The Charity Resilience Calculator was developed using survey responses from nearly 700 charity leaders from across the UK. The research was conducted in partnership with Acevo, Acosvo, and Co3. Interviews were conducted between 14th May and 16th June 2024, and topics ranged from executive pay to how charities were coping
with increased demand. The survey included c. 80 questions, 21 of which related to six characteristics of charity resilience that CAF had previously identified:
1. Purpose
2. Financially and Operationally Fit
3. Evidencing Impact
4. People and Culture
5. Well Networked
6. External Awareness
Most of our questions presented a Likert scale to respondents. For the purposes of standardising answers across differing Likert
scales, as well as some numeric scales, points were attributed to each potential question answer, ranging from zero to 10. For example, to the question “Overall, how collaborative are different teams with each other?” we attributed the
following scoring to each possible response: very (10), fairly (7.5), somewhat (5), not very (2.5) and not at all (0).
This points attribution scheme allowed us to create the algorithm that underpins the calculator tool.
With these results we then conducted a principal
components analysis to reduce our larger set of resilience related variables into a smaller set. This was followed by a correlations analysis to identify which questions were most strongly correlated with the total resilience score. This process allowed
us to reduce the 21 initial resilience questions down to 13 ‘golden questions’, to which we assigned equally weighted points, and which would go on to form the basis of the calculator tool. To make the output more intuitive, one further
step was taken to recalculate the results of the 13 questions as a score out of 100, rather than 130.
At this point we were able to calculate each charity’s total score out of 100, to rank those scores, and to divide them into four
quartiles from lowest to highest resilience. This gave each charity in the sample a relative resilience score (i.e., fourth quartile=lowest resilience, third quartile=low-mid resilience, second quartile=mid-high resilience, first quartile=highest
resilience).
In parallel to our quantitative analysis, we also conducted 15 qualitative interviews with charity leaders who had completed the survey. Over August and September 2024, we spoke to 5 low-resilience and 10 high-resilience charities of a mix of sizes, and we explored the following themes:
- Charities’ awareness of their resilience (or lack
of resilience).
- Best practice at organisations identified as having a high level of resilience, that could be replicated by other charities.
- Pain points to inform the quantitative data and better understand common or specific struggles in the sector.
