At nfpSynergy, we understand that breaking things down into achievable steps improves chances of success. That's why we help charities of different sizes set manageable targets through both our tracking and bespoke research. In this week's blog, we explore how by adopting this approach, charities could grow their audiences, step by step:

The time has come again to reflect on the last 12 months and thank our clients and partners for inspiring us to keep researching topical issues in the sector with 12 free reports.

The children and young people charity sector has seen a marked decline in popularity over the past few years. Our latest blog explores contextual factors and public perceptions affecting this sector; what, if anything, can individual charity brands do to restore a favourable view? 

Start with the heart and soul of your organisation.  Vision statements should come from the heart of the organisation.  They are not a paper exercise out of a marketing textbook but the opportunity to distil and agree some of the essence of an organisation. Often the creation of a vision statement helps trustees and senior managers to establish what they see as some of the fundamental tenets of the organisation.

Secil Muderrisoglu, nfpSynergy’s lead on brand, shares her favourite charity campaigns from 2015.

We would like to thank our clients and partners for inspiring us to keep researching the topical issues in the sector. As part of our Social Investment programme we regularly produce Free Reports and feed our finding back to the sector so any charity regardless its size or sector can find something useful. Here are the 12 popular reports this  year.

Earlier this month we released results which showed a marked decline in public trust in the charity sector as a whole between April and October 2015. With charities still reeling from the media attacks of the summer, these results appeared to confirm that the stories in the press were having a very real impact on how the public view charities. What’s more, the results were the continuation of a longer term trend of declining trust in charities that can be tracked back more than two years.

In recent times the charity sector has moved well beyond the idea that “brand” is only for the commercial sector and that engaging in any sort of advertising distracts charities’ focus from their core values and compassion. When Coca-Cola first came about as a brand it was just a specific name given to a brown fizzy drink in order to separate it from other brown fizzy drinks. But as we know, in contemporary marketing brand is much more than a name. Brand is everything about a service or a product. It is a specific perception that comes to our minds when we think of a brand.

Five priorities charities need to get correct if their brand is to reach its full potential.

The growing mistrust of charities in the media and among politicians calls into question how charities would like to be seen by their supporters or the wider public.