Post By Iona Lawrence, Co-Founder of The Decelerator
Many civil society organisations find themselves grappling with the weight of uncertain or delayed endings. Whether it’s due to funding shortfalls, leadership exhaustion, or the perceived stigma of failure, these situations can feel overwhelming. We all know the stories: A CEO lies awake at 3am, wondering how to meet payroll as funds dry up. The Founder struggles to raise the delicate subject of succession with their board. The HR manager is navigating rising staff turnover after multiple failed recruitment attempts. The Board Chair starts questioning whether the current legal structure is still fit for the mission.
These unresolved challenges can lead to endings that damage morale and diminish legacies. However, there is another way. Imagine a thoughtful, well-supported process—one that not only recognises past achievements but also asks critical questions: What needs to be carried forward? And what is it time to leave behind?
The Decelerator exists to help civil society organisations transform how they approach endings. Supported by seed funding from Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Pears Foundation, and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, we are on a 10-year mission to bring greater intention, resourcing, and care to organisational transitions, including closures, mergers, CEO handovers, and project completions.
Introducing The Decelerator Hotline
At the core of our work is The Decelerator Hotline, a confidential, non-judgemental space where organisations can access free practical and emotional support as they anticipate or navigate endings. Our Decelerator Navigators bring their own lived experience of endings and help organisations work through tough questions with active listening, gentle guidance, and real-life examples.
We’ve learned from over 200 conversations that these single moments of deceleration and reflection can be pivotal. They can provide clarity in confusion, connection in isolation, and a sense of agency during times of uncertainty. Each conversation helps to change the narrative around endings—from something to fear to an opportunity for renewal.
That said, The Decelerator isn’t offering a panacea or miracle cure.
We are living through times that call us to face up to what is being lost that can’t be rehoused, distributed or passed on. Community assets, physical spaces, networks, service capacity, learnt wisdom, lived wisdom and much more. To quote Kathy Evans, former CEO of Children England that closed its doors in 2023: ‘some of what we currently know to be civil society was built at a time when the world was different’. Funding was different, the opportunities were different, the needs were different, perhaps even we were different. For good and for bad. The Decelerator’s work is rooted in the hunch that we’re in a time of great change and loss, not just short term glitches. We regularly witness the loss of an organisation, a service or a project that has been relied on and that isn’t being adequately replaced or re-homed.
So alongside The Decelerator’s practical work is the acknowledgement that it is crucial to honour these losses and support those involved to navigate them as best they can, however unimaginable they might seem. In these times we aim to accompany organisations through a process of hospicing, much like a palliative care nurse tends to their patient: with humanity, care and respect.
Endings have always been inevitable, but now more than ever, they are something civil society leaders must actively consider. Not because considering endings determines that something will inevitably end, but because staying open to the possibilities of them unleashes purpose, conviction and a relentless pursuit of what is absolutely necessary and most impactful. The Decelerator believes that everyone has a role in bringing these conversations out of the shadows, where they are often associated with failure, and into the light. Only by discussing possible endings early can we avoid the risk of confronting them too late—when resources and time are scarce, making it harder to focus on legacy, care, and renewal.
How are you creating space for these vital conversations in your organisation? And if you need a safe, supportive space to think things through, The Decelerator Hotline is available to you.
