How charities spend their money remains a key concern for current and potential donors. In this report we examine how a selected sample of UK charities present their key financial information to the general public, exploring both the content and form of this information. We find that it is clear charities are working hard to demonstrate how much they are achieving through the income they raise and how efficiently this is being done. However, there are a number of recurrent issues that are worth highlighting: 

Understanding who gives, and why they give, helps charities to monitor giving levels and predict future income streams. However, establishing who gives and how much they give is a contentious topic. In recent years, there has been a number of surveys claiming to establish what Britons give to charity. This report looks at the market research, and analyses the statistical and practical challenges of these approaches to measuring giving.

This 2019 report is based on updated research first conducted five years ago, in early 2014. The report looks at the relationship between the number of people with a particular medical condition or disability and the size of the largest charity supporting those affected. One of the key questions we try to answer is whether the number of people who have a condition determines the size of the charity associated with it. We have extended the report to include research looking at public perceptions of progress made by health charities.

Key findings:

This is our second major report on volunteering. We published The 21^st Century Volunteer in 2005 and it was our most popular free report for many years. But over time, many things in the world of volunteering, charities and the wider economic, social and political climate have changed.

With our 100th free report on the way in the next few months, we thought we'd take a look at some of our recent ones. All 99 reports are available free on our website, but here's a snapshot of the top 10 most downloaded in 2014.

It's Christmas time and as per tradition we're giving away 12 more of our reports. They address key issues like lobbying, fundraising and trust, plus a couple of niche ones like Gift Aid and media spending. Enjoy!

This is Part 7 of our huge report into volunteering.

Part 1 – The political and social landscape for volunteering

Part 2 – Volunteering trends over the last decade

Part 3 – Harnessing volunteer motivations

Part 4 – The changing mechanics of volunteering

Part 5 – Engaging the young, the old and the family to volunteer

Part 6 – How do we manage the 21^st Century Volunteer?

Part 7 – Conclusions and recommendations

Part 6 of this report looks at managing the 21^st century volunteer. This instalment examines the views of some of the people closest to the changing landscape of volunteering; the volunteer managers themselves.

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Part 1 – The political and social landscape for volunteering

Parts 4 and 5 of our volunteering report look at motivations,engagement and retaining your volunteers.

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A comprehensive look at the history of Gift Aid and how a few changes could make it even better.

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With an election on the horizon, the charity sector has a great opportunity to reform Gift Aid and maximise donations speaking as one voice. Gift Aid currently represents around 2% of charitable income, but at nearly 25 years old, it is time to review it and that's what this report seeks to do.