Research

NCVO research supports voluntary and community organisations by developing a strong evidence base on voluntary sector issues.

• NCVO research news
• Publications
• Event (NCVO/VSSN Researching the Voluntary Sector Conference 2011)

Keep up to date with events, publications and news - Public Policy monthly email.

What's new:

February 2012

Hold the date - 2012 Researching the Voluntary Sector conference

The 2012 NCVO/VSSN Researching the Voluntary Sector conference has now been confirmed as 10-11 September at the University of Birmingham. More information will be coming soon. Keep an eye on the NCVO website or email researchconference@ncvo-vol.org.uk to go on a mailing list for booking details when they are announced!

Following the NCVO / VSSN Research Conference the University of Birmingham will also host the International Social Innovation Research Conference 12-14 September. The organisers of the two conferences will be working closely together as the week may be the largest gathering of civil society researchers ever in Britain!

Find out more about the International Social Innovation Research Conference, including the call for papers.

Call for papers - 2012 Researching the Voluntary Sector conference

The NCVO/VSSN Researching the Voluntary Sector Conference is the primary UK conference for the voluntary sector research community. It brings together academics, practitioners and policymakers with a shared interest in the voluntary sector and voluntary action. Our aim is simple: to provide the opportunity to share new, emerging research, and then to make the most of the evidence base by connecting researchers with the policymakers and practitioners who use research.

The conference is your ‘open space’ to share new and existing research, so the call for papers is an open invitation to all researchers working on or with the sector. 400-600 word proposals for papers/sessions should be submitted to conference@vssn.org.uk by 30 April 2012 at the latest. 

Download the full call for papers (PDF, 12KB)

Charity Forecast 16

Our latest Charity Forecast Survey shows charities are fearing for their future - Friday 16 December

Findings for the fourth quarter of 2011 shows that charity leaders....

• Increasingly report that the financial situation of their organisation has worsened over the last year.
• Increasingly expect both their organisation's general and financial situation to worsen over the next 12 months.
• Increasingly expect their organisation to decrease expenditure over the next 12 months, although over a third still expect to increase expenditure.
• Report a very slight increase in net confidence in economic conditions in the sector, though at 94% this is close to the lowest level since the survey began in May 2008.

UK Giving 2011

Findings from UK Giving 2011, the most in-depth and long-running study of charitable giving habits commissioned by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) and NCVO, shows that over the last year (2010/11) the UK public gave £11 billion to charity.

An additional 1.1 million people donated money to charity; however, the average amount given per month fell from £12 in 2009/10 to £11. 

Despite more of the public deciding to support charities, in real terms the total value of donations remained the same as the previous year. Donations are now worth £900 million less in real terms than the amount given in 2007/08, the year before the UK entered recession.

Other key findings include:

• Nearly six in ten (58%) UK adults aged 16 years or over gave to charity. The percentage of people giving has increased from 56% in 2009/10. 
• Women aged 45-64 years are the most likely to give and give the most (typical median amount £20 per month). Those aged 16-24 years remain the least likely to give.
• Cash is still by far the most common method of donation, used by almost half of all donors (47%).
• The proportion of donors using direct debit continues to rise, increasing from 26% in 2004/05 to 32% in 2010/11. Direct debit also accounted for the largest share of total donations in 2010/11.
• The number of donors using Gift Aid has increased from 32% to 42% since the survey began seven years ago.
• The most popular cause to support is medical research which over 11 million people give to on a monthly basis. 

Download the report UK Giving 2011 (PDF, 921KB)

Read more about our research on giving and philanthropy.

November 2011

Pathways through Participation briefing papers

The Pathways through Participation project looks at participation in a very broad sense and considers the act of taking part in a wide range of social, public and individual activities including volunteering, giving money, voting or signing a petition. Following the launch of the project’s final report, three learning events took place in Autumn 2011 to highlight the implications of the research findings from the report for volunteering, local engagement and policy. At these learning events the following briefing papers were launched:

• Informing and influencing policy (PDF 441KB)
• Local engagement in democracy (PDF 436KB)
• Volunteering as a participation pathway (PDF 359KB)

Visit the Pathways through Participation website for more information about the project.

October 2011

New Workforce Almanac published

The UK Voluntary Sector Workforce Almanac 2011, published today (26 October 2011), shows that there were 765,000 people working in the voluntary sector in 2010, an increase of 40% since 2001. This represents a quicker rate of growth than that experienced in either the public or the private sectors over the same period. Such long term growth precedes our recently released figures showing indications of a downturn in voluntary sector employment during 2011.

Produced in partnership between NCVO, Skills - Third Sector and TSRC, the Workforce Almanac draws upon a decade’s worth of authoritative data to explore how the sector’s workforce has changed between 2001 and 2010 in a user-friendly and accessible format for voluntary sector employers and managers.

• Read more about the voluntary sector's workforce.
• Access the Almanac, fact sheet or data tables.

October 2011

The Ripple Effect: The nature and impact of the children and young people’s voluntary sector

New research published today by leading children’s charity the National Children’s Bureau with input from NCVO, finds that the children and young people’s voluntary sector is amongst the hardest hit by government funding cuts and local authority austerity measures. The report highlights that:

• The children’s voluntary sector is heavily reliant on government funding and less likely to receive funding from the private sector. 
• Just over half of the children’s voluntary sector relies on statutory funding, as opposed to only 38% of the wider voluntary sector.
• Children’s charities receive only 1% of their funding from corporate sources, compared to an average of 4% for the entire voluntary sector.
• 96% of the children’s voluntary sector operates at a grass-roots, local level - delivering vital service to families in need.

These factors combine to make the children’s voluntary sector particularly vulnerable to the current funding environment that seeks to cut back on central government funding while meeting the shortfall through private sector funding for local services.

• Read The Ripple Effect (PDF 2.3MB)

September 2011

Charity Leaders' confidence lower than ever

The findings are in from the latest Charity Forecast Survey.

This quarter's report shows that charity leaders...

• Are reporting net confidence of -98% in the sector’s economic condition over the next 12 months. This is the lowest level since the survey began in May 2008.
• Are mainly expecting their organisation’s financial situation to worsen over the next 12 months.
• Are reporting lower levels of confidence in the UK economy than they did when the Governor of the Bank of England announced that the UK was heading for a recession in May 2008.
• Are, despite the above, still planning to increase the extent of the services they provide over the coming 3 months, with some citing increased demand from the most vulnerable in society

NCVO members can read Charity Forecast reports for free.

Purchase a copy of Charity Forecast 15

Read the press release

Pathways Through Participation Report Launched

The final report from a 2.5 year NCVO-led project in partnership with the Institute for Volunteering Research and Involve was launched on 13 September 2011. The report highlights the importance of institutions and organisations in creating an environment in which participation can flourish - such as linking up people with similar interests or concerns and providing spaces or multi purpose hubs for people to come together. Among the questions looked at in the report are:

• What makes people get involved in their local communities?
• What makes people stay involved?
• And what stops them?
• And does getting involved in activities as diverse as volunteering or voting over time lead to even more committed people?
• How does involvement change over a person's lifetime?

Read the final report or the summary report.

August 2011

Our new research shows charities face £3 billion in cuts over the next five years

Counting the cuts (PDF, 429 KB) shows that according to the Government's own figures charities are facing nearly £3 billion in cuts over the spending review period (2011-2015). In a detailed analysis of the Government's projected spending plans, released from the Office of Budget Responsibility, the report shows:

• The UK voluntary and community sector will lose around £911 million a year in public funding by 2015-16.
• This means that, cumulatively, the sector stands to lose £2.8 billion from Government over the current spending review period.

These figures are reached by assuming that the Government will cut the voluntary and community sector on a proportionate basis, but in reality it's possible that the cuts could be much higher. Responses to Freedom of Information requests show that half of all Local Authorities are making disproportionate cuts to the voluntary sector.

We have also asked charities to provide examples of cuts they have faced through our crowdsourcing website, Voluntary Sector Cuts, in collaboration with a number of other infrastructure organisations. Over the last six months, nearly 500 charities have reported cuts worth over £76 million.

Read our advice and support sections for help in coping with the cuts.

Contact us

Email or call us on 020 7520 2582 or for more information about our research.