Service delivery and service users

The value of a charity must be at least partly measured by the extent to which it is meeting the needs of its beneficiaries or service users. Research of this kind can help to provide evidence of effectiveness, to inform future planning and service development and can provide highly useful for communications purposes.

Key case study: Elizabeth Finn Care - client group research

Elizabeth Finn Care (EFC) is primarily a grant-giving organisation that provides financial (and indirectly emotional) support for a subset of the population living below the poverty line. EFC was initially founded in 1897 as the Distressed Gentlefolk Aid Association (D.G.A.A.), a charity to help professional people (and their families) who had fallen on hard times.

EFC wished to explore the hypothesis that this definition of their client group might be acting as a barrier to potential beneficiaries identifying themselves as such and might restrict fundraising. This hypothesis was based on the belief that the varied changes in the nature of employment in the modern British economy may have resulted in less public clarity of what is or is not a professional job. In other words, it is reasonable to suggest that in Victorian times (when the eligibility criteria were established) it was easier to identify what was or was not a professional occupation and that this distinction was clearer than it is today.

EFC commissioned nfpSynergy to conduct a combined qualitative and quantitative study of public understanding of professional occupations. This study included an original survey of a nationally representative sample and focus groups among potential beneficiaries of the EFC (living below the poverty line) and potential donors to the organisation (social grades ABC1). Analysis of the results of this research were presented to EFC and are being used to inform the organisation’s discussions around the means of increasing the number of beneficiaries EFC helps.