1. Some TSRC contributions to the third sector data environment John Mohan, TSRC, Birmingham
TS definition: organisations, private, self-governing, noncompulsory, non-distribution of profits (NB definition also includes individual vol. action
Entering the lists:
entities from 60+ lists from whole of N England
– 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 The implication: stop wasting money on local surveys!)

2. TSRC contributions: registered charities
Charity Commission / OSCR panel data:
E and W: reconstructed from old media: c. 3 Mn observations for around 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

4. 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 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, : is the financial position getting worse?
subsector level
Growth of earned income
senior staff salaries
Employment estimates
FP 7 Euro comparisons

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

6. 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)

7. 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!

9. 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

10. Volunteering
Volunteering rates and social capital by level of deprivation

11. New sources: open grantmaking data
Several hundred thousand grants, various funders, 2004-
Working with 360 Degree Giving, Nominet, range of funders – see
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

12. 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 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?

13. 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

14. 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