Charity Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) Assessment for NCVO

Sign up here to access our free online ESG survey and reporting tool for charities and social enterprises.

Submissions must be completed by Midday on Wednesday 6th November 2024 in order for your results to be included in the 1st edition of sector analysis and for comparison results to be available for your organisation.

Would your organisation benefit from an increased understanding of ESG in a charity and not-for-profit context?

A 2022 report from the Charity Commission found that, while “Trust in charities remains higher than most other parts of society”, it has still fallen across the board. The need for charities to maintain trust and meet greater scrutiny from donors and stakeholders is only going to increase, and this tool can help and support organisations to report more effectively.

The tool has been co-developed by, and for the sector with input from 10 early adopting charities. It is specifically designed to enable charities and not-for-profits to analyse and reflect on their workforce practices, social impact, environmental footprint and governance in a charity-sector context.

On 26^th September 2024, Eastside People launched this innovative, free on-line tool that will enable charities and not-for-profit organisations to analyse and report on their organisation’s maturity and progress on ESG.

Participating organisations will receive:

• A confidential report with benchmark data
• Examples of good practice from other charities/not-for-profits
• Tools and resources
• A learning opportunity to participate in, and receive data trends from across the whole cohort of participating organisations
• Acknowledgment of your commitment to good governance which can be used for communication and donor management purposes.

Information for Senior Leadership Teams and Boards about the Eastside People ESG Assessment Tool:

1. The tool is completely free of charge to use
2. It has been designed for all sizes of charities and not-for-profits from small grassroots, to medium sized and national footprint organisations
3. We expect it will require 1-2 hours to complete depending on the level of disclosure and evidence you choose to provide
4. Survey users will be able to download the set of questions and share these with colleagues to make it easier to collate information
5. Collecting data for input and completing the survey alongside colleagues will give you a fantastic opportunity to explore issues of ESG as they impact your organisation
6. After the survey has closed (at midday on Wednesday 6th November 2024), you will receive a customised report showing how your responses compare to the sector as a whole
7. This report will be confidential to your organisation. It is first and foremost a development tool for you and your Board. It’s at your discretion whether you report your findings and share these with donors
8. We will also provide some tools and resources including highlighting organisations which are excelling in ESG, so that you can gain insight about how to improve and make progress
9. Trends emerging from the research will be collated once a year into a full, publicly available report
10. This will be an annual recurring survey so that you’ll have the opportunity to complete it annually to assess what progress you have made.

If you would like to learn more about ESG in a charity and social enterprise context, our CEO Richard Litchfield’s ‘Introduction to ESG’ blog helps make the case why charities and social enterprises should care about ESG and outlines reasons why its principles should be embraced to:

• Strengthen organisational development
• Improve governance
• Build trust with funders, employees, volunteers, donors and the wider public.