A free guide on how civil society organisations can improve their effectiveness and impact reporting has been released to the sector.

The Little Blue Book, published by New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), draws on the NPC’s experiences of analysing the charity sector to allow charities to improve their day-to-day running at the same time as measuring the impact that they have on the general public.

Split into six sections of charity: activities; results; leadership; people and resources; finances and ambition, the tool will allow charities to ask crucial questions about their performance.

“All charities should strive to be as effective as they can be, and understanding more about your organisation, including what works and what doesn’t, helps charities to improve,” said Martin Brookes, chief executive of NPC.

NPC will be launching a series of seminars to help charities put some of the ideas from the book into practice.