In an attempt to better understand how levels of trust affect the third sector, we've started a new research programme to try and identify what exactly charities are trusted to do, and how they are trusted compared to other sectors.

This week's guest blog explores the importance of Customer Experience. Martin Jervis argues that charities can't hide behind terminology; ultimately, donors, beneficiaries, supporters, and volunteers are 'customers'. Therefore, they should be approached with strategic and tactical expertise; but unfortunately, this is scarce in the UK.

According to the Charities Aid Foundation, girls are more likely to show an interest in working for a charity than boys; girls are also more likely to say that they intend to raise money for charities than boys.What are the implications of this supposed gender gap? How can we better engage boys and build a more equal support base from a young age?

There has been a lot of focus in recent years on getting young people into volunteering, with less emphasis on encouraging volunteering among older age groups, despite the valuable skills this group has to offer. How can we change this?

We've been tracking trust in charities and other public institutions for over 15 years. Our latest free research gives an update on the current levels of trust.

Some key findings:

Charities trying to reach families are operating in a competitive market. Explore the channels that work most effectively when trying to reach parents/children, and read why building a support base from a young age could benefit your charity.

What do the public think about the way charities report their impact and spending? We recently conducted three focus groups with charity-friendly members of the public to gauge their thoughts on a range of issues regarding charity reporting.
 

Is our collective desire to 'be part of something' really on the decline? We're launching new large-scale research into membership for charities, so we've written this blog exploring factors affecting sign ups to various charity membership schemes. Can the charity sector hope to replicate the success of commercial membership schemes?