Tim Harrison-Byrne
When we first announced our Small Charity Research Award in December of last year, we were blown away by the response from the sector. Our offer was to provide a bespoke research project to a charity in the UK or Ireland with an income of under £1m – a testament to our belief in the power of research to build charities up.
In total, we received over 200 applications, far more than we had anticipated. Many of the applications were very strong, from organisations doing vital work. We could have worked effectively with many of organisations that applied, and felt really encouraged by the passion on display from every corner of the sector. This process has revealed a clear need for research for small charities.
We have decided to support 8 organisations with different levels of research support over the coming year. The three we've chosen to support with a project are:
We’d like to offer a huge congratulations to our award winners. They demonstrated to us that their organisations are doing critical work, and more importantly they were able to show us how they believed that bespoke research would boost their ability to provide quality service and to connect better with their communities. We’re excited to be working with all three of these charities throughout the coming year.
However, we couldn’t ignore the overwhelming demand for research that this process revealed to us. Unfortunately, we would struggle to offer many more custom research projects. However, for some of those charities who showed us that they will benefit from our existing research we’re giving free access to varying elements of our monitors.
We’re excited to be providing free research from one or more of our monitors to the following:
- Bloody Good Period
- The Kite Trust
- The Menopause Charity
- Transform Justice
- Team Margot Foundation
We’ve been able to feel so much pride thanks to the kindness of individuals and organisations who have been incredibly supportive of this initiative. We’ve also been given great feedback on how to make sure that our first time providing this award goes smoothly, and how to improve the process in the future.
Thanks to everyone who applied. We’ll be working closely with our winners in the comings months to give them useful tools and actionable insights. We’re looking forward to seeing you next year!