NPC is an associate member of London Funders. Their purpose is to help donors understand how to make their giving do the most good and their main activity towards this has been to provide independent research and tailored advice on the most effective and rewarding ways to support charities. As their latest news shows they are also increasingly offering guidance to charities about how to measure and communicate their own effectiveness.

NPC have launched a new website intended to be useful for individual donors, foundations, corporates, charities and professional advisors. It allows searches of the charities they have explored thoroughly (currently over 130) and offers a new tools section giving support and guidance for high impact giving. The website also keeps up to date with the latest giving trends and covers NPC news.

Measuring impact, children and young people

NPC has addressed the problem that many children’s charities struggle to measure, and communicate to donors, the total impact that their work has on the well-being of the children they help. They often rely on narrow indicators, like improved exam results, to show the difference they make to children’s lives.

NPC is developing a questionnaire to help charities measure and demonstrate how their work influences children’s well-being. The first stages in building and testing the questionnaire are described in the recently launched report, On the bright side. Over the coming months the questionnaire will be developed and further pilots will test how well it works on the ground.

This is the first time anyone has attempted to create a recognisable scale of well-being that can be easily used by the voluntary sector. It is part of the remit of a new team — NPC Tools — that is developing tools to help charities measure, analyse, manage and report their results.

Martin Brookes takes over helm at NPC

Nigel Harris is standing down after six years as NPC chief executive. He will be succeeded by Martin Brookes, currently NPC’s research director. Nigel will be leaving to focus on international development and social investment. Martin, who before joining NPC in 2001 worked at the Bank of England, Goldman Sachs and Amnesty International, will formally take over at the end of March. We are sure all our members will join us in wishing both Nigel and Martin all the best for the future.