations with under £100k annual income)

£0 per year

Membership highlights
Our members in this category say they love:

  • Funding Scotland Premium
  • Access to our Information Service support
  • Free legal advice
  • Exclusive members' e-bulletin and sector news updates
  • 30% discount on training and events

More about member benefits

SMALL

(for organisations with £100k - £500k annual income)

£279 per year

Membership highlights
Our members in this category say they love:

  • Funding Scotland Premium
  • Free legal advice
  • Policy network and news insights
  • Specialist advice from our Information Officers
  • Access to sector salary insights

More about member benefits

MEDIUM

(for organisations with £500k - £3m annual income)

£449 per year

Membership highlights
Our members in this category say they love:

  • Funding Scotland Premium
  • 30% discount on training and events
  • Member-only networks
  • Exclusive access to TFN content and advertising discounts
  • Policy network and news insights

More about member benefits

LARGE

(for organisations with £3m+ annual income)

£749 per year

Membership highlights
Our members in this category say they love:

  • Funding Scotland Premium
  • Training discounts and supplier partner offers
  • Access to membership networks
  • Exclusive members' e-bulletin and sector news updates
  • Access to our Information Service support

More about member benefits

INDIVIDUAL

 

£119 per year

Supporter membership highlights
Our supporters in this category say they love:

  • Connecting and networking with voluntary sector organisations
  • Exclusive webinars and events
  • Exclusive supporters' e-bulletin and sector news updates
  • Priority booking for the Gathering

More about supporter benefits

SMALLER ORGANISATION

(under £500k annual income)

£299 per year

Supporter membership highlights
Our supporters in this category say they love:

  • Funding Scotland Premium
  • Exclusive webinars and events
  • Exclusive supporters' e-bulletin and sector news updates
  • Connecting and networking with voluntary sector organisations at events

More about supporter benefits

LARGER ORGANISATION

(£500k+ annual income)

£899 per year

Supporter membership highlights
Our supporters in this category say they love:

  • Funding Scotland Premium
  • Being part of a movement dedicated to achieving the ambitions of the voluntary sector in Scotland
  • Exclusive access to Goodmoves Salary Guide and SJC salary scales
  • Exclusive supporters' e-bulletin and sector news updates

More about supporter benefits

Meet our members

SCVO members are part of a community of 3,472 organisations.

Membership directory Our latest members

East Kilbride Men's Shed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6mtDQR79M4&list=PLD_XS4xNFQV49IeEuH04NchOlPa_CFf05&index=6

SCVO member, East Kilbride Men's Shed, is a charity in South Lanarkshire. The Men's Shed is a community space for people to socialise together. Members of the Shed share knowledge, skills, and friendship, all while having fun!

Simba

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpizgxi2URs&list=PLD_XS4xNFQV49IeEuH04NchOlPa_CFf05&index=1

SCVO member, Simba, supports families who have lost their baby. They help those grieving create precious moments to honour their baby's memory. Simba takes a deeply personal approach and one of the most important things they offer is a memory box, each one unique, and handmade with love and care.

Forth Rivers Trust

https://youtu.be/gUpFe0-e4gw?si=0pAhgved8kY-CmE5

SCVO member, Forth Rivers Trust, aims to engage people with rivers and wildlife in the Forth and to conserve rivers and their important species for future generations.

Leuchie House

We talked to Colin Leslie, communications and marketing manager at Leuchie House who told us all about their organisation.

“Leuchie House provides short respite breaks and 24-hour care to people affected by neurological conditions such as MS, MND, Parkinson’s and the effects of stroke, allowing their families and carers to have a rest.

Our greatest success is the care and respite we consistently deliver to people in desperate need of a break. Our neuro-experienced team provides Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, enabling technology, activities, entertainment, and opportunities to relax for our guests in a beautiful country setting. We know there is great need for respite across the country and we want more people to take advantage of the breaks we offer.

The biggest challenges we’re facing at the moment are recruitment, and the financial crises around cost-of-living and energy prices. Brexit and the pandemic have left the social care sector facing some serious staffing challenges.

We were attracted to join SCVO as members because SCVO is a driving force within Scotland’s charity sector, championing its members’ work and aims, and we wanted to be part of such a collaborative organisation.

The resources, training and opportunities available to members, together with the wealth of news and information readily available are really valuable to use. They allow us to keep our finger on the pulse of what is developing within the sector.

The Scottish Charity Awards, hosted by SCVO was a highlight for Leuchie. We were thrilled and honoured not only to be part of the Scottish Charity Awards this year, but to win two of the categories (Campaign of the Year and Digital Citizen). It meant a lot to a small independent charity like Leuchie, and underlined the fantastic job our team does day in, day out.”

Leuchie House National Respite Centre logo
Cancer Support Scotland logo

Cancer Support Scotland

We talked to Stephanie Quigley, service manager with Cancer Support Scotland who told us all about their organisation.

“Cancer Support Scotland is a charity that has been supporting the wellbeing of people affected by cancer for over 40 years. Providing free counselling, support groups, workshops, complementary therapies and befriending. As a charity we understand the psychological and physiological impact a cancer diagnosis can have on a person with cancer, their loved ones, carers, friends and those bereaved by cancer.

All the services provided by our charity are free and are continually evolving, developing to meet the needs of people affected by cancer. Due to the detrimental impact Covid-19 had on people’s mental health and not being able to access face to face services during the pandemic, we expanded to digital platforms for our wellbeing services adding digital and telephone counselling, Zoom Coping with Change workshops, befriending calls and a suite of digital self-help resources which have all been a major success. By adding these digital services, we have become more accessible to people living in rural communities and who are also going through treatment and feeling isolated.

In August 2022 we were delighted to resume our face-to-face services which includes counselling, support groups, workshops and complementary therapy. Our wonderful complementary therapy volunteer team lead by our national award-winning therapist have created a bespoke treatment plan tailored to people’s needs. The types of therapy on offer include Reflexology, Reiki, Specialist Oncology Massage and Indian Head Massage.  

Every two minutes someone in the UK is diagnosed with cancer, due to these alarming figures and more significantly Covid-19 there were increased rates of anxiety, depression and complex trauma. Therefore, our biggest challenge now is meeting the demands on our free wellbeing services. With a growing number of people accessing our support we must increase our services to meet demand, which takes additional funding and financial support. Understandably, with the cost-of-living crisis, this is becoming increasingly difficult, however we rely on the generosity of the general public to continue this vital lifeline for people affected by cancer across Scotland.

We joined SCVO to be part of a nationally recognised organisation, whose mission is to support, promote and develop a confident, sustainable voluntary sector attracted Cancer Support Scotland to join. Additionally, SCVO’s values resonate with values that Cancer Support Scotland strive to deliver daily being responsive, supportive and committed to people affected by cancer in Scotland.

All the staff at Cancer Support Scotland take advantage of the wonderful training opportunities available through SCVO. The courses, webinars and events offered are wonderful ways of supporting our team, ensuring they feel confident in their roles with the charity.

We’d love fellow SCVO members and members of the public to join in some of our events to help support our work and we encourage people to find out more about our services on our website.”

Are you an SCVO member who'd like to feature in "Meet our members"? Head to My SCVO to let us know! We'd love to share your story.

Frequently asked questions

We'd love to hear from you if you have any questions at all about joining our SCVO membership community. You're welcome to call us on 0800 169 0022 or drop us an email to membership@scvo.scot. One of our membership team members will help you as quickly as we can.

You might also find it helpful to have a look through our frequently asked questions, where we've answered some of the questions we're often asked about.

Our membership fees are based on your organisation's most recent total annual income figure (which includes restricted and unrestricted funds). We review your income every year to make sure it's accurate and you're in the right membership category. If you're registered on OSCR, we will automatically check this for you. If we don't have access to your accounts, we will use the latest figure you've given us. If you want to update us on anything, please get in touch.

We welcome many different types of organisations as SCVO members. Our members include voluntary organisations, charities, social enterprises and some CICs and are organisations of all different sizes. SCVO members play an active role in shaping our work and can help to influence policy, nominate Board members and vote at our AGM. Check if you’re eligible to be a member of SCVO using our quick membership eligibility checker and if you'd like to see our full membership eligibility criteria, you'll find it here.

You could be a valued SCVO supporter if you’d like to support SCVO in a personal capacity or if you’re a public sector body or a commercial business in Scotland. If you’re a voluntary sector organisation out with Scotland, being an SCVO supporter could also be for you. Use our handy eligibility checker to find out if supporter status is right for you.

Joining SCVO as an organisation member or supporter? To complete your application, you'll need to answer some questions about your organisation's constitution and current annual income accurately.

You might find it helpful to have a copy of your constitution/governing document and annual accounts to hand before you start.

We want to make it as simple as possible to join SCVO so our application form contains handy look-up features such as pulling information from our own and/or OSCR’s databases if we already recognise your organisation’s name or Scottish charity number. You can also save your application and return to it later if you need to.

Joining as an individual supporter? We’ll need a few personal details from you and you’ll be ready to submit your application in no time!

Want to check if you’re eligible for membership and which category is right for you? Use our handy eligibility checker.

Of course! You can save your application form as you go and return to it when you're ready.

To save you time, we've tried to make our membership application forms as simple and quick as possible and we try to do some of the work for you by auto-filling information for you where we can.

When you're applying as a member or a supporter organisation, we recommend having some information available before you start because you'll need to answer some questions about your organisation's constitution and current annual income accurately.

You might find it helpful to have a copy of your constitution/governing document and annual accounts to hand before you start.

The My SCVO account helps you make the most of your SCVO membership benefits. Access Funding Scotland Premium, exclusive member-only content, training discounts and member-only networks. You can also update your personal details, keep track of your SCVO bookings, catch up on the latest member e-bulletins and it’s where you’ll get early access to book your place for the Gathering.

Of course! If your password reset link isn’t working it may have expired. If you aren't signed in, get a new link here which will last for 24 hours. Still having trouble? Get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

Our friendly Membership Team is here to answer your questions. We’d love to hear from you. Call us on 0800 169 0022 or drop us an email to membership@scvo.scot and we’ll be in touch.

When you’re an SCVO member or supporter organisation, everyone at your organisation can receive our membership bulletin. Send a quick note to membership@scvo.scot if our membership bulletin isn’t dropping into your inbox every fortnight. If you’d like to receive other updates from SCVO, you can update your communications preferences using the My SCVO Account.

Drop a note to our friendly Finance Team at finance@scvo.scot to request a copy of your membership invoice.