Charity Reports and Statistics

During our time working within the charity sector, we have come across a number of reports into the sector and wanted to share the key findings of some of them.

Charities Aid Foundation produces an annual report on UK Giving. The report ‘provides unique research and insights into how people in the UK give to charity, how much they donate and the causes they choose to support’. Key findings from the 2020 report include:

1. Donation levels in-line with previous years
Despite less in-person fundraising, donation levels have held up during the pandemic. Sponsorship levels have fallen and remain low. In August, only 4% of people sponsored someone for charity, just half of normal levels seen for the time of year.

2. Giving money
Between January and June 2020, the public donated a total of £5.4 billion to charity – an increase of £800 million compared to the same period in 2019.

3. What people give to
There was a large increase in the number of people donating or sponsoring to the cause ‘hospitals and hospices’ during the height of the pandemic’s first wave, whilst up to a fifth of people specifically reported donating to charities which support the NHS.

4. Less physical fundraising
There was a significant decline in the amount of money donated to ‘medical research’ between January and June 2020. This cause, which often attracts donations via fundraising events, such as the London Marathon and coffee mornings, lost out on up to £174 million during the first half of the year.

5. Cashless giving increases
As opportunities to fundraise through face to face interactions have declined, there has been a large and sustained increase in cashless giving since March.

6. Trust in charities grows
Trust in charities, which increased during 2019, has increased further since March 2020. The improvement is seen across different age groups and social grades.

Read  the report

Every year, YouGov’s UK Charity Index Rankings highlight the best-performing organisations in the third sector according to their overall brand health. In 2020, Macmillan Cancer Support have claimed first place with a score of 48.2, while Oxfam have topped our Improver list with a score of 14.7 (+5.1). 

Charity Index Top ten Rankings

Nfp Synergy produce a number of extremely insightful reports every year but perhaps currently the most prescient of these
is ‘a series of polls to understand the public response to the pandemic and how it is impacting on charities’. Key findings from the 6^th wave conducted in March include:

• Charity visibility remains very low with 55% unable to name a charity responding to the pandemic one year in
• Giving levels have dropped again to their lowest point
• Concern about the pandemic has dropped substantially to its lowest levels yet, while concern about mental health has reached a high point
• Concern about the impact of the pandemic on a number of vulnerable groups continues to decline
• Lockdown fatigue is setting in, with decreasing numbers planning on staying in their local area
• Nevertheless, government satisfaction is up as the vaccination programme continues apace
• There are low levels of comfort with interacting with charities except for visiting charity shops.

Read the full report

Top 10 tips for setting up your own survey

• Before you start, be clear about what you really need to know and focus on this before you start writing out a list of questions
• Always use plain English but also make sure it is appropriate for each of your audiences, you may need to word things slightly differently for different audiences.
• Make sure you have a logical flow in your questions, don’t bias the answer to one question by the ones you have asked just asked, don’t using leading language and don’t make it obvious what you would like people to say.
• Think about the format of the question i.e. it is better to rank or rate each option rather than just asking for a single preference. If you have clarity on what the likely options are, have a list but if you are less certain, give people the opportunity for free text responses.
• Don’t asked double barrel questions i.e. how happy were you with the speed and quality of response? I might have been impressed with one but exasperated by the other.
• Think about how you may want to analyse the data as this may impact how you ask the question.
• Use visual scales (e.g., smiley faces) if they add value but make sure they are relevant and appropriate for your audience.
• Don’t forget to capture relevant demographics. e.g. age, gender, relationship with you, length of relationship, location etc.
• Make sure to test it thoroughly with those who weren’t involved in its development.
• Finally choose the right distribution channel – online may be the most obvious and cost-effective choice but is it the right medium accessing for your audience i.e. internet penetration drops off significantly by age.

Any more questions on developing or setting up surveys please get in touch.

Citizens Advice – Case Study

Citizens Advice invited us to pitch for a brand strategy development project they were undertaking. The charity which provides confidential advice online, over the phone and in person for free helped over 2 million people one-to-one during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic and saw 62.8 million page views of their advice content during the same time.

Citizens Advice underwent a full visual rebrand in 2015, and in late 2018 undertook work to refresh their organisational narrative. They were now looking to develop a brand communication strategy to align with the organisation’s wider strategic ambitions. Before doing so they needed to gain a clear understanding of current perceptions of the brand, its strengths and weaknesses and how this has changed over time.

The first stage of the project was a large scale consultation exercise which we undertook to assess current brand awareness and perceptions. We benchmarked these findings against existing research to gauge the potential shift, identify direction of travel and map out the journey still to be taken. The research was undertaken with a representative sample of the UK population, current clients, volunteers, local and national staff, major funders including Government departments and corporate partners. We also undertook additional research with BAME respondents and those living with disabilities to ensure a truly representative view and inform aspects of the charity’s work around improving equity, diversity and inclusion. Given the lockdown restrictions and MRS guidelines all research was conducted via the telephone or online surveys. In total over 3,000 individuals were engaged.

We took the insights gained from the research and disseminated them throughout the organisation, including the Executive Leadership Team, via a series of tailored reports and presentations. The key communication insights were then fed directly into a series of online interactive workshops, alongside a SWOT and PEST analyses, to facilitate the development of the brand and marketing strategy.

We are now finalising a set of key messages which will be used across the organisation to educate key audiences and change perceptions of who Citizens Advice are and what they do.