This project tracks the impact of Covid-19 on charity sectors worldwide. It uses publicly available data on charity registrations (foundations) and de-registrations (dissolutions) from seven charity jurisdictions.
COVID-19 represents an existential threat to many charitable organisations, while simultaneously spurring new, large-scale forms of voluntary activity (Macmillan, 2020). Using comprehensive publicly available data from seven jurisdictions, we examine the impact of Covid-19 on the foundation and dissolution of charitable organisations. We employ an “excess events” analytical approach, comparing the numbers of foundations and dissolutions in 2020 to what we would expect based on the trends from previous years. We reflect on the differential impact of Covid-19 across jurisdictions, as well as attempt to decompose the empirical patterns into two distinct but related factors: the level of applications for foundation and dissolution by charities; and the capacity of the charity regulators to process these applications.
Macmillan, R. (2020). Somewhere over the rainbow – third sector research in and beyond coronavirus. Voluntary Sector Review, https://doi.org/10.1332/204080520X15898833964384.
There is a dedicated project website where the latest findings are published, as well as information on the methodology, data sources etc:
https://diarmuidm.github.io/charity-covid19
The project uses Python (a programming language) and Stata (a statistical software package) to collect, clean and analyse publicly available data about charities. These materials are free for you to use, adapt and share for your own purposes:
- syntax - programming and statistical software code for collecting, cleaning and analysing charity data for each jurisdiction.
- data - open data sets underpinning the analyses, as well as descriptions of the data contents and sources.
- conferences - academic conferences where this work has been submitted or presented.
- docs - the files associated with the project website; also where the graphs are stored.
This project is in its infancy and thus there are likely to be errors associated with some of the materials. We are working on this on a regular basis and any feedback or identification of errata are welcomed - see contact details below.
We are grateful to the following charity regulators for collecting and publishing high quality data on charitable organisations:
- Charity Commission for England and Wales
- Scottish Charity Regulator
- Charity Commission for Northern Ireland
- Charities Services (NZ)
- Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission
- Canada Revenue Agency
- Internal Revenue Service
If you have any questions or queries regarding this work, or would like to discuss opportunities for collaboration, please contact Dr Diarmuid McDonnell.