Our research
Charities don't have one audience - they have many. Supporters, beneficiaries, volunteers, local groups, professional stakeholders, and the wider public all relate to your organisation in fundamentally different ways. Understanding those distinct perspectives, and how they overlap, is at the heart of effective strategy.
nfpResearch's tracking products give you a robust benchmark for how key audiences view your organisation over time. But when you need to go deeper, our tailored segmentation work helps you understand not just who your audiences are, but what drives them - their attitudes, motivations, values, and the way they connect with your cause.
Unlike commercial segmentation, which typically revolves around spending power and consumer behaviour, charity segmentation has to balance competing priorities: the people you exist to serve, the people who fund your work, and the people who give their time and energy to deliver it. We design research that reflects that complexity, combining attitudinal and behavioural data to build segments that are genuinely useful across your organisation - not just for fundraising, but for communications, service design, and stakeholder engagement.
Most importantly, we only deliver segmentations you can actually use. Not abstract typologies that gather dust, but practical frameworks your teams can apply straight away.
Get in touch to talk about what audience and segmentation research could look like for your organisation.
Audiences and Segmentation
nfpPublic is the sector's most established brand tracking survey, giving charities an independent, ongoing picture of how the public sees them. We track awareness, familiarity, trust, willingness to donate and more benchmarked against other organisations so you can see where you stand.
In the UK, nfpPublic runs monthly, giving subscribers regular, up-to-date data on how public perceptions are shifting. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland we run dedicated annual surveys. In Canada, Ireland and the USA we survey biannually — so if you work across borders, we can help you understand how your brand lands in different markets.
Every subscription includes bespoke questions and the ability to track different audience segments, so you get tailored insight alongside the benchmarking data as standard. If you need to go further (additional questions, more granular audiences) we can build that in too.
Charities use nfpPublic to inform their communications, measure the impact of campaigns, track reputation over time and make the case for investment in brand-building. Whether you're a household name checking the trends or a growing organisation trying to understand your public profile, the data is designed to be practical and actionable.
For organisations that need something entirely different — a standalone tracking programme built from scratch around your brief — we also offer fully bespoke brand tracking.
To find out more about nfpPublic or to discuss what would work for your organisation, get in touch.
Brand Tracking
Minority communities are harder to reach in sufficient numbers through standard research approaches. That means their perspectives are often underrepresented in the evidence base charities rely on to make decisions. That gap limits your data but it also shapes your decisions.
nfpResearch is committed to closing that gap. We've built a growing body of research exploring how minority ethnic and LGBTQ+ audiences engage with charities — as donors, volunteers, beneficiaries and trustees. We're continuing to extend that work to other communities historically underrepresented in sector research.
This isn't a side project for us. It's built into how we design research, who we reach, and how we analyse what we hear. We can help your organisation do the same — not just by listening to a broader range of voices, but by embedding those perspectives into your strategy and decision-making.
Contact us today to explore the programmes and projects that will work for you.
Under-heard voices
