The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has said it supports a proposal to create a civil society evidence organisation (CSEVO).
In a report published today, think tank PBE set out the business case for a CSEVO, which it said would “address the gaps in evidence and data management that hinder organisational productivity and impact”.
A CSEVO would act as a central coordinating body that connects charities, funders, researchers and policymakers with data providers such as the Charity Commission and evidence providers including academic institutions and think tanks.
PBE estimated that a CSEVO would cost around £2.5m over five years to pilot, with ongoing “steady-state” costs of about £600,000 a year, and has called for the government to cover half of this using match-funding to attract donors.
DCMS said it supports PBE’s proposal and is “working with them on how to take it forward”.
A spokesperson for the department added: “The Civil Society Covenant champions more open sharing of information and data through better availability, understanding of need and evidence-based solutions.
“This is one of the ways in which we’re collaborating with our partners to implement the covenant principles, including on transparency and data.”
Return on investment
The idea for a CSEVO was first proposed in a previous report by the Law Family Commission on Civil Society, which PBE ran between December 2020 and January 2023.
PBE’s new report suggests that the CSEVO should be located “within a trusted existing organisation, ensuring neutrality and reach”, with both the government and the sector contributing to its governance.
Its activities would focus on understanding evidence needs and gaps in civil society, generating and disseminating evidence and translating insights into action.
It says that in the long term, this would help civil society organisations become more effective and efficient, as well as help policymakers and funders make more informed decisions to support them and their beneficiaries.
PBE examined small and medium-sized enterprises in the private sector and found that firms that received information to support their growth experienced an around 8% improvement in productivity.
It estimated that if a CSEVO had a similar impact on the productivity of the organisations it supported, then it would “only need to help five average-sized charities a year to increase their productivity to secure benefits that outweigh total costs”.
“Alternatively, if CSEVO helped to boost the productivity of 100 average-sized charities – that is, less than 0.1% of the total population of charities – then wider economic benefits might amount to £12m,” the report says.
“That would be equivalent to a £26 return for every £1 spent.”
Structural barriers holding back civil society
PBE’s report says civil society is “populated by innovators, but held back by structural barriers around capacity, incentives and evidence”.
On evidence, it says: “The sector suffers from a lack of live, comprehensive data, making it hard for charities, funders and policy-makers to understand what works and where to direct resources.
“The infrastructure that supports knowledge diffusion is, likewise, patchy, and there’s little benchmarking data that can help organisations to measure their own progress or understand how they compare to others, making it harder to assess performance and take informed steps toward improvement.”
It adds that where evidence exists, “too much of it is inaccessible”, with some “simply not in the public domain” as it has not been shared widely.
“With insufficient sector-wide knowledge management or connection between organisations, good work is too frequently lost and research is duplicated.
“Shared approaches to problem solving – such as systems leadership, designing joined-up services, and sharing data and insights – are lacking, undermining the potential for greater collective impact.”
