This #PrideMonth we're celebrating the impact of our Data First Aid volunteer match for the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ We matched the centre with PBE volunteer, Kelly Yeo, to help them turn feedback from visitors into a short report demonstrating their impact. pbe.co.uk/impact_stori...

Our small charities' forum shares real-world insights to help shape our research. 💡 It's also a space for charities to collaborate on common challenges and share learnings.

In this month's insights and events newsletter ✉️ • Our latest research on Children's Services spending. • Inflation and the squeeze on charity wages. • The impact of expert volunteer support for Fearless Girls Club. Sign up: eepurl.com/den4kn

Is it easier or harder to show your impact as a small charity? In some ways, it's more straightforward; often, everyone on the team is closer to the work that the charity does or the community it serves. But it can be really tough to measure impact without data specialists or analysts on hand.

"Research shows that loneliness is increasing among young people," according to our friends at the Marmalade Trust

New @pbe.co.uk note on non-profit pay trends shows charity employees are earning £3,500 less today than if their pay rises had kept pace with the private sector's. Stems from inflation exposure and highlights the need for new 'shock absorbers' in the sector's income model pbe.co.uk/insights/pay...

Wage growth among charity workers has lagged the private sector by £8.5bn over the past 10 years, according to research by think tank @pbe.co.uk. It found that average pay has grown by over 10% in the private sector over the past decade compared to a decline of 1.2% in the not-for-profit sector.

Charity sector workers would be earning £3,500 more, on average, in 2025 if social sector pay growth had matched the private sector over the past decade.

The nine wellbeing domains for people with learning disabilities. 💡 When we measure wellbeing, we look at different wellbeing domains, e.g., health, work and finances.

It's loneliness awareness week. Our 2024 research found that five million adults in the UK live with chronic loneliness and the cost to public services is significant.

What really matters when it comes to children and young people's mental health and wellbeing? The word cloud below shows what organisations working with children and young people say is important for children: things like health, confidence, skills, and wellbeing.

Pleased to attend the APPG for Children this evening, chaired by @jessasatomp.bsky.social where @pbe.co.uk shared the findings from this report ⬇️ Children’s services spending is at a record high but 82% of that is supporting too late. Children need support early

Children’s services are stuck in a crisis loop. Spending hit a record £14.7bn despite little evidence outcomes for children are improving. The reason? 80% of budgets are spent on late intervention. A new report by @pbe.co.uk, commissioned by us at the Children's Services Funding Alliance 👇

Our latest report on Children's Services uncovers a system out of balance: annual costs in England reached a record £14.7 billion in 2024/25, but 82% of spending between 2011 and 2025 went to late intervention.

Last week we gathered policymakers and funders to share the findings of our Porticus Trust-funded work on children and young people's mental health and wellbeing.

“The quality of the volunteer support was exceptional…a genuine partnership where we learned a great deal about benchmarking, data interrogation and how to use evidence more strategically.”

It's Volunteers Week and we're celebrating our 1,000th volunteer, Iseoluwa Adejumo 🎉

Sign up below to get our latest research and insight in your inbox ✉️ This month's newsletter will include:

There's a week left to apply for our volunteer opportunities with: - Climate Majority Project - ADHD Action Network - Signal Family Support - Rethink Repayment Deadline: Midday, Monday 1 July

Reserve your charity, social enterprise or CIC's place on one of our Unlocking Impact workshops. Using the economic approach to measuring impact can help attract funding and drive change. In our expert-led workshop, you'll learn: → impact models → impact measurement → how to inspire change

Meet our Senior Project Manager, Nadine Cameron 👋 Behind the scenes at PBE it's Nadine who: → project manages our economic analysis → matches volunteer economists with social sector organisations. → coordinates our unlocking impact and wellbeing measurement workshops.

📣 Economists and analysts! We've got volunteer opportunities for you with: - Signal Family Support - Rethink Repayment - ADHD Action Network - Climate Majority Project Find out more and apply: pbe.co.uk/get-involved... Closing date: 1 June

We're looking for social sector organisations supporting children under the age of 16 that want to measure their economic impact to raise the profile of their work.

Mental health and wellbeing are closely linked — but what's the difference? Mental health is a psychological term that describes how we think, feel and behave. Wellbeing looks more broadly at how we feel about our lives. But it's hard to have one without the other.

A glimpse of the #NICVASummit 2026 speaker line‑up. Inspiring voices from across the voluntary & community sector, sharing insight & lived experience to spark action. 🎤 Matt Whittaker @pbe.co.uk 🎤 Diane Yentel (National Council of Nonprofits) 🎟️ Early bird tickets until 10 May www.nicvasummit.org

When measuring impact, we often come across the J-curve phenomenon. When people get involved with programmes designed to help, we sometimes see a fall in their reported outcomes before it begins to rise — this appears as a "J-curve" when we chart the impact of the programme.

A reminder that these volunteer opportunities are closing on Monday — apply now! (details and links below)👇

We're still accepting applications for pro bono support from our in-house economists. 👇

We were pleased to collaborate with Morgan Stanley last week to deliver an impact measurement session for participants of the Impact Through Innovation Awards.

Economic impact measurement of your programmes could help secure funding and drive systemic change 💡 Join our next Unlocking Impact Workshop to learn more about the economic approach to measuring impact.

📣 New volunteer opportunities for economists and analysts. We've got four opportunities for economists and analysts who want to use their skills to support charities, social enterprises and CICs by giving up a few days of their time pro bono.

Last week, we hosted a roundtable to discuss our new report - Levelling the playing field: Measuring wellbeing among people with learning disabilities.

Initial findings on school-based counselling support are promising.💡 We're working with @place2becharity.bsky.social to evaluate their school-based one-to-one counselling service in London.

What is green or blue social prescribing? 🌊 🌳 The evidence of a link between improved wellbeing and spending time in nature is growing.

Have you applied for your charity, CIC or social enterprise yet?

We want to level the playing field for people with learning disabilities by establishing more consistent ways to measure the impact of things that affect their lives.

We've matched volunteer economists with Speech Bubbles CIC through our Data First Aid programme 🎉

"It would be a mistake to assume that charities can simply stretch further once again...Supporting civil society through the months ahead will require concerted action across the public, private and social sectors."

When we brought together experts from across the private, public and social sectors for the Law Family Commission on Civil Society, one of their recommendations for unleashing the potential of civil society was to help the sector share knowledge and build on what works. 1/3

We partnered a volunteer analyst with Living Sport to help them make more informed decisions. 💡 They wanted to make better use of their programme and finance data when making decisions. The team needed clear and easy-to-use visuals so they could look at data over time and compare projects.

The UK has a loneliness problem. Our 2024 research found that five million adults in the UK live with chronic loneliness and the cost to public services is significant. pbe.co.uk/publications...

Get pro bono support from our in-house economists for your charity or social enterprise 👀 The application window for pro bono analysis projects is open for a limited time. To be eligible to apply, your charity or social enterprise must be based in the UK and benefit UK communities.

Is social media the reason teenagers in the UK have the lowest wellbeing in Europe? Last week, a landmark legal judgement in the US against the parent companies of Instagram and YouTube found that a young woman became addicted to social media as a child which worsened her mental health.

We've matched Marion Gady with @autistica.org.uk 🎉 Marion and a team of economists from FTI will be working with Autistica to create scenarios and break-even analyses to estimate economic benefits from neuroinclusion improvements.

Earlier this month, our executive team and board came together for PBE’s annual strategy away day – a chance to step back from the day-to-day to reflect on our broader approach to delivering against our mission of improving outcomes for those with the lowest wellbeing in the UK.

Sign up to get our latest insights in your inbox. 📨 This month's insight and events newsletter includes: • a new blog from our Training Facilitator, Alexa Sage answering the frequently asked questions from our Unlocking Impact workshops.

Economist and analyst volunteer roles closing tomorrow 👀 We have volunteer opportunities with the Forest of Dean Climate Action Partnership or the ADHD Action Network.

PBE Volunteer and data analyst Ricard De Haro Flores created a tailored Excel-based data management and reporting tool for the Renewal Trust. 🧑‍💻

"Exposure to the social sector helps economists to become more rounded in their outlook and therefore better placed to make good – and wellbeing-enhancing – decisions back in their day jobs. "

What resources do social sector organisations need to run economic impact evaluations?