1. What does NPC do?
2. When was NPC set up and by whom?
3. How does NPC help donors?
4. How does NPC help charities?
5. How is NPC funded?
6. What areas does NPC research cover?
7. How can I get my charity on NPC’s radar screen?
8. How can I find out about working for NPC?
9. Do you rank charities in a league table?
10. Should people give a certain amount to charity?
11. How can you judge charities by the same criteria as the financial sector?
12. What do you think about the state of giving in the UK?
13. Do you have any other questions for us?

1. What does NPC do?

Our mission is to improve the way donors support charities so that money flows to the most effective organisations. We do this in three main ways:

• by producing independent information and analysis on charities to guide donors on where and how to give
• by providing expert, tailored advice to donors to make their giving more effective and more rewarding
• by producing tools to enable charities to measure and demonstrate their results so that they can attract money based on their success

Read more about NPC here

2. When was NPC set up and by whom?

NPC was set up as a registered charity in 2002. We were established by a group of donors from the City who found there was nowhere to go for independent philanthropy advice. They created NPC to research the human welfare landscape and analyse charities. In this way they believed donors would be directed to the most effective charities and inspired to provide the support they need.

Harvey McGrath is a trustee of NPC and non-executive Director of Man Group plc. He says ‘I see my donations to charities as an investment in society. I helped set up New Philanthropy Capital because I knew there were other donors who thought like me. They too are passionate about generating a social return with their donations and want support to make this happen.’

3. How does NPC help donors?

NPC helps donors in two main ways:

• our independent guides for donors are freely available on our website and provide the analysis donors need to decide where to focus their giving and which charities to support.
• our tailored advice helps donors at every step along on their ‘philanthropy journey’. We have a broad range of services for individual donors and their families, businesses, professional advisors and foundations. We can help with everything from selecting and supporting charities to reviewing your giving.
  

4. How does NPC help charities?

Helping charities to get the funds needed to improve people’s lives is at the heart of our mission. We help charities in a number of ways:

• Our advice to donors channels funds to effective charities. We're currently directing around £1m each month to charities in this way.
  
  For example, we moved around £2.5 million to charities helping troubled children to continue in education and create a better future for themselves since our truancy and exclusion report, School’s out?, was launched in September 2005.
  
  
• Our website and publications raise the profile of charities. This helps effective charities to raise funds for their work.
  
  For example in April 2007, an anti-bullying charity Kidscape received a donation of £10,000 directly from a donor who downloaded our charity recommendation from our website.
  
  
• We help to ‘fix the plumbing’ in the charity sector, researching and proposing changes to ineffective funding processes that serve neither charities nor funders.
  
  For example, our project, Turning the tables, is piloting a new reporting approach for charities.
  
  
• We develop tools to help charities to measure their impact and articulate this to donors.
  
  For example, Full Cost Recovery, published by acevo and New Philanthropy Capital, provides step-by-step advice to charities on calculating the full costs of a project or service.

5. How is NPC funded?

We have three main funding streams:

• Funding for our start up and growth comes from a number of private donors, including some of our trustees. If you would like to donate, please click below:
• Our reports are funded by individuals, foundations and corporates. These include: Big Lottery Fund, Comic Relief and Deutsche Bank.
• Client fees cover the cost of bespoke advice. As we are a charity we do not make a profit from our fees.

6. What areas does NPC research cover?

NPC’s research focuses on human welfare issues, guiding donors on how best to support charities that are tackling problems in three main areas: health, education and communities in the UK. While our research is focused largely on the UK, we are looking to expand and are in the process of setting up a pilot project to identify effective charities in India. Also, we are also hoping to create a team of environmental analysts to work alongside our social welfare analysts, following the publication of Green philanthropy in late 2007.

7. How can I get my charity on NPC's radar screen?

We find out about charities through a combination of desk research, referrals from experts and charities, and via Charity Commission and Guidestar entries. So, the best way to get on our radar screen is to ensure that your entries on the Charity Commission and Guidestar are up to date.

On the whole, we don’t analyse charities individually. Instead, the charities we recommend have been identified and analysed as part of our research process on a particular topic or sector (eg, autism or literacy).

Please do not send hard copies of brochures or annual reports as we do not have the capacity to store this information. However, you may register your organisation's details on our database - as long as you can provide some evidence of your organisation's results.

8. How can I find out about working for NPC?

Please take a look at our recruitment pages to find out what its like to work here, look at current opportunities and see about sending a speculative enquiry.

9. Do you rank charities in a league table?

No we don't, but we do highlight examples of great charities that are making a positive impact. Why? Because it isn't useful to compare charities working in very different fields (eg, cancer research or mental health) and nor is it feasible to analyse all of the 170,000 or so charities in the UK.

Our charity recommendations are chosen on the basis of in-depth research into the sector in which they operate and detailed analysis of their results. When it comes to analysing charities, we're much more interested in their results than in their brand or fundraising capacity. What we care about is the impact a charity is having on people's lives. Find out more: about our methodology for analysing charities and view our charity recommendations.

10. Should people give a certain amount to charity?

No, we’re not prescriptive about the money that donors give away. Our role is to provide advice to donors to help make their giving more effective and rewarding. We have found that, when donors discover the impact that their money can have, they are inspired to give even more. Have a look at these case studies of donors we have helped.

11. How can you judge charities by the same criteria as the financial sector?

Analysing charities is different to analysing businesses and it can be challenging. However, not all charities are perfect and some are more effective than others. So we think its important to try to gauge how effective they are. We believe that by changing the way donors think about giving money to charities and changing the way the charities themselves think about their effectiveness, we can help them to have a greater impact and improve the lives of millions of people. Our methodology for analysing charities is public and we welcome feedback the criteria we use.

12. What do you think about the state of giving in the UK?

The most significant change in the past few years has been the emergence of a growing group of high net worth individuals, who are getting serious about their philanthropy. They are more businesslike about their giving and want to give their earned wealth away in their lifetime.

In general however, giving habits in the UK have not changed significantly over the last decade. The overall level of donations is flat and the number of people who donate regularly − around 54% of the UK population − has declined slightly in 2006/7. Find out more by seeing our Giving trends pages, for facts and figures on the state of the charity sector, donors and high net worth donors in the UK.

13. Do you have any other questions for us?

If so, please send the question to us here. If you are a journalist, please visit our media pages.