Charities face a challenging political environment in Northern Ireland today. As a research consultancy with a specialism in political monitoring, we wanted to sponsor the ‘Leading on Political Impact’ award at the C03 Leadership Conference this year.

As the general election gets closer, sector bodies are publishing their manifestos and buffing up their policy requests. Sector leaders jostle to have the minister for Civil Society on speed dial and speaking at their events.

A huge amount of time and energy have gone into the Lobbying Act.

I clicked onto Third Sector’s website last week to read the charity news. It’s a sad sign of the times that two of the first three stories were damaging for the sector.

Since starting as a Research Assistant at nfpSynergy a little over three months ago, I've been surprised at how shallow my understanding of the charity sector was. Before coming here I volunteered as a researcher at a very small NGO.

Lots of charities condemn government spending cuts. The list of things that charities say are threatened by spending cuts is almost endless and in many cases they are right.