Some TSRC contributions to the third sector data environment John Mohan, TSRC, Birmingham mohanj@bham.ac.uk TS definition: organisations, private, self-governing, noncompulsory, non-distribution of profits (NB definition also includes individual vol. action Entering the lists: 59 000 entities from 60+ lists from whole of N England www.nr-foundation.org.uk – see Third Sector trends Or an artefact of the resources devoted to gathering data? Differences between organisations on / not on local listings “frustratingly, the countless local studies [assembled under NL] are rarely, if ever, comparable” (this is a statement from a prominent voluntary sector researcher from 2007. The implication: stop wasting money on local surveys!)

TSRC contributions: registered charities Charity Commission / OSCR panel data: E and W: reconstructed from old media: c. 3 Mn observations for around 70 000 charities observed continuously early 90s onwards Analyses: differential growth austerity Survival Cross-UK comparisons (see next slide: relative size distribution, E, W and S charities, allowing for regulatory differences) Geographical distribution

TSRC contributions: charity financials Charity accounts data 2006-: limitations of regulatory data (voluntary / generating funds / charitable activities) so capture from notes to accounts Partnership with NCVO – develop c. 10 000 representative sample captured continuously Used by ONS (National Accounts), NCVO (Almanac) Analyses: organisation-level trends (next slide: proportion of organisations experiencing 25% shortfall on revenues, 2004-14: is the financial position getting worse? subsector level Growth of earned income senior staff salaries Employment estimates FP 7 Euro comparisons

Financial indicators: Tuckman-Chang ratios, 67 000 E and W charities appearing continuously, 2004-14

TSRC contributions: wider third sector and social enterprises Which non-charitable TSOs are in-scope and why? Public benefit tests, membership organisations, flags of convenience Replicates / complements core (charitable) TS? Social enterprise Definition, distinctiveness, impact Small Business Surveys, Charity Commission income source data Entrepreneurship surveys (GEM) TSRC papers on measurement and definition Particular subfields: environmental soc ents (also charities), criminal justice Outcome / impact measurement (Cabinet Office, MoJ)

TSRC contributions: Geography - of what is the spatial distribution of TSOs a measure? Linking charities to communities: administrative / survey data Registered vs operating in a community English and Welsh charities linked to local authorities: consider scale of operation, beneficiary group, public benefit, whether or not GM only, whether or not active: N of charities varies substantially depending on your substantive question Other options: survey data for England Non-charitable organisations: relationship to geographical communities? Next slide: how do you assess who benefits from charities and where? This place (a mountain shelter maintained by a charity) is 10 miles from a classified road and has no-one living within 5 miles of it!

Geography: what does a TSO presence give to communities? Researchers behaving badly and opportunistically E.g. opportunities to volunteer Link EW charity data to survey data: likelihood of volunteering after controlling for individual characteristics plus distribution of (so far) 30+ measures of charity distribution Most variance individual-level but anything concerned with deprivation trumps distribution of organisations Other work under way: greater range of outcome measures Broadly echoes earlier McCulloch et al paper: levels of voluntary activity do not trump material circumstances

Volunteering Volunteering rates and social capital by level of deprivation

New sources: open grantmaking data Several hundred thousand grants, various funders, 2004- Working with 360 Degree Giving, Nominet, range of funders – see http://tsrc-ncvo-csdp.com Link to Charity Commission / other non-TSO data: who gets funding and where, relationship to characteristics of organisations, social conditions of locality Differences between organisations that get awards and those who do not Relationship to funding history: do grants make a difference (earlier Sarah Smith study) Need application data to develop this

New sources: procurement data from local authorities and NHS Local government: c. 26 Mn transactions; CCGs many fewer (higher threshold) Do not observe transparency code so linkage via name recognition CCGs: identify c. 7800 unique suppliers – cross-referenceing to TSO and company databases beginning Story here: creeping privatisation? Insight into market relationships (share of contracts) geographical relationships (think of NHS history as attempt to promote integrated regional hierarchies) Local authorities: which organisations have relationships with local authorities and where?

Possible / desirable developments in data environment HMRC / other government department records Public interest in tax reliefs for individuals and individual organisations Linkage in secure data environment Importance of these to funding of individual organisations Business Structure Database / ONS datasets Nonprofit flag known to be weak, needs matching against databases of known TSOS Also need to track transfers / mergers Regulatory environment: More online filing from CC; improved outcome reporting

Third Sector Research Centre University of Birmingham But there will always be sceptics about the value of this work: cartoon from Third Sector, 2015 – financial crises in voluntary organisations are a self-evident truth, requiring no further work! John Mohan Third Sector Research Centre University of Birmingham