Benchmarking

Benchmarking provides a snapshot of the performance of a charity and helps provide an understanding of where it is in relation to others.

Civil Society conducts a range of benchmarking surveys, including:

Accounting software survey
Audit survey
Banking survey
Charity shops survey
CRM survey
Finance Directors survey
Finance function
Fund management survey
IT survey

Displaying 1 to 23 (of 23)

News

New standard is created for sustainable community development

Governance | Tania Mason | 28 Jun 2011

Tags: Benchmarking | Sustainability

BSI Group, the business services company that creates standards and awards kitemarks to organisations that achieve them, has created a new standard for the sustainable development of communities.

Blogs

Charity league tables are coming whether you like them or not 2

Finance | Tania Mason | 19 Jun 2011

Tags: Accountability and transparency | Benchmarking | Impact reporting

Acceptance is growing of the idea of comparisons between organisations in the sector, says Tania Mason.

News

Powerful income benchmarking tool launched 2

Finance | Gareth Jones | 4 May 2011

Tags: Charity 100 Index | Charity 250 Index | Benchmarking

Civil Society Media has launched a new online application allowing charities to compare their income data with the financial performance of other charities.

Analysis

Payment by results

Finance | 3 Oct 2010

Tags: Benchmarking | Funding

Charities shouldn’t be afraid of payment-by-results, but they must tell their own story in a way that feels natural, says Professor Tim Crabbe.

News

Charities Evaluation Services turns 20

Finance | Niki May Young | 21 Sep 2010

Tags: Benchmarking | Communications

Minister for civil society Nick Hurd lent himself to celebrations for the twentieth anniversary of Charities Evaluation Services on Wednesday, praising the service for improving quality in the sector.

Surveys

Charity Audit Survey 2009

Finance | Diane Sim | 2 Dec 2009

Tags: Audit and accountancy | Benchmarking | Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP)

Now in its seventeenth year, Charity Finance’s annual review of the charity audit market and related reporting issues is based on data from 1,097 charities with collective annual income of £20.3bn and audit fees of £22.2m.

News

GuideStar launches sector-friendly credit-scoring tool

Finance | Tania Mason | 7 Oct 2009

Tags: Benchmarking

GuideStar Data Services has launched a ‘charity-friendly’ credit-scoring and financial health check tool. The Third Sector Scorecard is already being used by capacity-building intermediaries as an ‘early warning system’ to identify sector organisations that are getting into financial difficulties and helping them to target their interventions most effectively.

News

CFDG and PKF warn charities on swine flu

Finance | Vibeka Mair | 29 Sep 2009

Tags: Risk and crisis management | Benchmarking

CFDG has said it is worrying how few charities have a contingency plan for a swine flu outbreak, after finding almost half had no plan in the 2009 Charities Risk Survey it has carried out with accountancy firm PKF. “The UK is now facing a pandemic,” the survey warned, “The adequacy of the arrangements is likely to be tested imminently for a number of charities. It is hoped that they will work.”

News

5 per cent ‘have no reserves’

Finance | 24 Sep 2009

Tags: Benchmarking | Cash management

A survey of 127 mostly small and medium-sized charities has shown that 5 per cent hold no reserves at all, and nearly a quarter hold less than three months’ worth. But nearly half of them hold reserves that would last at least six months, according to the survey by CAF Bank.

Analysis

Charity IT Survey 2009

IT | Lesley Meall | 24 Apr 2009

Tags: IT strategy and management | Websites | Benchmarking | Budgeting

In an increasingly online world, information technology has become a key driver of success for charities but also one in which charities struggle to keep up with developments. The Charity IT Survey 2009 allows charities of all shapes and sizes to benchmark themselves against their peers. Once again, the benefit of data integration across departments is highlighted, especially in the context of web based solutions. With increasing representation at board level, IT is just about holding its own in the contest for resources but charities are finding it difficult to really drive improvements with major investment or to adopt new technologies as they emerge.

Surveys

Charity Banking Survey 2009

Finance | Diane Sim | 26 Mar 2009

Tags: Banking | Benchmarking | Charity 100 Index

The Charity Banking Survey 2009 is written by banking journalist Diane Sim, who brings her expert eye to bear on this most interesting of environments for the world’s banks and their attempts to focus on the charity niche in the context of certain other distractions.

Opinion

Cold comforts

Finance | John Tate | 24 Nov 2008

Tags: Spending Cuts and Recession | Benchmarking

How can IT help in a recession, wonders John Tate.

Surveys

Voluntary Sector Governance Survey 2008

Finance | 1 Oct 2008

Tags: Benchmarking | Leadership and strategy

The 2008 Baker Tilly Voluntary Sector Governance Survey, in association with Charity Finance and governance aims to build on the findings of the results of the Autumn 2006 research published in February 2007, and previous research in 2000 and 2003.