Thank you to all 8,680 voluntary organisations which took part in the study this year.

We have received at least 600 from every English Region and over 700 from Wales.  It takes four months and a great deal of support to do the fieldwork for Third Sector Trends, which started on June 2nd and finished on 30th September.

The study has had tremendous help from many local voluntary sector infrastructure organisations (such as CVSs) from around the country who have helped to boost local responses.

And as planned, towards the end of the fieldwork process, many Community Foundations stepped in to ask their current and recent grantees to respond to the survey producing a significant increase in the number of charities and social enterprises taking part in their areas together with support from UK Community Foundations, London Funders and London Plus.

The study has generously been funded by Community Foundations North East, Lloyds Bank Foundation England and Wales, WCVA and Millfield House Foundation. 

When will we start to see the findings?

In October a new edition of Going the Distance: how Third Sector organisations work through turbulent times. This is a report from a 15 year qualitative study of voluntary organisations in North East England and Cumbria and forms the basis much of the analysis in the survey reports.  Additionally, a Research Methodology report will be published in October for people who’d like to get the detail about sample sizes and how representative the data and findings are.

Now that the survey is closed, the reporting from the survey will begin soon. The first three reports will be at national level starting with Relationships in the Voluntary Sector which should be published by the end of October or first week November.  This will be followed by a report at the end of November/first week December on People in the Voluntary Sector.  In January a third national level report will be published on Sector Finances and Assets. 

In February and March, two of the area reports will be published. The first for North East England will track changes right back to 2010 when the study began.  The next report will be published by WCVA for Wales and will provide comparative data with English regions.  In March a report will be published by Lloyds Bank Foundation England and Wales on Organisational Vitality in Smaller Charities.

As in previous years, others will follow when commissions are received on area studies or other issues such as the sector’s contribution to issues such as public health and community wellbeing.

If you ‘d like to find out more about the study, or read previous reports you can find everything you’ll need here: Third Sector Trends