Northern Rock Foundation

Third Sector Trends Study

Northern Rock Foundation’s Third Sector Trends Study is a ground-breaking research programme on the scale, dynamics and needs of the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector in North East England and Cumbria.

The Study is for the first time providing robust, comprehensive and freely available local and regional evidence to describe the sector. The Study will help sector organisations, infrastructure agencies, funders and government bodies who all need better information about the characteristics and activities of the third sector groups. Better data will help to improve funding negotiations, policy development and service planning. The Study will also assist the development of better methods for voluntary sector research nationally.

The Foundation brought together an expert research team for the Study. Professor John Mohan of the University of Southampton led the quantitative work, alongside NCVO, Guidestar UK and Cumbria and Newcastle CVS. Professor Tony Chapman and Professor Fred Robinson of Durham University are running the qualitative strand.

Two summary posters are available to download below.

All published reports are available to download from the Third Sector Trends publications page.