Overview
The FSI (Foundation for Social Improvement) is a registered charity that announced its plan to close in Spring 2023. FSI has supported the UK’s vibrant small charity sector through the delivery of free advice and heavily subsidised training in strategy, governance, fundraising and impact. With over 7,500 small charities members, they founded the Small Charity Week which is held in June each year.
Read hear about infrastructure support for small charities following this announcement.
The Small Charity Index facilitates a stronger voice for charities, providing a quarterly ‘pulse of the sector’ report.
Since 2013 the FSI has been gathering and presenting statistical evidence on the condition of the small charity sector, by consulting its members through quarterly Index surveys. This evidence is intended both to strengthen the voice of small charities in a public policy context, and to offer an informative snapshot of the changing environment facing these organisations. The charities consulted throughout the Index project deliver a diverse range of services across the UK, but along with around 90% of organisations registered with the Charity Commission, all have an annual income below £1.5 million.
The FSI has always held that the wellbeing of society as a whole is dependent on the efforts of these smaller organisations and, through this ongoing commitment to data collection, they hope to contribute towards the development of a civil framework that better supports the furtherance of the benevolent aims of these charities.
Having collected quarterly data from UK-based small charities from 2013 to the present, in 2019 the FSI has been in a position to consider the overarching trends in what has been reported by respondents during this period revealing consistent and observable characteristics of the small charity sector, as well as some substantial, and occasionally quite startling, changes over time.
Further reading
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