Charities often learn some great lessons from private industry, but have they missed a trick by leaving out technology? Anna Chistyakova thinks so and is challenging charities to draw her in.

I have recently found myself thinking that I have become more data sensitive. I pay attention to how many Twitter followers or LinkedIn connections I have and I track my health stats with new apps and devices to become a better runner. I compare different people’s opinions on sites like TripAdvisor and Quora to find the answer I’m looking for.

With countless negative stories and shouts of crisis, fundraising has some serious recovery steps to take. Rob White & a few nfpSynergy members of staff take a look at what those might be.

It’s been a tough few months for fundraising.

The complaints have rolled in. The media stories have been rolled out. Heads haven’t quite rolled, but people like William Shawcross have, quite justifiably, argued that the sector is in crisis.

Based on a sample of nearly 60 UK charities and nfpSynergy data, this five part report looks at some key questions and analyses two areas in detail: the relationship between awareness and income, and that between awareness and media spend.

Just one in 17 people think charities should save more than a year’s expenditure for a rainy day, a new study shows. A third of people favour reserves of less than six months’ spending, while only one in ten agree it should be whatever a charity decides.

The poll of 1,000 people, out today, asked how much money charities should keep in case their income fell and just 6% said over a year’s worth of expenditure.

nfpSynergy has long held the opinion that the National Lottery does not need protecting from charity lotteries and that the regulations in place are stifling what could be a very effective fundraising mechanism for good causes. So to coincide with the DCMS consultation on charity lotteries, we surveyed 1,000 British adults to see what they thought.

The results are compelling and are laid out in full in this new free report. 

In 2006, we wrote a first edition of Getting the Message across, but eight years later it is clear that the gap between how 21^st century charities work and how the public think they work remains substantial. In response to the resurgent public debate about charity expenditure, executive pay and a host of other broader trust issues, nfpSynergy held three focus groups earlier this year with charity donors of a range of professional backgrounds and ages.