We have launched a new State of the Sector survey, in partnership with Devon County Council, as part of a wider project to understand the strengths and challenges of voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations across Devon, including Torbay and Plymouth.
Data from this survey, along with interviews and group discussions, will help us paint an authoritative picture of the VCSE sector in Devon, beyond what can be learned through already-published information. It will show the sector’s range and scope, and the contribution it makes to improving the lives of Devon residents, but also the challenges faced, for example in achieving sustainable funding, or in recruiting and retaining staff and volunteers. We plan to build a model that can be revisited every couple of years, to show changes and trends.
The survey will be open until Friday 4th October, and we encourage as many registered charities and social enterprises as possible to complete it, so that the dataset is as representative as possible.
We expect the survey to take between 20 and 25 minutes to complete. All information is anonymous and cannot be traced to individual organisations.
We are looking to build a broad-brush picture of the sector as a whole. As such, we acknowledge that there are parts of the survey which may feel reductive or restrictive, or that don’t quite apply to your organisation. The data is still of value, so please approach this as a ‘best fit’ exercise, and if a question really doesn’t feel relevant to your organisation, you can always leave it blank.
Insights from the survey data, and the wider project, will be published in the winter, and the full datasets will be made available for others to use for their own analysis. Please sign up to Devon Community Foundation’s newsletter for updates on the project.
We are planning to develop a mechanism for understanding the important contribution of unregistered and unincorporated groups soon.
We hope the information and learning generated through this project will be useful throughout the sector, to commissioners, funders and other public sector partners, as well as informing our own grantmaking.
