Third sector organisations are being reminded there is just four weeks left of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations’s (NCVO) consultation on the future. Results from the consultation will determine what the umbrella body will campaign for over the next five to ten years.

Throughout March and April, NCVO and the National Association for Councils for Voluntary Service held a series of meetings across England, which allowed charities to put forward their views on issues such as their relationships with government, funding, and whether they think there is any such thing as the voluntary sector at all.

Stuart Etherington, NCVO’s chief executive, said: “Too often the voluntary sector gets told by infrastructure bodies, think tanks, academics and politicians what it wants and what it needs. But the only organisation that really knows what it is like to be a community project in the Midlands is a community project in the Midlands. This consultation is the most important piece of work to look at the sector’s future since Nick Deakins’ report in 1996 which led to the Compact, the Charities Bill and tax reform on donations.

Charities and voluntary organisations can respond to Your Future: a consultation, online or by post. For a copy visit www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/volact The closing date is Friday 27 May 2005.