Turning the tables in England: Putting English charities in control of reporting

Lucy Heady, Sarah Keen

September 2008

Good reporting benefits both charities and funders. But sometimes it can be overly burdensome and excessive. NPC heard of one funder demanding a charity send photocopies of every receipt for a whole project, even though the funder had provided only 5% of the total funding.

Turning the tables England, calls for charities to work with their funders to streamline reporting. One solution piloted in the report is for charities to design and produce their own off-the-shelf, standard reports for funders, containing the information that demonstrates they are a well-run organisation achieving impact.

This report was funded by The Office of the Third Sector and follows a report launched in April, called Turning the tables, which looked at improving the reporting process for Scottish charities.

• Click here to read a Q&A with Lucy Heady and Sarah Keen, the report authors.