The time has come again to reflect on the last 12 months and thank our clients and partners for inspiring us to keep researching topical issues in the sector with 12 free reports.

On Tuesday 15^th December 2015, nfpSynergy hosted an open meeting on fundraising regulation, together with the Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy’s fundraising think tank Rogare (read their blog on the event here).

We would like to thank our clients and partners for inspiring us to keep researching the topical issues in the sector. As part of our Social Investment programme we regularly produce Free Reports and feed our finding back to the sector so any charity regardless its size or sector can find something useful. Here are the 12 popular reports this  year.

This week’s blog is by Rebecca Fitzgerald, founder of StrawberrySocial Ltd – a social media management agency.  Rebecca has a background in digital and project management for corporations and charities.

In recent times the charity sector has moved well beyond the idea that “brand” is only for the commercial sector and that engaging in any sort of advertising distracts charities’ focus from their core values and compassion. When Coca-Cola first came about as a brand it was just a specific name given to a brown fizzy drink in order to separate it from other brown fizzy drinks. But as we know, in contemporary marketing brand is much more than a name. Brand is everything about a service or a product. It is a specific perception that comes to our minds when we think of a brand.

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.

In the next few weeks, many people are going to get a bill through their letterbox. This will be, for many, a usual process that happens at the start of each financial year. But for others, it’ll come as a shock and could have some severe consequences.

I grew up in a household of avid readers and since buying books regularly wasn’t affordable, weekly visits to the local library were commonplace in my childhood. Even now when I need information, the library is my first port of call. So I was both surprised and disappointed to hear news of the closure or reduction in services of libraries over the last couple of years. As library cuts continue, the role of volunteers comes to the forefront and I can see a future where volunteers reduce or even replace state provision of library management.

1. A Hidden Gem - Resilience report from the Clore Social Leadership Programme

Talk about customer satisfaction to any colleague or consultant with a corporate background and they will almost certainly tell you about the hold “Net Promoter Score” (NPS) has on the commercial world when it comes to measuring it. It’s a simple enough concept. You ask a sample of consumers whether they would recommend a brand to a friend and minus those who would not (detractors) from all those who would (promoters).