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Charity Excellence development is led by our community, so collecting review feedback, both anecdotal and in a structured way, is really valuable and something we do on an ongoing basis. This is monitored by our trustees and we also make it publicly available, as part of our commitment to transparency. As we do with all of our surveys, we include anonymous verbatim comments by respondents, so that they are heard and in their own words, not ours.
It's the most useful website I have come across since joining the charity sector - there's such a wealth of information here I've only scratched the surface of, I honestly don't know what more you could do! I look forward to the weekly newsletter and read start to finish!
got us thinking about different areas, some we hadnt thought of
On completing a health check questionnaire, users are invited to rate it and review it. The rating as at March 2025 was 9/10. Rating a questionnaire is not mandatory, so I can't say how many ratings we've had, but 3,358 were scored in the 6 month rolling reporting period. Feedback is generally very positive and primarily centres around its ease of use, the value of the wide ranging resources links and that it makes people think.
Quick and easy self assessment tool with many resources attached to each issue to help improve. By attaching the resource to the relevant issue, helps keep a clear focus on what the specific issue is, rather than getting bogged down in how they overlap!
Our Community Review Survey includes all of our systems and is regularly advertised in the newsletter. Whilst nearly a third rated it 10/10 (below), the average rating is 7.8, so quite a bit lower than the in-system automated feedback, but it's quite new and we've only had 51 responses so far. The 2 ratings of 1/10 were a bit of surprise and, based on their other scores, one was probably a mistake but you can't ask people to rate you, then ignore those you don't like, so 7.8 it is. If you wish to add your own views, these would be very welcome, click here.
| On a scale of 1 to 10, how useful do you find using the CEF? | |||||||||
| Ratings out of 10 | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 4% | 2% | 6% | 4% | 4% | 13% | 23% | 13% | 31% | |
Respondents are invited to rate us for a range of values and behaviours from 1 (not at all) to 10 (very strongly agree).
| Ratings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Trustworthy | 2% | 2% | 6% | 4% | 6% | 14% | 10% | 57% | ||
| Authentic | 4% | 8% | 6% | 6% | 10% | 12% | 53% | |||
| Ethical | 4% | 8% | 8% | 12% | 8% | 12% | 50% | |||
| Understands our needs | 2% | 2% | 4% | 8% | 6% | 8% | 20% | 49% | ||
| Inclusive | 4% | 8% | 4% | 6% | 12% | 16% | 49% | |||
| Accountable | 4% | 4% | 7% | 11% | 15% | 11% | 48% | |||
| Transparent | 7% | 11% | 15% | 19% | 48% | |||||
| Professional | 2% | 2% | 6% | 6% | 10% | 8% | 18% | 48% | ||
| Communication tone is appropriate | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 9% | 9% | 17% | 48% | ||
| Innovative | 4% | 4% | 8% | 14% | 12% | 12% | 46% | |||
| Communication is clear | 4% | 2% | 8% | 2% | 10% | 6% | 24% | 45% | ||
| Collaborative | 4% | 8% | 8% | 8% | 12% | 16% | 44% | |||
| Accessible | 2% | 4% | 2% | 6% | 4% | 8% | 10% | 20% | 44% | |
| Delivers real impact | 2% | 4% | 4% | 6% | 16% | 16% | 10% | 42% | ||
| Brave | 8% | 12% | 12% | 12% | 16% | 40% | ||||
| Meets our needs | 2% | 2% | 2% | 6% | 6% | 8% | 16% | 20% | 38% |
I think it is the most outstanding independent piece of work that I have ever seen.
Respondents were invited to rate each of our services based on how often they use these, from 1 (never) to 10 (every week).
| System Review | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| The Weekly Newsletter | 8% | 2% | 6% | 8% | 8% | 8% | 16% | 45% | ||
| Funding Finder Grants Directory | 6% | 7% | 4% | 2% | 7% | 15% | 4% | 20% | 9% | 26% |
| The Website Resources | 12% | 4% | 4% | 8% | 14% | 10% | 12% | 14% | 6% | 14% |
| Help Finder Directory | 12% | 6% | 12% | 10% | 18% | 4% | 12% | 12% | 4% | 10% |
| Weekly Free Webinars | 32% | 6% | 8% | 4% | 10% | 8% | 8% | 10% | 4% | 10% |
| AI Bunnies - Help in Navigating the System | 45% | 14% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 14% | 0% | 2% | 4% | 8% |
| Data Finder | 38% | 8% | 4% | 8% | 10% | 12% | 6% | 4% | 2% | 8% |
| The in-system AI Bunny Policy Downloads | 44% | 10% | 6% | 8% | 4% | 6% | 4% | 6% | 4% | 6% |
| The Health Check Questionnaires & Dashboard | 29% | 18% | 8% | 4% | 12% | 8% | 12% | 2% | 6% | |
| AI Bunnies - Answering Questions About Non Profits | 55% | 10% | 2% | 2% | 10% | 6% | 2% | 2% | 4% | 6% |
| Website AI Bunny - Helping Individuals | 66% | 9% | 2% | 0% | 6% | 4% | 2% | 4% | 2% | 4% |
| Help Finder Corporate Funding Capability | 29% | 10% | 8% | 8% | 22% | 6% | 6% | 2% | 6% | 2% |
| The In-system AI Bunny Bid Writing | 52% | 14% | 2% | 6% | 8% | 6% | 4% | 6% | 2% |
The funding finder is by far the best free resource available to small charities
Amazing service, thank you.
Respondents were invited (for those services they use) to rate each in terms of how useful it is from 1 (no value at all) to 10 (incredibly useful).
The AI bunnies provide 5,000+ help sessions monthly but we did have some operational glitches earlier in the year, so that may have impacted ratings. Also a number of respondents did make comments around the ethics of using AI (energy use). We note these but, whilst the bunnies do use GPT, their AI machine learning and the our new AI Help Finder run on our own data sets, so burn very little energy. We have environmentally friendly bunnies.
| Ratings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| The Weekly Newsletter | 4% | 6% | 4% | 10% | 2% | 13% | 8% | 52% | ||
| Help Finder Directory | 5% | 3% | 5% | 18% | 13% | 5% | 13% | 38% | ||
| Funding Finder Grants Directory | 4% | 4% | 4% | 2% | 4% | 4% | 20% | 22% | 35% | |
| Weekly Free Webinars | 12% | 2% | 0% | 5% | 10% | 10% | 5% | 12% | 12% | 32% |
| The Website Resources | 8% | 8% | 8% | 8% | 10% | 5% | 15% | 13% | 28% | |
| Help Finder Corporate Funding Capability | 8% | 6% | 3% | 3% | 25% | 3% | 6% | 6% | 17% | 25% |
| Data Finder | 15% | 3% | 6% | 15% | 9% | 3% | 15% | 9% | 24% | |
| The Health Check Questionnaires & Dashboard | 17% | 9% | 3% | 6% | 6% | 9% | 11% | 14% | 3% | 23% |
| AI Bunnies - Help in Navigating the System | 15% | 6% | 3% | 6% | 24% | 6% | 6% | 12% | 21% | |
| The in-system AI Bunny Policy Downloads | 15% | 3% | 3% | 6% | 18% | 9% | 6% | 9% | 12% | 21% |
| The In-system AI Bunny Bid Writing | 16% | 3% | 9% | 16% | 3% | 9% | 6% | 19% | 19% | |
| Website AI Bunny - Helping Individuals | 23% | 10% | 6% | 19% | 3% | 6% | 3% | 13% | 16% | |
| AI Bunnies - Answering Questions About Non Profits | 16% | 6% | 3% | 13% | 22% | 6% | 3% | 6% | 9% | 16% |
We think what you do is fantastically useful and can't think of anything.
Respondents were invited to provide additional information on those areas above they had rated lowest and to be as specific as possible to help us address these.
sometimes its a bit clunky to get what i want - but i can see its in development and i'm always happy with the find of the item once i find it!
From the system dashboard, it's 2 clicks to everything and, in addition to the AI bunnies, the system includes additional support, such as demo videos for each area and ? symbols that explain what any area does.
Sometimes a bit awkward to access - not as intuitive.
However, over the year's we've responded to increasing requests to deliver more, particularly funding, and it's now an eco system of 13 services. This has made the platform increasingly capable but, inevitably, also more complex. We think this has disproportionately impacted the small and marginalised groups we prioritise, as many face accessibility challenges. It may be that less well used areas of the platform are not well known about and/or people are not confident in using these.
There is so much information it can be overwhelming. I also haven't had much success using the AI bunnies so have stopped trying.
Our AI Help Finder is the first of our next generation AI and will eventually become our single AI concierge service, to act as a gateway to the whole sector. It will massively increase accessibility and ease of using the system. However, this will require funding we do not yet have. Consequently, as an interim measure, we have an interactive infographic for the overall Charity Excellence platform that can be downloaded from any web page and another for our AI services, which is available at the bottom of our AI services page. Some respondents asked for things the system can already provide and one seemed by be using it incorrectly. In response, we have brought in training webinars with Q&A on the last Friday of each month.
Some members asked for info on more localised grants (eg Yorkshire). Doing this manually isn't feasible but we could build a system that ran using Funding Finder and Help Finder. That'd require a new system build and I don't have the funding for it (this year's annual budget is £56,000, including my full time salary). However, we're working to change that, so I've added this to my To Do list.
Answering questions about non- profits
One respondent raised a number of concerns about our work in the comments section including a lack of ability in AI, disdain for other charities and unprofessional behaviour. The submission was anonymous and having considered the points made, I do not think the evidence available substantiates this. The numerical ratings have been included above and the comments forwarded verbatim to the trustees for their consideration. This report will be amended, if they feel it appropriate that it should be.
Community Size. We are the largest and fastest growing UK charity Community. In 2024, we deleted off members who hadn't logged in within 12 months. That gave us a membership at 50,000+. However, we had a lot of people approach us asking why their account had been deleted, so we reinstated these. Our rate of growth continues to accelerate and, currently (Mar 25), is around 4,000 new members each month. We estimate that by the end of this year, 25% of all UK charities (just under 400k) will be members of our community.
Member Seniority. Although not tracked in our survey, our community comprises about a third who are chair/CEO or equivalent and 80% who are either trustee or management (including chairs and CEOs).
Income Bands. The breakdown of respondents by income band reflects our community overall and that reflects the charity sector overall, excepting that we appear to be underrepresented at micro charity level (under £10k pa income). We're not sure why this is but the numbers of micro charities is largely unknown and it may be possible that our estimate of 100k UK wide is too high.
| Income Band | Responses |
| Less than £10k | 16% |
| £11k to £100k | 20% |
| £100k - £500k | 32% |
| £501k - £1m | 11% |
| £1m - £3m | 13% |
| More than £3m | 9% |
A registered charity ourselves, the CEF works for any non profit, not just charities.
Plus, 100+downloadable funder lists, 60+ policies, 8 online health checks and the huge resource base.
Quick, simple and very effective.
Find Funding, Free Help & Resources - Everything Is Free.
