A survey of the top 750 charities aims to find out the impact of government cuts and new commissioning rules and ask if charities are becoming more reliant on income from the private sector.

New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) launched the survey on February 8th. It will publish a report of its findings in late April/early May, including examples and case studies.

NPC chief executive Dan Corry says: “There is no doubt that this is a time of huge change in the third sector. Charities are telling us that reforms to public services and cuts to government spending are bringing new pressures, changing the way they work and affecting their ability to help the people they care about. But while we can see potential trends, we don’t really know how much organisations are actually being affected.”

The survey is asking charities how reliant they are on government funding, whether new types of contracts like payment-by-results are on the increase and if they are finding themselves subcontracting to deliver services for the first time. It will find out if charities are having to cut frontline services, staff numbers or dig in to their reserves.

There is anecdotal evidence about how charities are struggling with new, more complex and competitive commissioning arrangements but this survey hopes to find out exactly what it means for the services they deliver. It will also ascertain whether or not they feel supported by commissioners.