Understanding faith-based charities

NPC’s programme of research on faith-based charities aims to increase understanding of faith-based charities across the sector.

Our first step was to identify the population of faith-based charities. Though a variety of classifications exist, we realised that they all underrepresented the true numbers. Over a number of months we developed our own approach—combining existing classifications with text analysis to create a more comprehensive dataset.

We believe this is the most advanced and up-to-date analysis of faith-based charities in Great Britain. It shows that 27% of charities in Great Britain are faith-based.

This paper presents only initial findings. The dataset provides the possibility for further analysis, for instance examining charitable income by faith, geographical distribution of faith-based charities, comparisons of faith-based charities against population size, and trends in the size and shape of the faith-based sector. We plan to undertake this further analysis, which will be complemented by a survey with both faith-based and non faith-based charities.

Follow #FaithCharities on Twitter for updates and please get in touch with Rachel Wharton if you have any questions or would like to be involved in our programme of work.