W: www.nfpSynergy.net T: 020 7426 8888 E: insight@nfpsynergy.net

Charity Parliamentary Monitor

What is it? For those charities who invest time and money in campaigning with the aim of influencing Parliament, finding out what MPs and Lords think of you is essential – especially in an economic climate where every penny of your budget counts. The Charity Parliamentary Monitor is a cost-effective way to find out how your organisation is viewed at Westminster. Once you know where you stand, you are in a much better position to evaluate whether your campaigns are working, and to make improvements with the help of your target audience – the MPs and Lords themselves.

How does it work? We survey MPs four times a year and the Lords once every year. Paper questionnaires are sent to both audiences, with guaranteed sample sizes of 150 MPs and 100 Peers. The samples are representative of the composition of the parliament in terms of political party and region. The surveys normally happen in January, April, July and November. The Lords survey happens in the summer. The dates for 2010 are slightly different because of the General Election. Charities and not-for-profits can buy an annual subscription to join and contribute to the syndicate and receive the results of our surveys. We provide you with ongoing tracking and performance benchmarks to help you understand how effective your organisation is at working with MPs and Peers.

What are the benefits of subscribing?

Cost-effectiveness: By creating a syndicate of organisations CPM allows you to share the costs and results of the surveys with other charities. We estimate that asking the same range of questions outside of a syndicate would cost more than four times our annual subscription fee. Evaluating campaigns: Charities invest a lot of energy communicating with MPs about their campaigns. Our regular poll provides an excellent way of understanding which messages and campaigns have made an impact, and tracking how many MPs and Lords support them and what actions they have taken.

Benchmarking: Over 20 charities participate in CPM and each member can include a comparator organisation on the surveys, allowing you to compare your performance to that of other charities.

What topics does it cover? We ask MPs and Lords:

Which charities have impressed them in the last six months? How do they come into contact with charities and voluntary organisations, and which of these methods are most effective?

Which charities have they had direct contact with? Which charity campaigns do they recall in the last six months? Which campaigns have they taken action on, and how have they done this? How effective do they think specific charities are? We also ask them to provide verbatim comments on your charity – providing invaluable insight into how your organisation is viewed at Westminster.

How much does it cost?

Price

For charities with an income over £10m £6,500

For charities who subscribe to CAM* £5,500

For charities who subscribe to CMM or YEM** £6,000

For charities with an income under £10m £5,000

* Our Charity Awareness Monitor

** Our Charity Media Monitor and Youth Engagement Monitor

As part of your subscription you will receive:

PowerPoint report and data tables four times a year Additional analysis of data by variables (e.g. party, region) as requested Ability to compare your organisation with others of your choice Opportunity to track campaigns, initiatives and reports of your choice In-house presentation as requested Invitations to regular nfpSynergy Insight events

Who currently subscribes to the research? Charities currently signed up to the research include organisations such as:

What a CPM client says about us:

If a week is a long time in politics, then a whole year can seem an age.

Anything can happen - to your campaigns, your impact, influence and

reputation and, ultimately, your organisation's leverage.

With the help of nfpSynergy's quarterly Charity Parliamentary Monitor,

you can keep a handle on it. Its unique offering enables you not only to

track all of the above, but to do so relative to others in a highly

competitive marketplace. In a more finely balanced parliament, such

insight can only be helpful as we all seek to influence a new

government's policies and effect change for the benefit of our

stakeholders. I'd recommend it to anyone.”

Kevin Shinkwin, Head of Public Affairs, The Royal British Legion

Sample results One of the most useful questions from CPM for benchmarking asks MPs which charities

have most impressed them over the last 6 months. Here are the results from our most

recent survey:

Charities directly impressing MPs in the last 6 months Top 12 charities

Base: 150 MPs, Jan/Feb 10Source: CPM, nfpSynergy

13%

3%

5%

5%

5%

5%

6%

6%

7%

7%

9%

10%

11%

18%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

None impressed me

Not stated

Oxfam

British Heart Foundation

Amnesty International

RNIB

Guide Dogs

CAFOD

Age UK / Age Concern / Help the Aged

Help for Heroes

Macmillan Cancer Support

Cancer Research UK

National Autistic Society

Royal British Legion

Jan/Feb-10

Which charities have directly impressed you in the last 6 months ?

We also ask MPs to give guidance on the most influential ways of contacting them. The way we ask this question means that participating charities can compare their own

methods for contacting MPs with the most influential ways – a useful benchmark for developing your charity’s campaigning work.

2%

7%

1%

9%

16%

18%

18%

24%

27%

34%

36%

43%

50%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Don’t know

Not stated

No contact

House business

Reports and publications

At party conferences

Media coverage

Correspondence at Westminster

Correspondence in my constituency

Events at Westminster

Constituency business

Events in my constituency

Face-to- face meetings at Westminster

The most influential ways to contact MPs

“How do you come into contact with charities, public bodies or government agencies?Please tick the three most frequent ways and the three most influential ways (in helping you form an opinion of them) in which you come into contact with these”

Base: 150 MPs, Jan/Feb 2010Source: Charity Parliamentary Monitor, nfpSynergy

Our expertise in parliamentary matters We have 10 years experience monitoring what politicians think of charities and the not-for-profit sector. A number of our tracking research products meet the needs of public affairs teams and we work with organisations as diverse as Amnesty International, the RSPCA and the General Medical Council. Attitudes & Awareness Parliamentary Monitor: this regular survey is aimed at public bodies and government agencies, for which MPs and Peers are key stakeholder groups. We monitor how effective politicians consider organisations like the General Medical Council and the Audit Commission to be and provide advice on the most influential ways of contacting MPs. Celtic Parliamentary Monitor: for many organisations Members of the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland Assembly are key audiences. Our annual surveys allow charities to benchmark their performance against other organisations campaigning in the devolved assemblies. In addition to our tracking research we regularly conduct bespoke research for individual charities and not-for-profit organisations, including research specifically designed for policy teams. For example, we have conducted a policy and communication review of Save the

Children’s work in the UK, as well as primary research about the experiences of families living in poverty in the UK to inform the charity’s policy recommendations.

How to find out more Please get in touch with Gemma Tracey if you have any questions or would like to see a sample questionnaire: gemma.tracey@nfpsynergy.net or 020 7426 8888.

About nfpSynergy

nfpSynergy is a research consultancy dedicated to the not for profit sector. Our aim is to provide ideas, insights and information that help not for profit organisations thrive. Our clients include charities, housing associations and public bodies who use our research to inform their strategies and planning.

From our origins in syndicated tracking research on public attitudes for non-profit clients, nfpSynergy has now grown its portfolio of bespoke research to become one of the leaders in non-profit sector market research. Our size and our story nfpSynergy was created in 2002 as a division of the Future Foundation. Two years later the founder Joe Saxton led a management buy-out. In 2009 we had an annual turnover of £1.6 million and around 20 staff members including a variable number of interns. We own our own premises in Spitalfields. Tracking research We run several tracking surveys that monitor the attitudes and opinions of key stakeholder groups relating to the not for profit sector. The research is done for a syndicate of participating charities who share costs and data. The aim of our tracking studies is to provide lower cost, more frequent and more detailed research than any organisation could achieve by acting on its own. The tracking research includes:

� Charity Awareness Monitor (CAM) - the general public � Charity Parliamentary Monitor (CPM) - MPs and Lords � Youth Engagement Monitor (YEM) – young people

In addition, we have developed syndicated tracking studies on journalists, local authorities, health professionals, the general public in Scotland, and specific regional areas of England. Projects and consultancy Each year we carry out around 50 projects for non-profit clients that include surveying over 100,000 people from the general public, supporters and staff. We also carry out over 50 focus groups a year on average and interview over 100 people in more depth either face to face or over the phone. We are a full member of the Market Research Society, on the COI list of approved qualitative and desk research agencies and on the British Council’s fundraising agency roster. Our projects and consultancy work covers a vast range: from helping the British Council to develop an income-generation strategy to

investigating apprenticeships in the NHS to researching the barriers and opportunities for young people in seeking help. In particular we specialise in stakeholder audits and in supporters and client/user satisfaction studies. We also have a particularly strong record of work in the health and young people sectors. Our clients include There are over 75 organisations we have worked with in the last two years alone. These include: the Audit Commission, The Big Lottery Fund, Ofsted, the Scout Association, Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, NSPCC, Save the Children, Oxfam, Moorfields Eye Hospital, Skills for Health, the British Council, Drinkaware, National Housing Federation, UNICEF-UK and WWF-UK. Our research standards and data protection: As full members of the Market Research Society, we comply with their code of conduct at all times, ensuring that research is carried

out in a professional and ethical manner.