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The voice of Scotland’s vibrant voluntary sector

Published by Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

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Revealed: the country’s most valuable charity brands

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CRUK is followed by the British Heart Foundation (£1.3bn), the Salvation Army (£985 million), Macmillan (£910m) and British Red Cross (£767m)

Cancer Research (CRUK) is the UK’s most valuable charity brand - worth £2.3 billion.

A new study shows which charity identities are worth most, in terms of revenue they pull in.

CRUK is followed by the British Heart Foundation (£1.3bn), the Salvation Army (£985 million), Macmillan (£910m) and British Red Cross (£767m).

Research specialists Morar HPI have compiled its first ever UK top 100, focusing on large charities which have a significant reliance on public fundraising.

There are no exclusively Scottish charities in the list, reflecting the huge disparity in scale between the Scottish sector and the rest of the UK.

A major finding is that the top 100 brands have a combined value of £20bn - but UK giving is consolidated in a very small number of mega brands as nearly half of the total value comes from the top 10.

For example, the 100th  brand, The National Autistic Society, has a brand value of less than 1% of Cancer Research UK at number one.

The new insights come at a time when charities are analysing fundraising strategy following public backlash and cutbacks in institutional giving.

Key findings from the accompanying report include a suggestion that some charities may have become too large at the expense of smaller organisations, crowing them out of the market.

It also shows that brand value equals sustainable income.

Report authors say that charities should embrace marketing and branding to attract more donors.

The authors question whether charities should consider investing in building mass-appeal brands to acquire supporters outside of the natural catchment of their cause or mission, moving beyond a small pool of potential supporters to the wider general public.

As well as looking at income, researchers tracked detailed general public sentiment from 65,000 responders a year towards 120 UK charities.

Julian Dailly, director at Morar HPI, said: “The league table reminds us that whether we like it or not, charity brands have a measurable value. The data shows how competitive the market for donations has become. The data shows charities of all sizes have can make a bigger impact on the world by building stronger, more resilient consumer brands.

Craig Linton, MD of Donor Voice, a fundraising consultancy, added: “A large number of charities still plan and operate without the benefit of solid data to underpin their planning and subsequent performance. Uniquely based on a combination of perception data and financial data, the new league will help to inform strategy for all charities, not just largest, but also smaller, nimbler charities that are open minded enough to read and apply the findings to their own work.”

You can download the full report here.