The Regulator for Charities in England and Wales
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Research Reports
Contents
What are Research Reports?
Each year the Commission publishes a minimum of three Research Reports that focus upon a variety of governance and finance issues currently affecting the sector. The purpose of the reports is to provide an overview of what is currently happening in the sector and strengthen accountability by assessing how far best practice is being followed in relation to each topic. These reports are not designed to offer specific guidance; guidance is provided in our range of CC publications. However, the findings of our research will feed in to future guidance and policy decisions. The reports are based on our own case work experience and internally held data, supported by large scale surveys, interviews and consultation with umbrella and advisory bodies.
We welcome your input as part of our research into the topics outlined below. Please feel free to contact us if you have anything to contribute from your own experience.
Please e-mail Laith Hamid.
Current topics
The research phase has now finished for the following topics and we hope to publish our findings soon:
How charities report on the impact of their work
Focusing on how charities report on their impact measurement, rather than on how they measure impact, the report will examine the degree to which charities report on impact through their annual reporting mechanisms and other documents available to the public.
Charities and their beneficiaries
This report will look at the charity/beneficiary relationship from the perspectives of both charities and beneficiaries.
Future topics
Over the coming year we will be looking at the following topic:
Charities and environmental responsibility
This work is in its very early stages, but if you have any ideas about the areas this report should cover, please let us know.
We also welcome your suggestions for other report topics so, if there is an issue that you feel is important and has broad relevance within the sector, please email your suggestion to Laith Hamid.
Reports currently available
Please note that the HTML versions of Research Reports do not contain images, such as graphs and charts. If you wish to view a report containing images, please select the PDF version.
Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view or print any PDF documents. For information on downloading Acrobat Reader, please click on the icon 
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| RS1 - Trustee Recruitment, Selection and Induction Provides information on best practice in recruiting new trustees |
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| RS1 - Trustee Recruitment, Selection and Induction - Annex A, B, C & D | ||
| RS2 - Charities and Commercial Partners Focuses on the commercial partnership that exists when a charity and a commercial company enter into an agreement either to raise funds for the charity or to raise its profile |
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| RS2 - Charities and Commercial Partners - Annex A, B & C | ||
| RS3 - Charity Reserves Examines in detail the issues surrounding reserves and restricted funding |
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| RS3 - Charity Reserves: Annex A, B, C & D | ||
| RS3a - Charity Reserves: Key Findings | ||
| RS4 - Collaborative Working and Mergers Explores the opportunities and challenges of collaborative working and mergers and makes recommendations to enable well-planned partnerships to flourish |
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| RS4 - Collaborative Working and Mergers: Annex A, B, C & D | ||
| RS4a - Collaborative Working and Mergers: Summary | ||
| RS5 - Small Charities and Reserves Explores the same issues as RS3 but focuses on smaller charities whose annual income is less than £10,000 |
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| RS6 - Milestones: Managing key events in the life of a charity Looks at the issues and phases of development that are relevant to charities, also includes a checklist of standard questions for trustees to consider at various stages of development |
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| RS6 - Milestones: Managing key events in the life of a charity - Annex A, B, C, D & E | ||
| RS6a - Milestones: Summary | ||
| RS7 - Membership Charities Sets out the characteristics of an effective membership charity. It assesses the extent to which the problems associated with membership charities can be resolved or avoided by better governance and by the actions of the membership, and clarifies where the Charity Commission will become involved. |
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| RS7 - Membership Charities: Annex A, B, C & D | ||
| RS7a - Membership Charities: Summary | ||
| RS8 - Transparency and Accountability Presents the findings of an analysis of the information provided in the Annual Report and Accounts of a sample of 200 of the largest charities |
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| RS8 - Transparency and Accountability: Annex A, B, C & D | ||
| RS9 – Village Halls and Community Centres Provides an overview of the challenges faced by village hall, community centre and similar charities and looks at what trustees can and cannot do within charity law and regulation in order to adapt their operations to changing circumstances. In particular, it outlines how the Charity Commission can help charities to modernise and provides signposting to further advice and guidance. |
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| RS9 - Village Halls and Community Centres: Annex A, B, C & D | ||
| RS9a - Village Halls and Community Centres: Summary | ||
| RS10 - Start as you mean to go on - Trustee Recruitment and Induction This report presents the findings of a survey which revisited the issues highlighted in Trustee Recruitment, Selection and Induction (RS1) to establish whether there had been any changes. It does not replace RS1, but should be read in conjunction with it. |
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| RS10 - Start as you mean to go on - Trustee Recruitment and Induction: Annex A, B, C, D & E | ||
| RS11 - Cause for Complaint? How charities manage complaints about their services This report looks at the nature, extent and cost of complaints handling in the sector. It includes a checklist to help trustees draw up, or evaluate an existing, complaints procedure. |
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| RS11 - Cause for Complaint? How charities manage complaints about their services: Annex A - E | ||
| RS12 - The Regeneration Game. Results of our new research into charities established under the regeneration charitable purpose. |
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| RS13 - Tell it like it is Charities are urged to remove the mystique surrounding their reserves. |
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RS14 - In Their Own Words |
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RS15 - Stand and deliver: the future for charities delivering public services |
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RS16 - Charities working in the field of human rights |
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All research reports, apart from Charities working in the field of human rights (RS16), are available in hardcopy: please telephone 0845 300 0218 to request a copy.
Your feedback
Your feedback on the reports would be much appreciated so that we can learn and improve the presentation of future studies. If you have any comments or feedback, please email Laith Hamid.