Majority of MPs wary of charities ‘being political’, journalists more neutralMore than half (58%) of the public agreed ‘charities should be able to campaign to change laws and government policies relevant to their work’, while only 10% disagreedJust 4% said that a charity’s campaigning to change the law put them off donating, compared with 62% who would be put off by ‘too little money going to the cause’When we asked 157 MPs about what it means to them for a charity to ‘be political’, 78% of Conservative MPs said it was a negative thing2

Volunteering at Christmas has real potential for growth, new research suggestsMore than a quarter of people (28%) plan to volunteer over the Christmas period this year (slide 2)Charities are set to be the biggest recipients of Christmas volunteering time (12%), ahead of Churches and community organisations (both 9%) (slide 2)The most popular reason for volunteering is existing volunteers carrying on over Christmas, but only a third of people said this (36%) (slide 3)Other major motivations included a third of people (32%) who feel Christ

More than half of people now concerned about high staff salaries and are unclear on how donations are spentPeople’s most common reason for not giving to charity is “too little money going to the cause” (62%) (slide 2)“Too much being spent on staff salaries” is now the second most common reason for not donating on 53%, up 6% from last year.

nfpSynergy data looks at five years of CEO salaries in the UK's 50 best-known charitiesCharity chief executives have recently found themselves under the spotlight in one area more than any other; their salaries. Plenty has been said about the public objecting to anyone at a charity earning over £100k a year, but we have been looking at how we got to this stage.

Over a quarter of UK adults say they have volunteered in the last three months"It’s particularly good that young people are finally becoming more involved in volunteering. Charities have to make sure the idea appeals to a variety of ages and isn’t just stereotyped as elderly people staffing charity shops and tombolas.

Veto on first class travel would build confidence in charity spending“What charities need to remember is that if London offices or £100k salaries are worthwhile, they need to scream and shout about why. The sector needs to talk about these issues now, not hope that nobody notices what they are doing.