Third Sector Trends

As with previous iterations of the study from 2010, Professor Tony Chapman has led all aspects of survey design, development and promotion, synthesis of responses and analysis of the data from surveys and the combined register of charities, community groups and community amateur sports clubs. He is the author of the full reports which have been used to create this digital summary version.

Original analysis of the 2025 survey data just for the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority area has additionally been carried out by Hannah Mackay-Christie, Senior Policy and Public Affairs Advisor at Community Foundation North East. 

Fieldwork and Sample Size

In 2025, the survey was administered using Online Surveys between June and September. A total of 8,680 valid responses were received. Responses were obtained using direct email invitations from listings collated from the Charity Commission register (there were 7,163 returns representing a 5.4% response rate from a sample frame of 133,161 charities). These data were supplemented by 1,517 responses to appeals to participate by local infrastructure organisations and community foundations across England and Wales.

It is a fully representative national sample, as evidenced by comparison with combined register data (including the registers of the Charity Commission, Community Interest Companies, Register of Mutuals/Societies Register and Community Amateur Sport Clubs Register).

Focus on small and local organisations

Third Sector Trends is a study of the voluntary sector in local context. As such, it includes all types of  organisations with income below £25m but excludes major charities with income above £25m, as those tend to work on a wider national or international level, and their inclusion would skew local level findings.

Alongside responses to questions about the views and experiences of charities and community groups, data was gathered about each organisation's annual financial turnover and spatial reach. 

Within the analysis, these are defined as follows: 

Organisational Size

• Micro - less than £10,000
• Small - £10,000 - £49,999
• Medium - £50,000 - £249,999
• Large - £250,000 - £999,999
• Big - £1million - £25 million

Where different parameters of size are used to interrogate an aspect of the data in more detail, this is explained specifically in the report. 

Spatial Reach

• Just in our neighbourhood
• Within our local authority/county council district/London borough
• Across at least two local authorities/districts/London boroughs
• At a regional level
• At a national level
• Internationally 

Deprivation

References to levels of deprivation in areas organisations are operating are calculated using the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) data, which ranks and scores local areas based on a combined deprivation score calculated across domains of Income, Employment, Education, Health, Crime, Barriers to Housing and Services, and Living Environment. 

The ranked local areas are separated into deciles from the most deprived (1) to the least deprived (10) but for this analysis this has been grouped into quintiles. Analysis has been completed using the Indices of Deprivation 2019, as the 2025 IMD data was released after this analysis was completed. 

We've unpicked the key findings from Third Sector Trends in this digital report, broken into sections covering: 

• National patterns and trends across England and Wales 
• Trends in North East England and how this compares with the national picture
• A snapshot of the sector in the area covered by the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority 

You can download all the full reports, including the detailed methodology report for the study from the "Resources" page