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.

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?

This report is a synthesis of research that was carried out into major donors and philanthropic giving.

Peter Dawson

On 17th July we hosted a dynamic panel discussion to explore the state of the UK charity sector and the new opportunities emerging under the recently elected Labour government. Our distinguished panel included Chloe Wright, Head of External Affairs at Age UK, Alex Kenney, Senior Public Affairs Manager at BHF, and Sophie Dodgeon, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at RNIB. Together, they provided valuable insights and discussed the potential impacts of the new political landscape on charitable organizations.

The public have spoken and it is time for change. Labour comes in with a huge majority and it is the worst result for the Conservatives on record. Smaller parties have done very well, with the Liberal Democrats not far behind the Conservatives as the official Opposition. The SNP, Greens and Reform all now have handful of MPs.

With a General Election imminent, the public's attitudes toward charities getting involved in politics have become more of a focus.  The Shelia McKechnie Foundation and nfpResearch wanted to understand how aware the public is of the political work of charities.  We were interested in hearing if people felt charities should be occupying the political space and who they felt should be involved in politics. Our report unpacks our findings on campaigning and activism from nfpIntelligence (our regular general public research focussed on charity sector trends).

Ben Roberts

Ben Roberts

As another year draws to a close, we can reflect on what a strange beast UK politics has been over the past twelve months. On the one hand, we’ve had the likes of the Partygate scandal, the rise and subsequent removal of Suella Braverman, a change in Scottish leadership, a huge number of protests, and enough gaffs to fill an episode of You’ve Been Framed.