Segmenting your key audiences enables you to reach the right people with the right messages – the ones that will inspire people to make a difference will help you to grow your organisation and meet your objectives.

By building up a detailed picture of your different audiences, their attitudes and their motivations, you can tailor your communications so they have the highest chance of achieving the action you’re looking for. But researching, creating and implementing attitudinal segments are not easy or cheap exercises.

In 2010, the think tank Demos published a report entitled ‘Dying for Change’ highlighting some of the challenges facing hospices in the future. Help the Hospices responded to this by setting up the Commission into the Future of Hospice Care to provide guidance, information and options for hospices to inform their strategic position and offerings in the next 10 to 20 years.

This is a presentation of our data on the public's opinion about charity spending. We also have a video of this presentation here, presented by Joe Saxton, with some great insight and explanation of what the data means for charities.

It's fair to say that lottery deregulation for charities has been an issue for decades. Lotteries have been a staple part of the fundraising scene for years, but they are restricted by legislation and regulation from reaching their full potential.

Charities have taken some of the most effective fundraising mechanisms such as direct debits, direct mail and door-to-door recruitment and blended them with lotteries to create new income streams. While other techniques have waxed and waned, lotteries have carried on bringing in the money.

The not-for-profit sector is, by its very nature, innovative. Charities exist to respond to an unmet need or to drive change. But what does innovation actually mean? And what are charities really doing to develop innovation processes, cultures and, more importantly, results? 

In 2004, nfpSynergy produced a report called “Innovation Rules!” to better understand the not-for-profit sector’s attitude and approach to innovation. Nine years later, we were intrigued to see whether charities had developed their approach to innovation and the impact it has on the work they do. 

In today's world, a charity's brand has become a vitally important part of its appeal. Branding Inside Out, produced by CharityComms, has been compiled with the guidance of a steering group of brand experts. CharityComms are sharing knowledge and ideas in order to improve the quality of charity communications and reduce the burden and workload of comms professionals.

As part of our work with Help The Hospices, we held a conference for representatives from the industry to discuss the future of hospice funding and other issues facing the sector. We had many attendees from up and down the country, with our insightful presentations provoking some excellent debate among those present.

Our presentation on the Future Trends for Hospices is now available for download on this page.

Over the coming months, our free report will be available here as well, complete with conclusions and points raised by everyone at the conference.

Trust is of paramount importance to charities. The public’s trust is one of the major factors that underpin the donations of time and money by millions of people every year. But what is the best way to build that trust?