The Regulator for Charities in England and Wales
Each year the Commission publishes a minimum of three Research Reports that focus upon a variety of governance, finance and other 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 sometimes based on our own case work experience and internally held data, and often supported by large scale independently commissioned surveys, interviews, focus groups and consultation with umbrella and advisory bodies, as well as charities themselves.
Our research programme for 2009/10 is set out below. Please contact us if you feel you have anything to contribute to these topics from your own experience. We do value your input.
Please e-mail Research Reports.
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Topic |
Expected publication date |
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Published August 2009 | |
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Public Benefit - awareness, understanding and attitudes towards the requirement across the sector |
Published December 2009 |
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Volunteering as a trustee – awareness and understanding of the role amongst young people, barriers experienced and motivations for considering trusteeship |
May 2010 |
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Small charities' experience of collaboration |
May 2010 |
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A History of the Register – its development over the last fifty years |
June 2010 |
Research Reports aims to produce in-depth studies that combine the Charity Commission's knowledge and experience with evidence gathered from the sector. The research themes and topics that we work on are designed to complement the Commission's policy priorities. We are open to partnership working and working on joint publications with interested stakeholders, including other research providers.
In developing our proposals for next year, we will be looking to identify the current key priority areas for the sector and the Commission, the issues arising within each of these priority areas, and how research can contribute to the understanding or tackling of these issues.
A full list of the reports we have published previously is set out in the table below.
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. See Help with PDF files for more information.
Finally, your feedback on any of our reports is very much appreciated so that we can learn and improve the presentation of future studies. If you have any comments or feedback, therefore, please email Research Reports.
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A Balancing Act: New perspectives on the charity/beneficiary relationship This report examines the charity/beneficiary relationship from the perspectives of charities, the public and the public as charity beneficiaries; the report includes our thoughts on the implications of the research for the sector, wider society and for the Commission itself. |
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A Balancing Act: Technical report A report produced by Ipsos MORI that contains the detailed survey method and data tables for the three surveys conducted by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the Charity Commission for its research report of the same title. |
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A Snapshot of charities in Wales For the first time, information about the Welsh charitable sector has been brought together and analysed to produce an overview of charities in Wales. This report includes a range of previously unpublished information on the activity of Welsh charities registered with the Charity Commission. |
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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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Cause for Complaint? How charities manage complaints about their services: Annex A - E |
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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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Charities and Commercial Partners
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Charities awareness, understanding and attitudes towards the public benefit requirement This report presents findings from a comprehensive survey of trustees across the sector as to levels of awareness, understanding and attitudes towards the public benefit requirement. |
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Charities working in the field of human rights A short report about charities working in the human rights field. |
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Charity Reporting and Accounting - taking stock and future reform
A report produced by Queen's University Belfast on the SORP research programme. Encompassing views from over 1000 individuals drawn from charities, funders, auditors and professional advisors, it considers how charity reporting and accounting could be further developed in the UK. The report finds strong support for the existing framework and the charities SORP but recommends improvements are made to assist smaller charities in their reporting. |
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Charity Reserves: Examines in detail the issues surrounding reserves and restricted funding |
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Charity Reserves: Annex A, B, C & D |
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Charity Reserves: Key Findings |
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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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Collaborative Working and Mergers: Annex A, B, C & D |
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Collaborative Working and Mergers: Summary |
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Firm Foundations: A snapshot of how trusts and foundations are responding to the economic downturn in 2009 This report explores how some of the largest grant-making trusts and foundations in England and Wales have been responding to the recession. |
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Going Green: Charities and Environmental Responsibility This report highlights the range of ways that charities are responding to environmental issues, either directly in the way they deliver their services or indirectly through their back office practices. |
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In Their Own Words This report illustrates how charities have responded in the SIR form's first year. |
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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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Membership Charities: Annex A, B, C & D |
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Membership Charities: Summary |
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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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Milestones: Managing key events in the life of a charity Annex A, B, C, D & E |
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Milestones: Managing key events in the life of a charity Summary |
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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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Stand and deliver: the future for charities delivering public services This publication presents the results of our survey on charities delivering public services, ranging from full-cost recovery to length of funding agreements. |
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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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Start as you mean to go on - Trustee Recruitment and Induction: Annex A, B, C, D & E |
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Tell it like it is Charities are urged to remove the mystique surrounding their reserves. |
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The Regeneration Game Results of our new research into charities established under the regeneration charitable purpose. |
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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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Transparency and Accountability: Annex A, B, C & D |
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Trustee Recruitment, Selection and Induction Provides information on best practice in recruiting new trustees |
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Trustee Recruitment, Selection and Induction Annex A, B, C & D |
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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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Village Halls and Community Centres: Annex A, B, C & D |
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Village Halls and Community Centres: Summary |
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