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.
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.
Chief Executives play a vital role in creating awareness – yet all too often they are bystanders in the awareness process. It is interesting that in the commercial sector most CEOs would see themselves as the guardians of their brand (of which awareness-building is the first step) yet in the charity sector most CEOs are at best neutral and often hostile to branding and, by inference, to awareness-building.
Too few people have specifically addressed the voluntary sector's potential for innovation and the voluntary sector is often left feeling that the only time they can afford the luxury of innovation is when a funder specifically asks for it. It is our hope that this report will provide charities with a greater understanding about what innovation could do for them on a day-to-day basis. The report includes sections on issues such: innovation myths; innovation versus creativity; reducing the barriers to innovation and how innovation is linked to mission and vision.
This study represents a snapshot of how well charities' Regional-HQ relationships are functioning, according to charity employees. The aim of this study was to develop some hard data on this important issue - the first public study of its kind in the UK that we are aware of. The results highlight some worrying schisms and considerable room for improvement for many charities.
A 20 page summary of the full report.
"The power of dreams, the burden of leadership" is a report disseminating the "Britain's Most Admired Charity" survey data. It concentrates on a number of important issues for any charity that wants to increase its effectiveness including: the key attributes of successful charities; skill and expertise shortages; government initiatives that have impacted (or not impacted) the sector; and the key challenges for effective charities and charity leaders.
The Code of Good Governance had been in existence for a number of years helping to improve the governance practices of organisations in the Voluntary and Community Sector. The Governance Hub asked us to review the impact of the Code, and to look at changes that might be needed to improve take up and usage. We held consultation events nationwide with large and small organisations, interviewed experts, wrote case studies, and summarised it all in this free report.