20 years of maximising social impact
As of this year, NPC has been helping the charity sector and philanthropists to maximise social impact in the lives of the people they serve for 20 years. Through our think tank and consultancy work, we will continue to provide a challenging and independent voice that inspires bold initiatives and much needed innovation in the social sector.
To mark this landmark anniversary, we have a host of upcoming events, blogs, interviews and thought pieces from the sector’s leading and upcoming figures. We will reflect on the key issues that have impacted the social sector over the past 20 years, as well as looking to the future, what needs to change and how NPC, with the help of partners around the world, is rising to the challenge. We’d love to hear what you think. Share your views on our work by completing our NPC survey.
NPC is a thought leader, yet at the same time focused on the practical side of the work, providing solid, hands-on guidance and support.
-Annual survey response
Support NPC’s 20th anniversary fund & double your gift
Through donations from our supporters, we are able to work for charities of all sizes, improving the conditions for impact for all. We have concrete plans to continue improving, influencing on behalf of, and innovating for a stronger, more resilient and progressive charity sector in the coming year. We are also determined to reach and support more charities and groups in need than ever before, including growing our library of free resources and providing free access to events and training opportunities wherever cost is a barrier. NPC’s 20th anniversary fund is now being launched to realise those ambitions.
A strong NPC has never been needed more, and crucial funding is required as we look to the future, developing the tools and resources needed for a brighter tomorrow, and to provide invaluable support to the social sector, improving circumstances for those who depend on it.
Our trustees help us in so many ways with their experience, energy, and perspectives. This year, given the launch of the 20th Anniversary fund, a number of them have decided as a one-off to match donations up to a total level of £200,000.
This marks the end of a transition from our original founder-funded model to generating our income through fundraising and earned income. We hope you will join us by supporting NPC’s 20th Anniversary fundraising efforts –including seeing your donation doubled!– as we enter this new decade and chapter in the journey to maximise social impact.
Support our 20th Anniversary
If you would like to support the 20th Anniversary fund to maximise social impact and ensure that NPC is able to continue improving, influencing and innovating on behalf of the entire social sector, please contact Elise Karam, our Head of Philanthropy for more information or click here to download a copy of our donation form.
Email Elise
Where next for social impact?
To mark our 20th birthday, we’ve been talking to leading figures and people doing things differently to ask: Where next for social impact?
In our collection of audio interviews and essays we are delighted to bring you some fantastic contributors, including:
- Alison Garnham, Chief Executive, Child Poverty Action Group – After Austerity, a pandemic – now the cost of living crisis
- Samuel Kasumu, former no10 adviser and founder of Inclusive Boards – How political should charities be?
- Jonathan Breckon, policy fellow at UCL’s Capabilities in Academic Policy Engagement and the director of Breckon Consulting Ltd – Where next for the impact and what works agenda?
- Javed Khan, former Chief Executive of Barnardo’s – Can small charities lead partnerships with big charities?
- Polly Neate, Chief Executive of Shelter – Can charities achieve social justice?
NPC’s milestones over the past 20 years
- New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) is founded by a group including Peter Wheeler, Gavyn Davis, Peter Sweatman and Harvey McGrath. Bernard Mercer is our first CEO.
- We set a goal to improve the efficient and effective use of resources for charitable purposes by evaluating the governance of particular charities, or a range of charities, and the impact of their activities.
- We become known for our landscape research and analysis of specific social issues. Among the first was Charity begins at home, a guide for donors on how to combat violence against women.
- We develop our charity analysis services and publish our first guide to what makes a good charity.
- We set out a vision for a world in which effective charities receive the resources they need to create maximum impact in improving lives. Charities delivering the best results are not always those with best access to money, and donors do not always know which charities are really making a difference.
- We produce a guide for donors for helping families with a disabled child, over half of whom live on the margins of poverty.
- Our monthly newsletter is launched, which today reaches over 20k subscribers.
- We examine the barriers refugees and asylum seekers face, in the system and in society, in Home truths.
- Our research leads to the establishment of the National Numeracy Trust and the Children and Young People’s mental health coalition. We also support the development of influential funders, including the Stone Family Foundation, Private Equity Foundation (now merged into Impetus-PEF) and Synchronicity Earth.
- We show donors how charities can prevent truancy. Truancy destroys children’s life chances and costs the UK economy £800m each year.
- Our analysis explores how charities are helping young people recover from mental health problems. We start a national conversation with coverage in over 100 publications.
- We investigate how changes in the criminal justice system affect the work of charities and how funders can create lasting change for individuals and communities.
- We launch our blog to spark discussion and facilitate knowledge sharing in our sector. We publish over 100 blogs a year, helping our audience to think differently and explore new ways of working.
- Our paper, Count me in: Improving numeracy in England, makes a big impact and is mentioned in Parliament.
- Our philanthropy work leads to the Philanthropy Advisors Forum, which later joins with others to become Philanthropy Impact.
- After many years of developing theories of change for charities and funders, we launch our first guide to creating your own theory of change.
- Dan Corry joins as NPC’s CEO, following Martin Brookes.
- We embark with others on Inspiring Impact, a 10-year programme to create a culture of continuous improvement among voluntary organisations.
- The Social Impact Analysts Association (SIAA) is founded dedicated to helping professional with social impact analysis.
- Our findings increase understanding of the issues that can lead to child abuse and show donors how they can help stop it – NSPCC act on our evidence.
- We offer the first representative picture of the charity sector’s response to the challenge of impact measurement.
- Using economic analysis, we measure the value of sport in tackling youth crime.
- We begin our events series which has explores everything from from practical seminars to topical discussions.
- We are instrumental in the establishment of the Ministry of Justice’s Justice Data Lab, which received the Royal Statistical Society award for ‘Statistical Excellence in Official Statistics’.
- We set up the independent Commission on the Voluntary Sector & Ageing to encourage charities and funders of all types, not just those working with older people, to consider how the ageing population will affect them.
- Our Supporters’ Circle launches as a network of philanthropists to come together to support our work transforming the charity sector.
- We highlight ten exciting innovations from around the world which are helping to grow philanthropy by ensuring resources are used most effectively.
- We lead the way in driving productivity and innovation in the charity sector with Dan Corry’s first lecture for the RSA.
- NPC develops as a Think Tank with the introduction of a Head of Policy to work on influencing government.
- We publish our first guide on system change, what it is and how to do it. It remains one of our most popular guides.
- Our popular Leading Impact event series begin.
- We host our first NPC Ignites conference bringing together the brightest minds in the charity sector.
- We launch our state of the sector programme. A rigorous analysis of sector leader opinion, and how it changes over time. We repeat the survey in 2019.
- We start a conversation on how the philanthropy sector can improve – leading to more and better philanthropic giving.
- We set out our manifesto for what it looks like to use evidence effectively and suggest ways to achieve it.
- Our report, Charities taking charge: Transforming to face a changing world looks at how charities should always be looking proactively for ways to improve, even transform, their work and increase their impact.
- Our Walking the talk research explores what’s holding the charity sector back from improving diversity, and Make it count argues why impact maters in user involvement.
- Our Impact Risk Classification provides a light-touch practical framework for assessing an organisations approach to impact.
- We launch the learning report, ‘Tapping the potential’ for The Richmond Group of Charities. It captures learning from the initial stages of Doing the Right Thing—an approach to building meaningful collaboration between the voluntary sector and public bodies. We begin as the learning partner on the Youth Investment Fund (YIF)—a joint investment scheme between DCMS and The National Lottery Fund to provide new opportunities for young people to get involved in their communities.
- My Best life is a collaborative, open project seeking digital solutions to the challenges facing young people. It uses NPC’s new working in the open space NPC Labs to share it’s learning and to ask questions.
- We publish the first learning and insight paper into the Government’s Youth Investment Fund (YIF).
- We see the Covid-19 pandemic as a defining moment for charities to shape the sector. We launch a range of resources and toolkits for charities, funders and philanthropists, including a data dashboard showing places in the UK most affected by Covid-19.
- We appoint our first US director.
- We spark debate by asking, Where are England’s charities? And are they in the right places?
- A rebalancing act: how funders can address power dynamics provides practical guidance on what funders should focus on.
- We launch our initiative to find out how Covid-19 has changed charities and funders, what made them more impactful, and how they can continue.
- We begin tracking the government’s flagship Levelling Up policy and where the funding is going.
- First launched at the start of the pandemic to help charities understand the needs of communities around the UK. Our databank is updated to allow the user to produce their own tailored reports.
- We celebrate #20yearsofNPC.
- Influencing: What role can charities play to partner in key government policies?
- Innovating: How might innovation in technologies, tools and approaches help tackle and embrace tomorrow’s problems?
- Improving: Provide the tools and resources to enable charities and funders to flourish.
On 24 March we kicked off our 20th anniversary with an online event. Danielle Walker Palmour, founding Director of Friends Provident Foundation and former NPC trustee chatted to Dan Corry, NPC’s CEO and current NPC trustees Fran Perrin and Albert Tucker about the journey that NPC has taken from the early days to the present day. The highs and lows and the ambitions for NPC as it moves into its third decade against the backdrop of rising social and racial inequalities, the environmental and ongoing Covid-19 crises and the conflict in Europe. Catch up on the event below:
