Charities are increasingly adapting to a more volatile operating environment. The work itself hasn’t changed, but the conditions around it have – and the gap between the two is growing.
A new briefing from NCVO and Zurich gives this a name: “Protection Mode”. Drawing on conversations with 50 charity leaders, trustees, staff, and volunteers, it finds that rising demand, financial pressure, misinformation, online hostility, political uncertainty and rapid technological change are no longer separate problems. They’re converging and reshaping how organisations lead, deliver services, engage publicly, and support their people.
The result is a sector absorbing growing hidden costs: leadership exhaustion, workforce strain, and resilience activity that is resource intensive and genuinely difficult to fund. We hear this from London’s charities, community groups, and local infrastructure organisations too. Even when resilience activity is funded, it is often too little to support long-term and sustainable work.
The briefing’s conclusion is clear: resilience cannot be solved organisation by organisation. It requires shared infrastructure, practical support, and stronger collaboration across civil society.
That’s exactly what the London Communities Emergencies Partnership (LCEP) was built to provide. Co-chaired by London Plus and the VCS Emergencies Partnership, LCEP supports voluntary, community, and faith sector (VCFS) organisations to better prepare for, respond to, and learn from major emergencies in London. Alongside acute, event-based emergencies, it recognises the ongoing operational pressures that the briefing describes: online hostility, misinformation, growing community tensions, and cyber threats. The day-to-day environment facing charities and community groups is itself becoming a resilience challenge, and LCEP’s work reflects that reality.
When we talk about resilience, we mean the ability of communities, organisations, and systems to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies. This is not about placing the responsibility on them to manage emergencies alone. Rather it is about equipping them with the tools, information, partnerships, and support they need to respond effectively and recover as quickly as possible. Through our work we help ensure that people, communities, organisations, and the wider systems in which they operate are better able to withstand challenges and bounce back from them.
Most VCFS organisations aren’t emergency specialists, and yet when an emergency hits they’re often the first to respond. LCEP’s recent Capabilities Project was built around that reality. Rather than asking charities to fit into existing emergency frameworks, it started from a different question entirely: what would it actually take to build preparedness that is relevant, inclusive, sustainable, and owned by communities themselves? Without tailored support, resilience work remains out of reach for many, and this project set out to change that. The results spoke for themselves: participants ran local exercises with their local authority, bringing VCFS organisations and statutory partners around the same table, in many cases for the very first time.
The wider picture
LCEP is an example of what resourced resilience infrastructure can achieve, but it sits within a wider network of support across London. London Plus (which supports the voluntary, community, and faith sector across all 32 boroughs through networks, insight, and advocacy) is part of that same infrastructure logic: ensuring that when pressure rises, charities and community groups aren’t rebuilding relationships and capability from scratch.
Local infrastructure organisations (LIOs), the borough-level bodies that support, connect, and represent charities and community groups in their area, are a critical but often overlooked part of this picture. As the sector supporting the sector, LIOs provide the coordination and capacity-building that enable charities and community groups to thrive and respond effectively in times of need. They hold deep local knowledge, trusted relationships, and an understanding of community needs that no statutory body can replicate. In times of pressure, they are often the first place charities and community groups turn, for advice, connections, funding support, and a sense of what others are doing. Yet LIOs themselves are frequently under-resourced, operating in the same difficult environment as the organisations they support.
The Government’s Resilience Action Plan and the 2025 London Resilience Strategy both recognise the vital role that the VCFS plays in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from emergencies. Recent emergencies, from COVID-19 to the far-right riots of 2024, have demonstrated that the sector’s ability to respond effectively depends on the trusted local relationships, networks, and coordination that LIOs provide. These connections help ensure that information, resources, and support reach the charities and community groups that need them most, in ways that are accessible and effective. When local infrastructure is lost, so too are the trusted relationships, local knowledge, and coordination mechanisms that underpin community resilience. We explore the consequences of this in our report series, A System at Risk: London’s Local Infrastructure.
What this means for your organisation
Charities and community groups cannot continue to absorb growing risks and resilience responsibilities indefinitely.
A few things follow from the briefing’s findings:
Treat resilience as a core cost
Resilience is a core operational function that enables organisations to continue supporting communities when they are needed most. Funders, commissioners, and charities and community groups themselves should recognise resilience as a legitimate and necessary cost of delivery.
Build relationships before you need them
Effective emergency preparedness and response depends on trust and coordination that already exist. Organisations that are connected to local and regional networks are better placed to access information, share intelligence, identify community needs, and coordinate support during a crisis.
- The London Communities Emergencies Partnership (LCEP) provides a regional network that brings together VCFS with public and statutory sector organisations to better prepare, respond, and learn from major emergencies in London. If you’re not already connected to LCEP, you can join the partnership for updates and a direct line into London’s wider resilience structures.
- Local infrastructure organisations (LIOs) offer borough-level support, helping charities and community groups build relationships, access information, share learning, and connect with local partners. You can find your local infrastructure organisation here.
If you are unsure of your local landscape, LCEP can help you understand existing networks and opportunities for engagement.
Contact us on info@lcep.london for more information.
