There has been a lot of talk about increasing giving and much debate about creating a giving culture in the UK. There are even some who say there is little left that can be done to increase giving across the sector. Well, that’s just not true and here are my ideas for increasing giving in specific and practical ways over the next decade.

Back in May 2013, some data was published by Giving Evidence in the UK and GiveWell from the States, which they claimed showed that the most effective charities had high levels of admin costs. In December, the Guardian Voluntary Sector Network said it was one of the most read blogs of the year and Giving Evidence headlined a piece in their newsletter ‘Good charities have admin costs’. In their original press release they said:

Our new report, ‘The Politics of Charities’, pulls together our research on the attitudes of the public, journalists and MPs to charities campaigning and 'being political'. From the data, we have drawn five broad conclusions.

As it's the season of goodwill, we're giving away The 12 Insights of Christmas. They look at some of the key issues facing the charity sector and include research, interviews and advice from charities and from us. Unwrap our 12 free reports just in time for Christmas.

South Korea is one of the most vibrant nations on earth. Having been devastated by the Korean War in the early 1950s, it was the recipient of large amounts of international aid and support, particularly from the US. It had a national income per head approximately the same as Ghana.

Sixty years on the transformation is astonishing. It is the world’s largest shipbuilder. It is the manufacturer of smartphones, TVs, laptops and tablets. It is home to car manufactures Kia, Hyundai, Daewoo and Ssangyong. Alongside its economic performance and growth rate, it is also democratic, with power having changed hands several times through the ballot box after the demise of the dictator General Park Chung-hee in 1979.

After 25 years of working, Joe Saxton looks back at his career and shares some advice on survival in work and people management. There are some top tips, entertaining anecdotes and interesting analogies in a piece that is as useful to people starting out in their career as it is to those who have seen it all.

Back in the summer, the media had a field day looking at charity CEO salaries and finding out how big they are. The  problem was the research about what charity CEOs were paid was highly selective – Red Cross got far more attention than the Royal Opera House, even though the latter’s CEO is paid nearly four times more. Overall, more heat than light was generated.

As part of Trustees Week, we have two blogs on whether or not trustees should be paid. Both are written by actual trustees and both have completely opposing points of view. In this one, Joe Saxton argues that charities should be allowed to choose for themselves...

Our recent research showed that volunteering among young people (16-24) has doubled over the last decade. In 2003, around 14% of young people had volunteered in the last 3 months and by 2013 this figured has reached 32% in our polling. Indeed, as recently as 2010 our data showed that only 16% were giving their time and after that we saw an almost continuous rise.

So what is causing this rise and what does it mean for young people and society?

A charity board will usually monitor finances. But measuring just finances is a bit like measuring just the heart rate of an athlete; it’s important, but it’s just one of a range of ways of knowing whether an athlete is healthy. A great heart rate in an athlete certainly doesn’t tell if they will win any races.

So in charities, what else should trustees (or senior managers) measure apart from money? And how should they measure the money stuff? Here are some ideas about things that every charity can measure based on my experience on different boards. I have yet to see an organisation that measures all of these areas perfectly.