Building the Third Sector Evidence Base: Data capture from accounts of registered charities and associated knowledge exchange activities
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Birmingham
Department Name: Third Sector Research Centre
Abstract
Our focus is on improving the evidence base for the third sector, and improving the use of evidence by the sector. The project addresses concerns about the absence of relevant, timely and high-quality data on the financial position and resources of charities. There is a need for longer term and large-scale investment on a UK-wide basis (the focus here is on England and Wales); this project builds on a long history of existing work in this area by TSRC and NCVO with the intention of increasing the sector's engagement with, and use of, evidence.
In the words of Lester Salamon, the leading international scholar of the third sector, "valid and reliable statistics will enhance the visibility and credibility of voluntary organisations, contribute to improved transparency and accountability of the sector and of government, and provide empirical context for decision making and policy development". The Office for National Statistics, the Office for Civil Society, and the academic community in this field are all supportive of these efforts.
We will carry out three strands of activity:
1. Data resource construction
We will capture data for a representative sample of c.10,000 charities in England and Wales. By the end of the funding period we will be able to track charities over a ten-year period. This will be a unique and powerful data resource for insight. The sample is representative of the population of English and Welsh charities and provides reasonably robust estimates of the resources of all charities. We capture information from the notes to charities accounts, describing where they get their income from (e.g. giving the names of their funders such as particular local authorities, government departments or charitable foundations). We then classify this information so that we can clearly identify particular funding streams - especially public sector funders - so that we can also differentiate between grants and contracts.
2. Capacity-building
We will raise awareness of this data amongst charities, policy makers and funders and of its value for their work and decision-making. We will construct numerous relevant indicators of financial health/vulnerability in the voluntary sector.
We will produce learning resources and run events to build capacity in using the tools and data resources we develop. Organisations will be free to use our data in several ways: profiling charities in their geographical area; selecting entities with whom partnership working might be developed; considering the financial vulnerability of organisations; looking at indicators of distribution/growth of the charity population, and also at risk-based indicators such as exposure to particular funding streams.
3. Knowledge exchange
We will implement an engagement and communication strategy, producing accessible outputs and targeted communications, engaging strategically significant organisations to raise awareness, and publicising our activities through social media and the Internet; we will maximise impact upon large numbers of charities, funders, and policy-makers (e.g. NCVO has 11,000+ members).
Key features
Innovation and originality: the project will provide the basis of a data infrastructure on the characteristics, distribution and resources of charities in England and Wales, and the dynamics thereof, including changes over time.
Strategic priorities and value: the project contributes to the improvement of the social science data infrastructure. It will inform public debate and policy-making about the funding base for charities and inform and improve strategic decision-making.
Value added: the UK social science infrastructure currently lacks an authoritative evidence base on charities, which this project will provide. The project also adds value to the work by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on assessing the contribution of the non-profit sector to the national accounts.
In the words of Lester Salamon, the leading international scholar of the third sector, "valid and reliable statistics will enhance the visibility and credibility of voluntary organisations, contribute to improved transparency and accountability of the sector and of government, and provide empirical context for decision making and policy development". The Office for National Statistics, the Office for Civil Society, and the academic community in this field are all supportive of these efforts.
We will carry out three strands of activity:
1. Data resource construction
We will capture data for a representative sample of c.10,000 charities in England and Wales. By the end of the funding period we will be able to track charities over a ten-year period. This will be a unique and powerful data resource for insight. The sample is representative of the population of English and Welsh charities and provides reasonably robust estimates of the resources of all charities. We capture information from the notes to charities accounts, describing where they get their income from (e.g. giving the names of their funders such as particular local authorities, government departments or charitable foundations). We then classify this information so that we can clearly identify particular funding streams - especially public sector funders - so that we can also differentiate between grants and contracts.
2. Capacity-building
We will raise awareness of this data amongst charities, policy makers and funders and of its value for their work and decision-making. We will construct numerous relevant indicators of financial health/vulnerability in the voluntary sector.
We will produce learning resources and run events to build capacity in using the tools and data resources we develop. Organisations will be free to use our data in several ways: profiling charities in their geographical area; selecting entities with whom partnership working might be developed; considering the financial vulnerability of organisations; looking at indicators of distribution/growth of the charity population, and also at risk-based indicators such as exposure to particular funding streams.
3. Knowledge exchange
We will implement an engagement and communication strategy, producing accessible outputs and targeted communications, engaging strategically significant organisations to raise awareness, and publicising our activities through social media and the Internet; we will maximise impact upon large numbers of charities, funders, and policy-makers (e.g. NCVO has 11,000+ members).
Key features
Innovation and originality: the project will provide the basis of a data infrastructure on the characteristics, distribution and resources of charities in England and Wales, and the dynamics thereof, including changes over time.
Strategic priorities and value: the project contributes to the improvement of the social science data infrastructure. It will inform public debate and policy-making about the funding base for charities and inform and improve strategic decision-making.
Value added: the UK social science infrastructure currently lacks an authoritative evidence base on charities, which this project will provide. The project also adds value to the work by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on assessing the contribution of the non-profit sector to the national accounts.
Planned Impact
Our programme will generate datasets which will be of significant value to a range of national and international, interdisciplinary, academic audiences interested in substantive and theoretical understanding of the third sector, and in particular the flows of resources to, and the funding base of, third sector organisations.
This work will also be of central value to those working within the third sector. Our partnership is uniquely situated at the heart of the sector, allowing us to maximise awareness of, and engagement with, the evidence we will generate, and maximise the impact on voluntary organisations, policy-makers and researchers. Knowledge exchange activity will be led by NCVO, taking advantage of their extensive networks including c.11,000+ members, websites (approximately two million unique visitors each year across all of our websites), twitter (38,000 followers), blogs and newsletters. Equally, TSRC is embedded within academia, providing extensive links to researchers working on the third sector.
Building upon our previous five years of research, we will extend existing data resources on registered charities in England and Wales, so that by the end of the funding period we will have captured and classified some ten years of data on our sample of 10,000 charities. This will provide an unrivalled resource for the analysis of trends in the funding base of charities. It will be of value to researchers in a range of disciplines (Social Policy, Politics, Business and Management, Geography, Economics) who require authoritative evidence on the numbers and characteristics of third sector organisations as well as policy-makers and people working in the sector.
The data will be of considerable value to non-academic users, providing them with a new depth of analysis and insight. Organisations themselves will have a much clearer picture of which organisations, and where, are gaining or losing from changing funding streams and how this is changing over time. Claims in this sphere lack a strong evidence base; this project will provide it. Funders will have a clearer picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the local charitable sector, because we will be constructing datasets that are robust at the regional level, something that will enhance strategic decisions. We will construct indicators of the finances of the third sector, and the financial health of individual organisations, which will be of value to funders and individual organisations alike.
Government departments, local authorities, and the wider public policy community share an interest in reliable statistics on the voluntary sector. This project will provide robust evidence on a key element of that sector - registered charities in England and Wales. This will provide a sound platform for evidence-based debate and policy-making.
We will run a series of interactive and practical events, workshops and training sessions targeted at third sector organisations, policy-makers and funders to raise awareness of these datasets, build their capacity to engage with and use them in their work, and promote their wider use; the material from these events will subsequently be made available online to maximise engagement with its content.
This work will also be of central value to those working within the third sector. Our partnership is uniquely situated at the heart of the sector, allowing us to maximise awareness of, and engagement with, the evidence we will generate, and maximise the impact on voluntary organisations, policy-makers and researchers. Knowledge exchange activity will be led by NCVO, taking advantage of their extensive networks including c.11,000+ members, websites (approximately two million unique visitors each year across all of our websites), twitter (38,000 followers), blogs and newsletters. Equally, TSRC is embedded within academia, providing extensive links to researchers working on the third sector.
Building upon our previous five years of research, we will extend existing data resources on registered charities in England and Wales, so that by the end of the funding period we will have captured and classified some ten years of data on our sample of 10,000 charities. This will provide an unrivalled resource for the analysis of trends in the funding base of charities. It will be of value to researchers in a range of disciplines (Social Policy, Politics, Business and Management, Geography, Economics) who require authoritative evidence on the numbers and characteristics of third sector organisations as well as policy-makers and people working in the sector.
The data will be of considerable value to non-academic users, providing them with a new depth of analysis and insight. Organisations themselves will have a much clearer picture of which organisations, and where, are gaining or losing from changing funding streams and how this is changing over time. Claims in this sphere lack a strong evidence base; this project will provide it. Funders will have a clearer picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the local charitable sector, because we will be constructing datasets that are robust at the regional level, something that will enhance strategic decisions. We will construct indicators of the finances of the third sector, and the financial health of individual organisations, which will be of value to funders and individual organisations alike.
Government departments, local authorities, and the wider public policy community share an interest in reliable statistics on the voluntary sector. This project will provide robust evidence on a key element of that sector - registered charities in England and Wales. This will provide a sound platform for evidence-based debate and policy-making.
We will run a series of interactive and practical events, workshops and training sessions targeted at third sector organisations, policy-makers and funders to raise awareness of these datasets, build their capacity to engage with and use them in their work, and promote their wider use; the material from these events will subsequently be made available online to maximise engagement with its content.
Publications
Abnett H
(2022)
The challenges of regulatory data: a case study of British charity reserves reporting
in Voluntary Sector Review
Clifford D
(2023)
Charities' income during the COVID-19 pandemic: administrative evidence for England and Wales
in Journal of Social Policy
Clifford D
(2015)
The Sources of Income of English and Welsh Charities: An Organisation-Level Perspective
in VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations
Dayson C
(2017)
Third sector capacity building: the institutional embeddedness of supply
in Voluntary Sector Review
KENDALL J
(2018)
The English Voluntary Sector: how Volunteering and Policy Climate Perceptions Matter
in Journal of Social Policy
McDonnell D
(2022)
Researching Voluntary Action - Innovations and Challenges
McDonnell, D
(2020)
Charity Density and Social Need: A Longitudinal Perspective
in SAGE Journals
McDonnell, D
(2021)
Income dependence and diversification of UK charities at the onset of Covid-19
Mohan J
(2017)
The Prevalence and Distribution of High Salaries in English and Welsh Charities
in Social Policy and Society
Mohan J
(2018)
Then versus now: insights from the world of research
Mohan J
(2018)
The financial position of English voluntary organisations: relationships between subjective perceptions and financial realities
in Voluntary Sector Review
Mohan, J
(2020)
One thing we can't afford to lose
Mohan, J
(2016)
The logic of charity: great expectations in hard times
National Council For Voluntary Organisations
(2016)
The children and young people's voluntary sector in England
Taylor R
(2016)
UK employment services: understanding provider strategies in a dynamic strategic action field
in Policy & Politics
| Description | One of the novel features of our work is that we have used the award to investigate the financial pressures being experienced by voluntary organisations in considerably more depth than previous work. For example we have looked at the financial trajectories of charities - which ones are experienced relative stability, which ones growth, or reductions in funding - over a fifteen-year timeframe. In contrast to sector perspectives which often suggest a generalised financial crisis, this work points to stability for the great majority of organisations. We have also been able to conduct survey analyses which we then contrast with organisations' own perceptions of their finances; this builds a richer picture of difficulties in accessing resources than is available from previous research. We have engaged in discussion with user communities around this, not least because there are dominant narratives in the field which posit a situation of serious jeopardy and loss; our work on organisation-level data suggest this is not always the case. The findings of this work underpin the NCVO Almanac, and we have worked with them to make them accessible to non-specialist audiences. Over the period of the award, the data have been accessed, via NCVO's webpage, extensively - with over half a million users visiting the relevant pages. The data thus provide an essential point of reference for discussions about the state of the third sector, particularly in England and Wales. This project has continued to develop TSRC's unique data resources. We now have the ability to track large numbers of organisations - some 2500 appearing continuously in each year for which we have been gathering accounts data - for over a decade of considerable organisational turbulence in the voluntary sector. This is a foundational resource for future scholarship which is being used extensively and which enables robust design of further prospective long-term studies of change. We have plans to link it to other potential sources of data enabling study of longitudinal change in the third sector since the late 1970s onwards. Ongoing work is being done to explore the ways in which the data can influence the work of individual organisations. The data which we gather here is necessarily large-scale. Therefore there is a gap between the experience of an individual organisation (or of organisations in a particular community) and the pattern revealed by analysis of long-term trends. We have worked on this through various papers on organisation-level variations in the experience of funding changes over the past ten years, which have been presented to various international academic and practitioner conferences and enthusiastically received. Outputs generated in relation to the Covid pandemic thus far include a novel analysis of the financial reserves of English and Welsh charities, generating submissions to Parliamentary enquiries, and widely quoted in the media. During 2021 we anticipate other similar outputs regarding financial trajectories of organisations. |
| Exploitation Route | By funders and policy makers, in the sense that they provide more nuanced evidence about the state of the finances of the voluntary sector than previously available. For example, there is a dominant narrative that suggests financial vulnerability is a function simply of size of organisations, whereas our work shows it is more complex than this; we stress age of organisation, location (particularly areas of disadvantage) and subsector (some fields of activity appear to experience greater vulnerability than others). We know that the data and evidence gathered by this work with NCVO - which has now been going on for nearly ten years - are used widely by other researchers. A recent example includes the inquiry into Civil Society Futures in the UK - this draws repeatedly on our own evidence and that of NCVO developed in the course of the present work programme. No other ESRC civil society / third sector investment features in their reports. As discussed in the narrative Impact section, the data generated by this work are being widely drawn upon in various enquiries the context of the Covid pandemic, and advice is being given to these on a regular basis. Our findings are therefore being used, but long-term investment in this field is crucial. No other work supported by ESRC or other funders is seeking to gather such evidence for the long term. Our work provides an essential base for this activity but it needs a consortium of funders and stakeholders to ensure that it is continued |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | This project continues to influence policy and practice, as the data that were gathered through it form part of a lengthening time series which permits better-quality longitudinal analysis. In recent times for instance the data have formed part of evaluations of emergency funding schemes channelled to the voluntary sector after Covid, and our role in constructing them has led to involvement in various ongoing discussions about the evidence base, e.g. with relevant government departments (DCMS) and regulators (Charity Commission). The data which this project generates underpin the annual Almanac of civil society, produced by NCVO and a very widely-used reference point for third sector organisations, their funders and stakeholders, and policy-makers. the data have reached a very wide range of stakeholders, with the Almanac website from which users can access the data receiving some 200 000 "hits", taking the cumulative total for the duration of this project to over half a million. The data underpin NCVO's annual almanac, and as in previous reports, we note that the almanac and the associated web resources are functioning as a very widely-used reference point. Initial assessments from NCVO suggest that the data generated by this project have been highly influential in terms of providing evidence of the finances of the voluntary sector and shaping recent policy responses to it, as follows (drawing on a statement from NCVO, 2021): "This year, Covid-19 has caused unprecedented damage to society. This has resulted in a huge mobilisation of volunteers in response alongside significant disruption to the work of charities. Data from the Almanac played an instrumental role in securing £750m in emergency funding for charities at the start of the pandemic. Almanac data was used to calculate the expected loss of income to the voluntary sector as a result of the first lockdown and expected social distancing measures. This resulted in the widely published figure of £3.4 billion in lost income, which was significant in shifting government understanding about the role of the voluntary sector and the existential threat faced by charities without financial assistance." NCVO's figure of £3.4bn was widely used across national media, significant reports, and in evidence given to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. The Almanac has provided a useful benchmark to assess changes in the voluntary sector through Covid-19, including potential redundancies, charitable giving, and the financial health of the sector. Almanac data continues to support the research projects of partners, including the TSRC, the University of Stirling, the University of Southampton, and supporting the Clinks State of the Sector report. The data forms a key part of Lloyd's Bank Foundation's Small Charities Data initiative and significant sector-wide projects such as the Law Commission on Civil Society Action. Other contributions to the evidence base and public policy debate include evaluations of the coronavirus community support fund, in which Mohan is engaged as an adviser, and submissions of evidence to Parliamentary committee enquiries in Westminster and Wales. More generally, The Almanac dataset has been extensively used by academics: a search on Google Scholar indicates that the Almanac has been cited some 350 times over the period 2015 - 2019. In addition, we have provided on a number of occasions Almanac data to academics for specific research projects, including researchers from the Institute for Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester for research conducted on non-government organisations operating overseas. The data are also used by ourselves on other funded research projects, e.g. two recent awards supported by NIHR and work by others supported by Lloyds Bank Foundation. During 2020 some of the data also featured in a report by the think tank, giving evidence, into the effects on charities of whether or not they had a royal patron. Looking beyond academia, there are references to the Almanac data in the Government's recent Civil Society Strategy and in the report - Stronger Charities for a Stronger Society - produced by the House of Lords select committee on charities in 2017. The Almanac is also quoted in the briefing on the voluntary sector compiled and regularly updated by the House of Commons library. Furthermore, the Almanac dataset is used by the Office of National Statistics to estimate the contribution of the voluntary sector to the economy and feeds into the UK National Accounts. During 2020, many inquiries have been launched in response to Covid-19 and the data generated by this project has featured in these, such as the Law Family Commission (the research for which is led by Pro Bono Economics), the think tank Onward (which has launched an enquiry about the U.K.'s social infrastructure), where the Almanac data is Widely quoted. information from it has also featured in numerous evidence submissions to inquiries during Covid, e.g. the Welsh Senedd and DCMS Select Committee. Analysis of the dataset has also been key in informing Lloyds Bank Foundation's funding strategy and policy work on smaller charities following the publication of NCVO's Navigating Change report in 2016. Important inquiries, such as that into Civil Society Futures, chaired by Julia Unwin, and the 2022 Law Family Commission on civil society, have also drawn extensively on these data sources. The work undertaken as part of this award featured strongly in TSRC's tenth anniversary event held in February 2019. in a brochure produced to mark the occasion, prominent stakeholders made statements such as the following which testify to the value of the work "TSRC's work has been invaluable. It mines down beyond the generalities to look at specific subsectors" (Caroline Slocock, Director, Civil Exchange) "The TSRC's [longitudinal work] is of enormous value because ...they enable us to reflect on long-term change and validate the experience of charities" (Lindsay Poole, Advice Services Alliance) "The TSRC evidence [drawing on our quantitative datasets] massively contributed to a public interest issue [in this case, high salaries in charities]. It enabled us to engage with the media confidently and with authority, and to go beyond the "you would say that, wouldn't you" scepticism" (NCVO senior staff) All of these findings and testimonials highlight the need for continued support for serious, long-term work on the evidence base for the third sector in the UK, something which is largely lacking from ESRC's current portfolio |
| First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Appearance to give oral evidence before House of Lords Select Committee on charities, 1st November 2016. |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| URL | http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/select-committee-on... |
| Description | Discussions with Charity Commission regarding uses of their data for research purposers |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Discussions with DCMS regarding the evidence base on nonprofit organisations and voluntary action |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Evidence on the distribution, resources and characteristics of registered charities in England and Wales, drawing on collaborative work with David Clifford and Rose Lindsey |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| URL | http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/select-committee-on... |
| Description | INvitation to chair the Voluntary Sector Data Conference, London, October 2018, delivered by Inside Government with support from the Fundraising Regulator, DataKind UK. the conference was designed to assess how voluntary organisations can manage, protect and utilise data to ensure high quality reuglatory compliance while maximising social impact. |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Meetings with the Civil Society and Youth team from DCMS - 16th March 2021 |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Meetings with the Civil Society and Youth team from DCMS - 8th June 2021 |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Quoted in report of House of Lords Select Committee on Charities, Stronger charities for a stronger society |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Impact | Breeze's work was mentioned on multiple occasions in the final report of the House of Lords Select Committee final report on charity https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201617/ldselect/ldchar/133/133.pdf para 156 re: donor concerns about transparency (cites Breeze evidence) para 232 & 236 re charities' difficulties in covering core costs (Breeze evidence) para 278 re need to simplify Gift Aid charity tax relief (Breeze evidence) para 359 re the potential for social media (Breeze & Body evidence) para 390 - on social investment (Breeze evidence) para 438 - importance of distributional consequences of philanthropy (Breeze & Body evidence) |
| URL | https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201617/ldselect/ldchar/133/133.pdf |
| Description | Written evidence to House of Lords Select Committee on charities on the prevalence and distribution of high salaries in the charity sector in England and Wales |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| URL | http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/select-committee-on... |
| Description | discussions with inquiries into future of civil society - Law Family Commission, led by Pro Bono Economics. Discussions relate to relevance of our evidence base to their ongoing analyses of current state and future prospects of civil society organisations |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | evidence to DCMS Inquiry into effects of Covid on the voluntary sector |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| URL | https://committees.parliament.uk/work/243/impact-of-covid19-on-the-charity-sector/publications/writt... |
| Description | evidence to Senedd Inquiry into effects of Covid on the voluntary sector |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| URL | https://business.senedd.wales/mgConsultationDisplay.aspx?id=393&RPID=1524943390&cp=yes |
| Description | ALMANAC 2015 - CHARITY SECTOR RUNNING TO STAND STILL AS OVERALL FINANCIAL POSITION REMAINS STATIC |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Charity sector income and expenditure continued to flatline in 2012/13, new data published today by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations showed (1). The figures represent a continuation of the recent trend in the charity sector economy, which has plateaued at a level slightly below the peak it reached in 2007/8 after several years of rapid growth. The sector's total income fell by 0.2% on the previous year to £40.5bn, while total expenditure, considered the most reliable measure of activity, rose by 0.1% to £39.3bn. The figures, based on the latest authoritative data available, show that earned and voluntary income from individuals rose 1.4% to £18.8bn, while income from government, in the form of contracts and grants, fell by 3.4% to £13.3bn. In line with the trend of recent years, total earned income rose slightly, by 0.4%, to £22.7bn. Income from investments rose 0.6%, while the value of investment assets rose slightly, from £73.5bn to £76.6bn. All figures are in real terms. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://www.ncvo.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/907-charity-sector-running-to-stand-sti... |
| Description | ALMANAC 2016: THE LATEST DATA ON THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The 15th edition of the UK Civil Society Almanac, once again providing a comprehensive overview of facts and figures related to the voluntary sector. Top 10 findings: 1. There has been a sharp rise in youth volunteering 2. The voluntary sector paid workforce rose once again to 827,000 in 2015 3. The value of the UK voluntary sector to the wider economy was £12.2bn in 2013/14 4. The number of charities with an income over £100m increased from 33 to 40 in 2013/14 5. There was a small increase in income to the sector this year, now standing at £43.8bn 6. Income from government increased slightly, by around £0.5bn 7. The sector continued to earn most of its income 8. Total spending for the sector rose slightly to £41.7bn 9. Grant-making by the voluntary sector increased in 2013/14 to £5.3bn 10. The voluntary sector's assets are disproportionately held by a small number of large organisations |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2016/04/11/almanac-2016-the-latest-data-on-the-voluntary-sector/ |
| Description | ALMANAC 2017: FIVE THINGS I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT VOLUNTEERING |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | This year's Civil Society Almanac, gives us an updated and detailed picture of volunteering in the UK. Drawing on data from the government's Community Life Survey and other sources, the message overall is that volunteering is in a stable state with rates of volunteering largely unchanged from the previous year. There are a lot of facts and figures to digest, so here are my thoughts on the most interesting findings about volunteering in this year's Almanac: • Pronounced differences between age groups • Time spent volunteering hasn't changed • Stalling growth in employer-supported volunteering • Barriers to volunteering in deprived areas |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2017/05/11/almanac-2017-five-things-i-have-learned-about-volunteering/ |
| Description | ARE MORE CHARITIES CLOSING? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Are more charities closing? The Almanac has demonstrated the difficult times the sector has faced over the last few years - the recession in 2008, followed by government austerity since 2010. But has the difficult financial climate translated into actual closures of charities, or have organisations been able to keep going with reduced budgets and reduced services. Around 400 organisations added each month, and 300 removed. The peaks in removals come from Charity Commission activity (a concerted effort to remove defunct organisations) rather than actual closures occurring at those times. There's certainly no trend in the figures that would indicate more organisations shutting their doors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2015/08/19/are-more-charities-closing/ |
| Description | Alamanac wesbite (page views 2019) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Provides the latest facts on voluntary sector organisations, workforce, charitable giving and volunteering. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | https://data.ncvo.org.uk/ |
| Description | Almanac 2016: An introduction to the latest data on the voluntary sector |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Presentation slides from a webinar which took place on 26 May 2016. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.slideshare.net/NCVO/almanac-2016-an-introduction-to-the-latest-data-on-the-voluntary-sec... |
| Description | Almanac 2017: An introduction to the latest data on the voluntary sector |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Presentation slides from an NCVO webinar which took place on 5 July 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.slideshare.net/NCVO/almanac-2017-an-introduction-to-the-latest-data-on-the-voluntary-sec... |
| Description | Almanac 2018: what does the data tell us? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | In 2015/16 the voluntary sector spent £46.5bn, which is £2.6bn more than the previous year. Of this £39.5bn was used on charitable activities, whether directly or through grants. This means that across the whole sector 85p of each £1 spent went directly to organisations' charitable causes. Between 2014/15 and 2015/16 spending on charitable activities increased by 8% (approximately £2.5bn). A small part of this increase is due to organisations now including governance costs as part of charitable activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2018/05/09/almanac-2018-what-does-the-data-tell-us/ |
| Description | Almanac related blog posts on NCVO website (page views), 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Almanac related blog posts on NCVO website (page views), 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2019/06/19/uk-civil-society-almanac-2019-the-latest-data-on-the-voluntary-... |
| Description | Almanac related blog posts on NCVO website SMALL CHARITIES DATA (page views), 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Dissemination of small charities key findings from NCVO data. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2019/01/21/small-charities-key-findings-from-our-data/ |
| Description | Almanac website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The website had the following views: 2017: 203,431 views 2016: 206,991 views 2015: 305,598 views |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018 |
| URL | https://www.ncvo.org.uk/ |
| Description | Are EU staff leaving the charity sector? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Unfortunately, the data doesn't allow us to see where these European staff are going - it could be that they are leaving the country but it could also be that they are moving into the private sector. Realistically, it's too soon to say what effect the referendum has had. The chart below shows us that while the number of Europeans in the sector dipped significantly in the last year, it's also only down to the level it was at two years ago, though recent data shows it is below the trendline. Nevertheless, we will need longer-term data and likely some qualitative research insight before we can draw definite any conclusions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2018/06/04/are-eu-staff-leaving-the-charity-sector/ |
| Description | Briefing Paper 1 : Assessing the financial reserves of English and Welsh charities on the eve of the Covid-19 pandemic |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of initial findings |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/tsrc/research/assessing-financial-vulnerability-and-risk-in-th... |
| Description | Briefing Paper 2: Income dependence and diversification of UK charities at the onset of Covid-19 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Specific update on first of the identified areas of focus: Income dependence and diversification of UK charities at the onset of Covid-19. Setting the scene for future research |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/tsrc/research/assessing-financial-vulnerability-and-risk-in-th... |
| Description | Briefing Paper 3: The impact of COVID-19 on the foundation and dissolution of charitable organisations |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Assessing the COVID impact on establishment and dissolution of Charitable Trusts |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/tsrc/research/assessing-financial-vulnerability-and-risk-in-th... |
| Description | Briefing Paper 4: Patterns of financial vulnerability in English and Welsh charities after the onset of Covid |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Setting out the financial vulnerabilities of Charities in England And Wales post COVID pandemic |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/tsrc/research/assessing-financial-vulnerability-and-risk-in-th... |
| Description | Briefing Paper 5: Financial vulnerability of Scottish charities during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Assessing the Financial vulnerability of Scottish Charities during the COVID-19 pandemic, following on from Briefing paper 4 which covered English and Welsh charities |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/tsrc/research/assessing-financial-vulnerability-and-risk-in-th... |
| Description | Briefing paper 6: Financial Vulnerability in UK charities under Covid-19: an overview |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Final presentation in the series for this grant, to pull together themes, trends and conclusions. Also included a view of potential follow on research topics |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/documents/college-social-sciences/social-policy/tsrc/financial-vulnerab... |
| Description | CHILDREN'S CHARITIES: WHAT THE LATEST DATA TELLS US |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | At the same time as the latest Almanac, was launched we also produced some analysis of the children and young people's voluntary sector. This analysis, produced with the Children's Partnership, is based on the same dataset and methodology as the Almanac, but focusing on those charities who work mainly with children and young people. This sector is large - we identify 37,000 organisations whose core work is with children and young people, with total spending of £5.6 billion. The largest source of income comes from individuals (44%), but income from government is a larger proportion for these organisations than for the voluntary sector as a whole (42%). These organisations are also much more likely to receive funding from local government. In the year we looked at, 2012/13, this income from government fell by £150 million from the year before, while income from individuals had risen by a small amount. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2015/08/09/childrens-charities-what-the-latest-data-tells-us/ |
| Description | Conference: Beyond the echo-chamber: a vision for social policy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Conference held virtually due to impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | http://www.social-policy.org.uk/news/social-policy-digital-festival-13-17-july/ |
| Description | Conference: Building bridges in the aftermath of COVID-19 : Where will the philanthropy of today lead us tomorrow? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Attendees from across the Globe to advance, coordinate and promote excellence in philanthropic research in Europe. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xdGPErMwuqxOGAIdbaSlsrvWjbChnVNx/view |
| Description | Conference: CELEBRATION OF ARNOVA'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY: Reflections on Where We Are and How Far We Have Come! |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | 50th ARNOVA conference held on line /hybrid due to the impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.arnova.org/page/50th |
| Description | Conference: Nonprofits and Philanthropy in a Polarized World: Speaking Truth to Power and Using Power to Speak Truth |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | First conference attendance post ESRC award |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.arnova.org/page/conference2019 |
| Description | Construction of animated video of NCVO Almanac of civil society |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Our partners at NCVO constructed an animated video to highlight main findings from our work on third sector data which was viewed by 2797 people. it is always difficult to determine what effect such activity has but NCVO report that it results in greater awareness of the findings of this research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | DON'T TAKE IT FOR GRANTED: FIVE LESSONS I LEARNED WHEN EXPLORING DATA ON GRANT-MAKING IN THE UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Supporters |
| Results and Impact | We know from the Almanac 2017 that grants to the voluntary sector represents a total of £6.3bn, which is 14% of the total income of the sector. Most grant money (93%) comes from other voluntary organisations (47%) or the government (46%). Despite its importance to the sector, the proportion of the money given out in grants by government has been decreasing with more funding given through contracts. The transition from grants to contracts has been challenging for many charities, especially the smaller ones. To better understand the challenges ahead, this blog analyses the grant-making data in our Almanac dataset. By looking at grants by sources, size of recipients and subsectors, I learned five lessons that I'm sharing here. About a third of the money given out by voluntary sector grant makers goes to super-major organisations with an income greater than £100m. Only 20% of the sector's grant money goes to the 129,000 charities with an income lower than £1m. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2017/10/03/dont-take-it-for-granted-five-lessons-i-learned-when-exploring-... |
| Description | EVIDENCE-BASED POLICY: USING THE UK CIVIL SOCIETY ALMANAC |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The mantra, 'evidence-based policy', is one that policy professionals live by. But robust data - either quantitative or qualitative - is expensive to produce regardless of whether you commission the work out, or do it yourself. This is why NCVO's UK Civil Society Almanac is such a useful resource for people working in voluntary and community sector policy who want to understand the shape of the sector and how it is evolving over time. How I use the Almanac data: • Responses to government decisions • Strengthening campaigns The Almanac shows that there has been a decline in grant funding over time. Whilst there seems to have been a slight increase in grants over time in the 2016 edition of the Almanac, the data also shows that, overall, smaller charities continue to see a fall in government funding. This is because charities struggle to bid for large contracts and are unable to manage the default payment by results model. The Almanac data therefore provides us with evidence of the problem that Grants for Good has identified and will also help us measure whether our campaign has been successful over time. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2016/06/02/evidence-based-policy-using-the-uk-civil-society-almanac/ |
| Description | FIVE NUMBERS THAT DESCRIBE THE EUROPEAN UNION WORKFORCE IN THE UK VOLUNTARY SECTOR |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Each year, the UK Civil Society Almanac presents information on the voluntary sector workforce using data from the Labour Force Survey by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Following the referendum in June 2016, we thought we'd take a look at the numbers and proportions of European Union nationals working in the UK voluntary sector today and compare to the workforce as a whole or to other sectors. For the purposes of this blog post, we have not included UK nationals in the EU figures below but have included people from Ireland, who make up about 11% of the EU voluntary workforce. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2017/08/29/five-numbers-that-describe-the-european-union-workforce-in-the-... |
| Description | Google Scholar 60 journal articles over the period 2019-2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | 60 journal articles published online via Google Scholar |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020 |
| URL | https://scholar.google.com/ |
| Description | HOW YOU USE DATA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The results of our survey make for interesting reading. We found that 80% of respondents used data to assess and understand need (including for inclusion on funding applications), 77% used it to help planing and decision making and 65% used it to demonstrate their impact. These figures are probably higher than we might have expected - but it's worth noting that those responding to the survey are probably more likely to be engaged with data than charities as a whole. In terms of the sources of data that people used, we found following: 62% of respondents used local authority data 61% used data from government departments 41% went to survey datasets directly 33% used data from infrastructure organisations |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2016/02/19/how-you-use-data/ |
| Description | Launch Event (2016) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Launch event (2016) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Launch Event (2017) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Launch event (2017) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Launch event (2019) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Launching of the 2019 edition of the UK Civil Society Almanac (19 June 2019) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2019/06/19/uk-civil-society-almanac-2019-the-latest-data-on-the-voluntary-... |
| Description | NCVO Almanac 2017 - Top facts: volunteering (You Tube) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | NCVO Almanac 2017 - Top facts: volunteering. You tube presentation. 762 views (as at 12 March 2018) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2vsVBr7ndc |
| Description | NCVO Almanac 2017 Top facts: income (You Tube) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | NCVO Almanac 2017 Top facts: income. Presentation on You Tube. 169 views (as at 12 March 2018) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTeQDKvOllY |
| Description | NCVO Almanac 2017 Top facts: workforce (You Tube) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | NCVO Almanac 2017 Top facts: workforce. Presentation on You Tube. Viewed 158 times (as at 12 March 2018) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5QXe2eRZLg |
| Description | NCVO Almanac website (page views), 2019-2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | NCVO Almanac website (page views) 2019/20 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020 |
| URL | https://data.ncvo.org.uk/ |
| Description | NCVO Member Assembly Session (September 2017) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Member Assembly Session (September 2017) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | NCVO Webinar - How charity sector trends can inform your next board strategy (Slideshare), 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Webinar |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.slideshare.net/NCVO/ncvo-webinar-how-charity-sector-trends-can-inform-your-next-board-st... |
| Description | NCVO webinar board 116 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | NCVO webinar: how charity sector trends can inform your next board strategy |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ncvo+webinar+board+-+116 |
| Description | NCVO webinar: Almanac 2016 - an introduction to the latest data on the voluntary sector (You Tube) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | This webinar was recorded on 26 May 2016. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVdplBwzarw&t=6s |
| Description | NCVO webinar: Almanac 2017 (You Tube) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | This webinar was recorded on 5 July 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok4PP6aJc-k&feature=youtu.be |
| Description | NCVO's UK Civil Society Almanac 2016 (You Tube) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | What state is the UK's voluntary sector in? Short animation, which is based on the latest edition of NCVO's UK Civil Society Almanac published April 2016. Available on You Tube. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmlSZh-Uj1I&t=19s |
| Description | NCVO's UK Civil Society Almanac 2017 (You Tube) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | NCVO's UK Civil Society Almanac 2017 presentation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4rJ3NWb0pY |
| Description | Nine things to know about the UK voluntary sector |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Nine facts about charities and volunteering, taken from the UK Civil Society Almanac 2018. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VWANM5tOLg |
| Description | Public lecture: He waka eke noa: are we all in this together? Government-voluntary sector relations in contemporary Britain |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Distinguished visiting lecture, given as part of a visit to the University of Auckland under the auspices of the Seelye Fellowships, in 2020. The visit was truncated by Covid-19 and so it was recorded instead: https://www.policycommons.ac.nz/2020/02/25/public-lecture-bigging-up-society-politics-policy-and-evidence-in-the-british-voluntary-sector/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.policycommons.ac.nz/2020/02/25/public-lecture-bigging-up-society-politics-policy-and-evi... |
| Description | Six Almanac/Road Ahead presentations (2019) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Almanac/Road Ahead presentations at Charity Bank Road to Growth events (x6) - 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2019/01/14/the-road-ahead-2019-what-can-charities-expect-from-the-year-ahe... |
| Description | Small charities: key findings from our data (2019) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | There are over 136,000 registered small and micro charities in the UK, making up 82% of all charities. More than half of them (58%) have an income under £10,000. There are also many organisations that are too small to register and therefore are not captured in our data. Some research[1] estimates an additional 600,000 to 900,000 of such unincorporated groups and organisations. Our data also shows, that most of the small organisations (79%) work in their local area rather than on national or international level. A much higher proportion than of larger organisations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2019/01/21/small-charities-key-findings-from-our-data/ |
| Description | THE ALMANAC 2017 FINDINGS - WHAT DO THEY MEAN FOR YOU? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Earlier this week we launched the 16th edition of the UK Civil Society Almanac, which provides a comprehensive overview of the charity sector's structure and economy based on data reported by charities for the year to March 2015. In many ways, the new figures can be seen as the continuation of trends identified in previous years: • Donations continue to provide the largest share of income from individuals • Charities are taking an increasing role in delivering public services • Levels of volunteering remain stable • Increase in government income • Uneven distribution of assets • Growth of earned income • Importance of donations • What next? Recommendation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2017/05/12/the-almanac-2017-findings-what-do-they-mean-for-you/ |
| Description | THE SQUEEZED MIDDLE: SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED CHARITIES IN A CHANGING FINANCIAL LANDSCAPE |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Over 40,000 charities in England and Wales have an income between £25,000 and £1m, representing one-third of the voluntary sector. Today, NCVO published a report, commissioned by Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales, that explored the finances of these small and medium-sized charities to improve our understanding of the challenges and opportunities that they face. Income for smaller charities is unstable. Small and medium-sized charities were more likely to experience substantial income change (a rise or fall of more than one-fifth) than larger charities between 2008/09 and 2013/14. Looking at individual charity accounts we found that this is probably because smaller charities rely on fewer sources of income, while larger charities have more diverse income streams so that eg a single grant has less impact on their overall income. We also investigated one income band, £100,000 to £500,000, in more detail and found that these charities were more likely to lose than gain income over this time. Take-home messages from the analysis: • Income for smaller charities is unstable • The income mix for small and medium-sized charities has shifted • Smaller charities fared worse (proportionally) than larger charities • How are small and medium-sized charities coping? • So what? • Despair or diversify - funding for the future |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2016/02/11/the-squeezed-middle-small-and-medium-sized-charities-in-a-chang... |
| Description | Trustees Conference Session (November 2017) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Trustees Conference Session (November 2017) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Trusts and Foundation Event (July 2017) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Trusts and Foundation Event (July 2017) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | UK civil almanac 2018: launch event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | NCVO's UK Civil Society Almanac, now in its 17th year, is the most authoritative data source on the voluntary sector. It provides a comprehensive picture of the sector's structure and economy, helps improve understanding of key trends and drivers, and informs the work of decision-makers and policy-makers. The session will be chaired by Peter Kellner, chair of NCVO. Karl Wilding, director of public policy and volunteering, will present our findings with guest speakers Sally Young, chief executive, Newcastle Council for Voluntary Service and David Ainsworth, editor, Civil Society Media. It's an opportunity for you to gain invaluable insights, hear about current trends within the sector, and network and debate with colleagues. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.ncvo.org.uk/2-content/2192-almanac-launch-2018-booking |
| Description | Views of NCVO Almanac website - this publication is based on data jointly constructed by NCVO and TSRC throuh this project. The website had 247 000 views in 2016 and in 2017 (so far) over 63000. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Our dataset, which we are building on in this project, underpins analyses of UK civil society in the NCVO Almanac of Civil Society. Without ESRC support the data would not be available for analysis. NCVO report that the Almanac website has received 366 000 views in 2015, 247000 in 2016, and 63000 in 2017, to date. They have also published various blogs based on the data, available at http://blogs.ncvo.org.uk, which have each had several hundred reads. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017 |
| Description | WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT CHARITIES AND THE EUROPEAN UNION? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | As the process of Brexit unfolds, NCVO research is exploring what the evidence tells us about relationships between the European Union, the voluntary sector and volunteering. There are lots of gaps in our understanding of these relationships, so we are attempting to fill some of these. I've taken a look at what our data and research tells us about the relationship between charities and the European Union. Using data from the Almanac, I've put together what we do and don't know across four areas: funding, where they operate, workforce and giving. As European funding makes up only a small part of the voluntary sector's funding, and the Almanac figures are based on a sample of charities, these figures should be treated as estimates which give a general picture of the scale of funding. • Charities received over £300m from the EU in 2013/14 • We estimate that 41% of income from the European Union arrives in the form of grants, with the rest as contracts. • What's missing? Data on funding from the EU is patchy • 4,300 charities operate in EU27 countries • Number of England and Wales-registered charities operating in EU27 countries • Workforce • Charitable giving At NCVO we'll be working to try and fill in some of these gaps over the coming weeks and months, as well as looking at other areas, including volunteering. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2016/12/16/what-do-we-know-about-charities-and-the-european-union/ |
| Description | WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT CHARITIES' RESERVES? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Part of Kids Company's downfall seems to have been its hand-to-mouth operating model. It was unusual in having a commitment to meet all the need it found, and then try to work out how to meet the costs later. Most charities aren't in a position to do this. Kids Company hence spent virtually all the money that it received in almost every year of its existence. In other words, it wasn't saving for a rainy day. It didn't have the cash reserves that charities need in order to see them through rough patches, or to act as a cushion should they need to wind down. Charities are expected by the Charity Commission to set out their policy on their reserves in their annual reports. Good practice is to hold several months' operating costs in reserve. A lack of reserves, combined with what you might call a 'lumpy' funding profile - characterised by intermittent large donations or grants - is a very high tightrope to walk. Most charities would seek to avoid this. That said, it's not easy for a charity to build up reserves. Margins on public service contracts are frequently slim to non-existent, and donors often (unfortunately) object to donations being used on what they see as an 'overhead'. It takes conscious effort on the part of managers and trustees to ensure they are saving rather than spending all their income on what they see as pressing needs or opportunities in the present. The Almanac gives some basic statistics on the reserves that charities hold. Our estimate is that charities' reserves are collectively worth around £49 billion. This is equivalent to around 15 months of spending - so with no incoming resources the sector would be able to survive at current spending levels for just over a year by using its reserves. This is a sizeable sum, but the aggregate figures hide a lot of variation - reserves aren't distributed equally. A large amount of reserves are held by a small number of grantmakers. Removing the reserves of 15,000 foundations brings the total for the remaining "operating" charities to £20 billion, equivalent to 7 months of spending. Some parts of the sector have even fewer average reserves. Umbrella bodies and international organisations have an average four months' spending in reserve, advocacy and cultural organisations just five. Social services organisations - our largest category - also have five months' spending in reserve. Half of these charities (around 3,800 out of 7,600 organisations) have less than three months spending in reserves, generally thought of as a guideline amount (although the reserves needed by any individual charity will vary, and will be based on a reserves policy they have developed according to their needs). One fifth of these largest organisations (1,500 charities) have less than one month of spending in reserve, while 450 of those large charities - over one in twenty - say they have no reserves at all. In addition, we estimate that a further 31,000 smaller charities (those with less than £500,000 income) also have no reserves - around 25%. But for smaller charities reserves are often less important - for those without staff to pay or significant creditors the financial impact of closure is more limited. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2015/08/07/what-do-we-know-about-charities-reserves/ |
| Description | WHAT DOES THE NEW UK CIVIL SOCIETY ALMANAC TELL US? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Almanac, brings together data from charities' accounts, administrative data and surveys to provide a comprehensive overview of the structure and economy of the UK voluntary sector, and is full of information on a range of topics including finance, workforce and volunteering. It's a publication but also a website [data.ncvo.org.uk] and a programme of work providing additional analysis and insights all year round. This year, a number of key findings stood out for us. • Increases in income and spending seen in 2013/14 have continued in 2014/15 • Larger organisations have experienced the biggest increases in income • Income from individuals is driving the increase in total income for the sector • Income from central government is now higher than income from local government • The sector employs an increasing number of people • Levels of both regular and less regular volunteering remain stable • The voluntary sector continues to make a sizeable contribution to the UK economy |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2017/05/09/what-does-the-new-uk-civil-society-almanac-tell-us/ |
| Description | What we know about Britain's biggest charities |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Super-major charities are more likely to be involved in international activities than other charities. 18% of them operate in this area compared to 4% of all others. Also, some charities who are classified as working in other subsectors - such as the Children's Investment Fund Foundation which sits within the grant-making foundations subsector - also have an international focus. Super-major charities are also more likely to be based in London and the south than other charities. However, this often reflects the location of their headquarters and does not capture the fact that many will operate throughout the UK, working with local communities and organisations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2018/12/04/what-we-know-about-britains-biggest-charities/ |
| Description | construction of database which underpins the efforts of NCVO to produce their annual statistical Almanac of civil society, a key reference source for decisionmakers and seekers of evidence both in the UK and abroad |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | the data underpins the NCVO Almanac and they produce a website through which its findings are disseminated. in 2015 they estimate that 305598 people used this website. the data are widely used in the third sector as an evidence base. they contribute to decisionmaking by funders, and by commissioners of public services |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://data.ncvo.org.uk/ |
| Description | further development of database which underpins the NCVO statistical almanac of civil society |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | access to the NCVO Almanac website - this website is very widely used in the voluntary sector as a source of evidence for decisionmaking. in 2016 NCVO estimated that 206991 people visited the website. they use the data in a range of ways - assessing the health of the sector, looking at which organisations are growing / declining, the changing funding base, and so on. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://data.ncvo.org.uk/ |
| Description | presentation at conference of charity trustees and investment managers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at Birmingham Charities conference organised by an investment management firm which manages considerable sums of money for charities mainly in the West Midlands. The theme of the conference was about the changing environment for charities and so the presentation, reflecting on themes and results from several years of TSRC's work, concentrated on elements of change and continuity in the funding environment. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | presentation at conference of regional and local voluntary organisations |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at conference of Sandwell Community Hubs, organised by a regional infrastructure body for the voluntary sector in the west Midlands. The theme of the presentation concerned the role of the third sector sector in the regeneration of deprived neighbourhoods and communities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | presentation at conference of third sector organisations |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of overview of key findings on change and continuity in the third sector at TSRC tenth anniversary conference |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | views of NCVO almanac website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | the data underpins the NCVO Almanac and they produce a website through which its findings are disseminated. in 2017 they estimate that 203431 people used this website. the data are widely used in the third sector as an evidence base. they contribute to decisionmaking by funders, and by commissioners of public services |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://data.ncvo.org.uk/ |