Community Service Volunteers has changed its name to Volunteering Matters and is placing more emphasis on its policy work as well as hoping to reach new audiences.

Last year the charity closed its learning centres and sold those buildings to tackle its financial difficulties. It also restructured its senior management team.

Community Service Volunteers was set up in 1963 and was widely known as CSV but the charity said that evidence suggested not enough people "understood CSV as an acronym or as a charity".

A spokeswoman said that the rebranding process had cost “somewhere in the region of £50,000” and includes a new website.

Oonagh Aitken, chief executive of Volunteering Matters, said:  “We are launching our rebrand and positioning our charity as leading UK volunteering in policy and practice.”

She added: “Our new name, Volunteering Matters, marks the beginning of an exciting new future for the organisation. We will continue to build on our consistent delivery of high quality volunteering programmes that positively impact the lives of people all over the UK.

“Through social action volunteering, we enable people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to contribute to their local community, enhance their wellbeing and gain important new skills. We believe that as Volunteering Matters, we will be better placed to reach new audiences of people who either want to volunteer or could benefit from one of our many bespoke programmes.”

Financial difficulties and restructure

The Cabinet Office stopped providing it with an annual strategic grant worth £1m in 2011. In 2011/2012 CSV Group made an unrestricted loss of £2m. In the 16-month reporting period ending 31 July 2013 there was a further loss of £1.1m. Its income was £32.4m and expenditure £33.4m.

Its headquarters moved from three buildings in Pentonville Road and King’s Cross Road in Islington to the Levy Centre in Hackney and also sold its properties in Bristol. This raised £5.6m and its accounts for the year to 31 July 2014 showed that the charity paid £2.2m from the sale of properties into its pension scheme. The sale also allowed the charity to repay all of its bank debt.

Lucy de Groot, who has been chief executive since February 2011, retired in October 2014. Jo Day, who joined in February 2013 as director of finances and resources, also left in October.

Oonagh Aitken became chief executive, having joined as director for social action and volunteering in April 2012.

Laura Doughty, previously deputy chief executive at Stonewall, joined as director of external affairs and fundraising. Kate Morris, previously head of group finance at the British Heart Foundation, joined as director of finance and resources.

• In the October edition of Charity Finance magazine De Groot explained the process of restructuring the charity. Online subscribers can read it here, or find out more about subscription options.