Funding support for data entry, data cleansing and data classification by Belfast University and methodological/technological developments in data capture and coding

Our focus is on improving the evidence base for the third sector, and improving the use of evidence by the sector. The project addresses concerns about the absence of relevant, timely and high-quality data on the financial position and resources of charities. There is a need for longer term and large-scale investment on a UK-wide basis (the focus here is on England and Wales); this project builds on a long history of existing work in this area by TSRC and NCVO with the intention of increasing the sector's engagement with, and use of, evidence. In the words of Lester Salamon, the leading international scholar of the third sector, "valid and reliable statistics will enhance the visibility and credibility of voluntary organisations, contribute to improved transparency and accountability of the sector and of government, and provide empirical context for decision making and policy development". The Office for National Statistics, the Office for Civil Society, and the academic community in this field are all supportive of these efforts. We will carry out three strands of activity: 1. Data resource construction We will capture data for a representative sample of c.10,000 charities in England and Wales. By the end of the funding period we will be able to track charities over a ten-year period. This will be a unique and powerful data resource for insight. The sample is representative of the population of English and Welsh charities and provides reasonably robust estimates of the resources of all charities. We capture information from the notes to charities accounts, describing where they get their income from (e.g. giving the names of their funders such as particular local authorities, government departments or charitable foundations). We then classify this information so that we can clearly identify particular funding streams - especially public sector funders - so that we can also differentiate between grants and contracts. 2. Capacity-building We will raise awareness of this data amongst charities, policy makers and funders and of its value for their work and decision-making. We will construct numerous relevant indicators of financial health/vulnerability in the voluntary sector. We will produce learning resources and run events to build capacity in using the tools and data resources we develop. Organisations will be free to use our data in several ways: profiling charities in their geographical area; selecting entities with whom partnership working might be developed; considering the financial vulnerability of organisations; looking at indicators of distribution/growth of the charity population, and also at risk-based indicators such as exposure to particular funding streams. 3. Knowledge exchange We will implement an engagement and communication strategy, producing accessible outputs and targeted communications, engaging strategically significant organisations to raise awareness, and publicising our activities through social media and the Internet; we will maximise impact upon large numbers of charities, funders, and policy-makers (e.g. NCVO has 11,000+ members). Key features Innovation and originality: the project will provide the basis of a data infrastructure on the characteristics, distribution and resources of charities in England and Wales, and the dynamics thereof, including changes over time. Strategic priorities and value: the project contributes to the improvement of the social science data infrastructure. It will inform public debate and policy-making about the funding base for charities and inform and improve strategic decision-making. Value added: the UK social science infrastructure currently lacks an authoritative evidence base on charities, which this project will provide. The project also adds value to the work by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on assessing the contribution of the non-profit sector to the national accounts.

This project aims to explore unspoken stories of volunteering by employing a cultural animation approach to ensure that such stories are co-produced from design/scripting through to production and performance with and by the volunteers themselves. Volunteering has been heralded by the Coalition Government as a key ingredient of the Big Society. Vivid in people's memory remains the London Olympics 2012, an event which has highlighted the crucial role played by volunteers. Despite such success stories, critics point to the fact that volunteering remains a minority activity (see Mycock and Tonge, 2011). It has, for example, been calculated that only 39 per cent of adults took part in some form of volunteering in 2011 (The European Volunteering Year), the lowest level since 2001, according to the Government's annual Citizenship Survey (Whitehead, 2011). Also, it has been argued that governmental and institutional discourses of volunteering do not always account for grass roots experiences of volunteering. Rather they are premised on the assumption that there is an unlimited reservoir of goodwill in communities and people can be encouraged to volunteer more. There is also a sense that volunteering is being promoted as a means to promote a rebalancing of society away from the state and as a way of reducing the cost of welfare service provision and public spending (Seddon, 2007; Rosol, 2012). Governmental discourses, we argue, fail to do justice to the diverse forms of volunteering and the motives, practices and affective relations involved in volunteering. Furthermore, there appears to be few avenues for alternative discourses of volunteering to emerge, with official discourses of volunteering tending to neglect, marginalise or overlook voices coming from below. In this project, we capture such voices by engaging with three types of volunteers: voluntary volunteers, instrumental volunteers, and voluntolds (people who are forced to volunteer) from the Stoke-on-Trent area. Stoke-on-Trent is a deprived area which relies heavily on volunteers to support many of its economic, social and cultural activities. Working closely with volunteers, community organisations and policy makers we will co-develop a methodology by which the untold stories of volunteering will be heard at both local and national level. We do so with the help of cultural animation techniques. Culturally animating a community involves acknowledging and critically approaching existing power and knowledge hierarchies and taking steps to minimise them, as a means to developing more interpretative and less legislative approaches to understanding and working with communities (Phillips, 1998a; 1998b; 2002). This project will be constructed in a trans-disciplinary manner, with academics and their collaborating partners working together across its constituent elements of co-creation, co-design and co-production. The main outcome of Phase 1 will be the development of a methodology detailing the stages and processes by which the team will co-produce and co-deliver a documentary drama on the untold stories of volunteering in Phase 2. We (volunteers, academics and policy makers) will all be actors in the documentary drama. We aim to co-deliver the documentary drama in at least three different localities across the UK. After each show, there will be a question and answer session to assess the degree to which the performance resonated or not with the audience's own experiences of volunteering. Our community partner, New Vic Borderlines, has over 20 years experience in documentary theatre and is the holder of many national awards.

Co-design (which is defined as collective creativity of designers and people who are not trained in design through the whole design process) is widely used in the commercial sector to accelerate user acceptance and reduce product failure. Co-design has become more widespread in the public sector, especially in urban design, since it is more effective at engaging citizens than conventional public consulting practices. At present, we believe that co-design is not widely used by community-based organisations (CBOs). This might be because the value and practicalities for CBOs are not clear. A recent study suggests that small not-for-profit organisations (NPOs) including CBOs need to make a good use of collaborations, since they rely on small numbers of committed staff and/or volunteers and so are vulnerable if they leave. The study also reports that most NPOs are interested in collaboration for idea/information sharing, which fits with co-design. Although leaders and members of CBOs recognise problems and needs of the poor/disadvantaged, they do not necessarily have first-hand experience. Thus, good use of co-design between CBOs and their beneficiaries could lead to better services and more effective means of delivery - reducing unnecessary costs and maximising value which is crucial where public budgets are limited. Successful community co-design projects not only unlock the creative potential of communities, but also help them become more self-reliant and resilient. However, the extent of co-design practice in CBOs is unknown. Moreover, not all CBOs' experience of co-design are successful. CBOs need to understand the costs, risks, benefits, and practicalities of co-design approaches. These will be specific to their context and their mission. To enhance community co-design led by CBOs, we need to evaluate CBOs' current experience and disseminate good practice that is appropriate to their scale and their missions. As a result, the aim of this research project is to "understand CBOs' state of knowledge of co-design and develop guidance to help CBOs effectively co-design with their beneficiaries to deliver better services at lower cost." We will achieve this aim by 1) reviewing existing understanding and experience of co-design in CBOs; 2) examining costs, risks and benefits of co-design in CBOs; 3) identifying good practices within the third sector and from other sectors, that can be applied to CBOs; 4) collating lessons learned and develop good practice guidance for CBOs; and 5) disseminating the findings and the guidance to CBOs' key stakeholders, policy makers and the wider design research community. We will work with the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and other small-and-medium-sized NPOs throughout the project to ensure proper engagement with CBOs and the practicality of the outcomes.

The Changing Landscapes for the Third Sector project brings together a new body of dynamic research on the third sector, in order to exchange knowledge and data of relevance to the future development of the sector. Sharing dynamic, narrative forms of knowledge and data across academic and practice organisations provides the foundation for scaling up evidence and creating impact for practitioners, service providers and for wider public policy. The project will: -Set up a network of new and recent research projects on the third sector, in order to bring together academic and practice based organisations for collaboration and knowledge sharing; - Enhance the evidence base on the third sector in times of austerity through a programme of archiving, data sharing and knowledge exchange across the network; - Conduct a review and synthesis of findings across the network, and carry out a secondary analysis of two key datasets, working with key themes of relevance for the sector; - Disseminate the findings of this work via a practitioner conference and a special issue of the academic journal Voluntary Sector Review; - Produce tailored outputs addressed at policy and practice audiences, including a policy report and briefing paper, training materials and web resources for use by those working in the third sector and those co-ordinating or commissioning third sector services. Over recent years a discernible shift has occurred in research on the third sector. Cross sectional studies that create a 'snap shot' of third sector organisations, activities and the individuals involved, have begun to be complemented by dynamic studies that create a moving picture of the sector through prospective or retrospective methods of enquiry. The recent application of qualitative longitudinal (QL) and case history methods in a number of third sector studies is part of this growing trend; distinctive forms of data and knowledge are being generated that can shed new light on how changes in the sector are created, lived and experienced, and that allow current trends to be placed in historical and developmental context (Macmillan et al 2012; Hughes and Emmel 2012; Neale 2012). Viewing the third sector in this way is particularly important in times of austerity and sector transformation. Organisations are grappling with the demands of new and often reduced funding regimes; greater emphasis on social enterprise models; a changing relationship with the state and local government; increased pressure to demonstrate the difference they make; and changes in the nature of participation. Understanding how the organisations and individuals that contribute to the third sector are responding and adapting to this changing landscape is vital; the provision of resources on these processes to enable a sharing of practice and experiences would be of benefit to the sector and to service providers and commissioners of third sector services. The project will be conducted through two interrelated strands of work. The first strand (Networking, Archiving, Knowledge and Data Exchange) will be led by Timescapes, University of Leeds in collaboration with project partners and network members. The second strand (Secondary analysis and synthesis of evidence) will be led by the Third Sector Research Centre, University of Birmingham, in collaboration with project partners and network members. Outputs will be tailored to third sector use and include case materials charting varied pathways through the changing third sector landscape and an interactive web-based knowledge bank on Changing Landscapes for the Third Sector. The impact of these outputs will be assessed through feedback from the sector.