Elizabeth Finn Care (EFC) commissioned nfpSynergy to complete a broad and ambitious two-part research project into the state of the benevolent sector, looking at current issues and challenges in the sector, and the potential for sharing resources and strategic partnerships.

Like many organisations, nfpSynergy has grappled with how we use interns and volunteers as part of our workforce. Up until two years ago, our approach was relatively informal. If we stumbled across a suitable intern, we would get them into to work in a way that suited both them and us.

Young people have much to contribute to the governance of charities and not-for-profits, whether they work specifically with children and young people. Young people can bring a fresh perspective and new energy to decision-making, as well as making boards more diverse and representative of the general public and – for some charities – their service users. However young people are currently very under-represented in charity governance.

Is your organisation a planned economy?

The economist Paul Seabright once mentioned travelling through London with a Russian bureaucrat who asked him ‘tell me, who is in charge of the supply of bread to the population of London?’ It’s a dazzling question – and the answer is, of course, no-one. Who, after all, could possibly calculate the needs of the city, and plan the delivery of your daily bread from seed to toaster?

The third sector is poised for huge changes. There is an upcoming general election, government budgets are about to shrink, and the economy remains fragile. So research such as this, which tries to understand the dynamics and concerns of the third sector, is even more important.

A survey and the results on all things fundraising, answered by people in the sector.

Versions from 2007 and 2010 are available.

The challenge

Quantitative easing, pay freezes, efficiency savings and paying down national debt are fancy ways of saying that there is not as much money as we once thought, and so all of us are going to have to make do with less. We may celebrate 2012 for the Olympics, but also the return of 2008’s levels of prosperity. This loss has already happened and the argument now taking place in public and in politics is how to share the pain out.