New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) has published recent results from its State of the Sector programme.

The results have been released earlier than originally intended, in order to assist understanding of the role of charities in the COVID-19 response, as well as the impact of it on their work.

The results aim to present a picture of the challenges which the sector faced before the pandemic in order to help inform funding and support decisions for the sector.

Important findings from the research include:

• Charity leaders reported doing more in almost every area than in 2017 and so may have been spread thinly when the crisis hit. For example, in 2017 83% of charities said they were delivering services or products. In 2019/20 this rose to 89%.
• Less than half (47%) of charities believed that independent funders offered the flexible core funding which NPC expects will be vital to keeping them afloat in the crisis.
• Charities’ confidence on their ability to use digital technology has dropped by 11 percentage points to 59% from 70% since 2017. This may leave them struggling to shift services online to reach isolated people during quarantine and social isolation.

Visit NPC’s website for more information.