Acevo is to build up a databank of the charity sector’s health and its contribution to society, to inform its work in the run-up to the 2015 general election.  

Asheem Singh, director of public policy at Acevo, said: “Our sector is a huge contributor to local and national life but that contribution is only marginally understood. The data and information we have is either unbearably lightweight or way too impregnable and dense.

“The aim of the social sector tracker is to create a real working understanding of where the charity sector is, to understand what changes, positive and negative, they have experienced in the past year and to generate information that can be used to agitate for change.”

Its ‘social sector tracker’ will be compiled through surveys, the first of which is released today. It addresses the charity sector’s social and economic confidence, as well as the capability and contribution of the sector to local and national social and economic life.

The results of the first annual indicator survey are due to be published on 17 March, with the other six annual indicator surveys to be released over the next six months leading up to the political party conference season.

The social sector tracker has been created as part of ‘Leading the Way’, a year-long Acevo project that will create Acevo’s 2015 manifesto.

Singh (pictured) said: “We are at a critical point in the run-up to the 2015 general election. To date, none of the three main political parties have made any substantial commitments to the future of the sector. That is why, together, we have to make our own case. Acevo’s Social Sector Tracker will help us to make that case, now and in years to come.”