CEO blog | Evolving our offer to members

29 June 2026

ACF's chief executive, Carol Mack, shares why ACF is taking a fresh look at its membership offer – and how member voices will shape what lies ahead.

At ACF, we've never believed there's a single 'right' membership offer – some perfect formula we crack once and then deliver forever. The right offer keeps evolving: listening to members, responding to your challenges, keeping an eye on what's emerging, and continuously adjusting to meet you where you are with what you need.

That's always been true. But right now, we're taking a fresh look at our membership offer, guided by what we're hearing from members, and we'd love you to be part of that journey – even before we have all the answers.

This is the first in a short series of blogs in which my team and I share what we're hearing, what we're considering, and how you can shape what's next.

What we know you value

Before we look ahead, it's worth recognising what is already working well.

The sense of community that ACF creates remains, I believe, one of our most distinctive contributions. Our annual conference, member networks and events, such as our trustee receptions, offer something rare: a room full of people who do what you do, and who don't need it explained.

Whether you're thinking through how to diversify your board, working out how best to engage with government, or finding ways to respond to changing demand from applicants – you're in a room with peers who are working on exactly the same things, and whose experience is directly relevant to yours. Our job is to create that space – and we'll keep doing it.

Our learning and development programme is also consistently among the most valued parts of membership. From governance and trustee effectiveness to investment strategy, grant-making and new developments in AI and technology – all grounded in the specific context of trusts and foundations – we offer sessions that benefit the whole team: staff and trustees. Whether you engage through our peer-learning sessions or from our library of written resources, the underpinning framework is Stronger Foundations – ACF’s core guidance on excellent practice that you, our members, created with us.

What we're building

We have a growing list of things members have told us they need, and we're beginning to bring those to life.

There are some exciting developments in incubation: we want to develop a mentoring offer, connecting new and established foundation professionals across grant-making, investments, communications and research roles. We’re exploring a new network specifically for finance and investment people in mid-size foundations – a space to connect with peers facing the same decisions.

We're enhancing our learning and development programme and considering how we can offer more in the way of sector insight: more analysis like our valued annual salary benchmarking report and more access to what's happening in relevant practice elsewhere in the world and in adjacent sectors.

These won't all arrive at once – and being very honest with you, doing some things well means making space by doing other things differently or doing less of them. You’ll recognise this from your own work – doing some things well often means choosing to do other things differently – or not at all. But we're sequencing intentionally, and the member survey (more on that below) is going to directly inform that.

Nysa Pradhan, ACF's new chief operating officer, will also be helping us do more with our corporate partnerships – leaning into those relationships to bring members richer insights and connections than we could offer alone.

How we're making decisions

This year we've taken a different approach to our membership survey. With pro bono support from nfpResearch, we're going more qualitative – moving beyond what members use from our offer, to understand what they most need ACF's support with, and where the gaps are. That will tell us not just what to change, but in what order, and with what urgency.

I won't pretend we can do everything at once – and I won’t pretend that evolution doesn’t sometimes mean letting go of things, even things that have served us well. But I can promise that we're planning ahead rather than reacting, and that your input is directly shaping the sequence.

What stays the same

Our strategy runs until 2027 and that isn't changing. What we're doing is listening hard now so that when we develop our next strategy, it's built on a genuinely clear picture of what members need for the next four or five years.

But within that, we’re thinking carefully about where we focus – because I believe a sharper offer, even if a slightly smaller one, will serve you better than one that tries to be everything.

What happens next

Please complete the member survey – it's open until 5pm on Friday 24 July, and it's the most direct way to have your say at this stage. If you'd like a conversation about what your organisation specifically needs from ACF, drop me a line at [email protected].

We’ll be back with more to share on this in the autumn. Catherine Seymour, our director of policy and programmes, who leads on all aspects of the member offer, will write the next blog in this series, sharing some reflections from the member survey findings and a clearer picture of what's coming.

I’m excited about hearing from you and for the changes we’ve got ahead. ACF is your association and we want to shape what comes next together.