# ACEVO – putting the charity back in their strapline

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/07/09/acevo-putting-the-charity-back-in-their-strapline/
- Published: 2013-07-09T16:47:04+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Charity sector staff have spent far too much time trying to come up with a better
term to describe the sector. Charity, nonprofit, not-for-profit, civil society, 
third sector, voluntary and community sector. In my 25 years in the sector, no-one
has yet come up with a satisfactory word that describes the amazing, dynamic, ever-
growing, disparate and diverse sector.

 

Whenever I see such a discussion starting online, I generally avoid it, knowing 
that there is no answer.

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)

 

So, I am pleased to see that [ACEVO](http://www.acevo.org.uk), the Association of
Chief Executives in Voluntary Organisations, has bitten the bullet and decided to
change its strapline from ‘Third Sector Leaders’ to ‘Charity Leaders Network’. Let’s
hope the message permeates from these sector leaders to others.

 

I love words: words have power. But really, we have far better things to do than
waste time trying to discover an impossible unifying word. ‘Charity’ is far from
perfect: it has a legal definition, for some it has negative hand-out connotations,
and for others it suggests outdated attitudes or an anti-business approach.

 

But it is what the public understands, and what surely most sector workers understand.
Amongst ourselves, let’s qualify our use of the word when we need to – ‘social enterprises’
are distinct from charities, ‘campaigning organisations’ don’t necessarily have 
charity status and so on. But for all other reasons, let’s just stick with ‘charity’.

 

And don’t even start with the notion that ‘fundraising’ is time for replacement 
by development, resource mobilisation or income generation…

 * **[ACEVO Fellowships awarded to charity chief executives](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/12/13/acevo-fellowships-awarded-charity-chief-executives/)**(
   13 December 2016)
 * **[Charities spend £136.4 million a day helping people, reveals joint sector report](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/02/09/charities-spend-136-4m-day-helping-people-reveals-joint-sector-report/)**(
   9 February 2017)
 * **[ACEVO & Centre for Mental Health partner to research bullying in charities](https://fundraising.co.uk/2019/02/19/acevo-centre-for-mental-health-partner-research-bullying-in-charities/)**(
   19 February 2019)