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nfpSynergy researched and wrote a report with Horwath Consulting called 'Virtual Promise - Are charities keeping up with the Internet revolution?' It was published as a special supplement for Third Sector magazine and was sent out in February 2001. The report is the most comprehensive study yet published in the UK, on the ways in which not for profit organisations are using the Internet.

A charity's image is crucial to the success of every part of the organisation. Unlike companies who have products and services to sell, charities are often selling an idea or a cause. As such, the image of the charity is crucial to its financial success. People often buy from companies whose products they like even if they are indifferent to the company as a whole. How many people give to a charity that they are indifferent to?

The future is an uncertain place when you are working with a phenomenon that is as complex and changeable as homelessness. This briefing aims to help homeless agencies to understand the significance of the key social, political and economic forces that affect their work so that they may be better prepared for what is to come.

Is the public falling out of love with charities? Those operating within the voluntary sector may feel concerned that today's public are growing increasingly sceptical about charitable activity. As a result, there is much discussion about the need for tighter regulation of charities in order to inspire greater public trust and confidence and therefore future financial success. In order to investigate whether public trust in charities is in fact waning, nfpSynergy has carried out research over the past year based on three different waves of research (using different methodologies and taking place at different times). This paper is a presentation and analysis of those results.

A research report on charities' attitudes to payroll giving and its marketing. Questionnaires were sent to over 600 charities ranked by income. 136 completed questionnaires were received.

"The power of dreams, the burden of leadership" is a report disseminating the "Britain's Most Admired Charity" survey data. It concentrates on a number of important issues for any charity that wants to increase its effectiveness including: the key attributes of successful charities; skill and expertise shortages; government initiatives that have impacted (or not impacted) the sector; and the key challenges for effective charities and charity leaders.

A research report on charities' attitudes to Gift Aid and its marketing which shows charities are not making enough of Gift Aid. Questionnaires were sent to over 600 charities ranked by income. 136 completed questionnaires were received.

A representative sample of the UK population was asked to think about charities and the work that they do and pick up to five issues from a prompted list that they found 'off-putting, worrying or irritating'. The biggest single response was 'concerns about the amount that goes to the charity' - 68% and only 5% of respondents said nothing irritated or concerned them.

A research report on the use of share giving by charities, a policy introduced in April 2000 which allows individuals to give shares and offset the value of the shares sold against their income tax liability and reduce their capital gains tax liability. This report is the result of research into the ways that charities are using share giving (alongside Gift Aid, covered in a separate report) and their success in promoting it. A questionnaire was mailed to 500 charities in October 2003, yielding 139 respondents.

This report is a culmination of four years of research into UK charities' use of the internet since the initial Virtual Promise report in 2000. The report is separated into three main sections. The first features the results from a 2003 survey of charities. The second section consists of a detailed write-up of a set of interviews conducted in mid 2004 amongst charity internet managers. In the third section we sum up the findings of this year's results, offer up some recommendations on areas of improvement for charities, outline the advantageous position in which the third sector could find itself and make some predictions for the future.