At M·E·L Research, we specialise in delivering tailored insights to help charities and third-sector organisations thrive. Our extensive experience spans the full breadth of charity operations, from understanding beneficiaries’ needs to evaluating the effectiveness of campaigns, tracking donor and supporter engagement, and exploring new opportunities for service development.
We work with a wide range of audiences, including donors, supporters, volunteers, service users, and beneficiaries, as well as vulnerable or under-represented groups. Whether you’re looking to understand perceptions of your brand, improve your services, or segment your audiences to create more targeted campaigns, our expertise ensures you have the evidence you need to make informed decisions.
Our work addresses key challenges faced by charities, such as:
Evaluating the success of fundraising campaigns and understanding how to optimise future efforts.
Exploring how beneficiaries experience your services and identifying areas for improvement.
Tracking brand awareness and perceptions among key audiences over time.
Segmenting supporters and beneficiaries to develop tailored communications and interventions.
Assessing the impact of new services or programmes to demonstrate their value.
We work extensively with a wide range of charities and third sector organisations spanning:
Healthcare charities
Mental health charities
Suicide and self-harm prevention charities
Alcohol and substance dependency charities
Children and young people’s charities
Arts, culture and creative sector organisations
Homelessness and housing charities
Environmental, wildlife and biodiversity charities
Our team have experience engaging with a wide range of audiences in the charity market research and third sector social research space including:
Service users
Stakeholders
Delivery partners
Internal staff and colleagues
Funders and donors
Volunteers and supporters
We are particularly experienced in engaging a range of particularly vulnerable audiences such as children and young people, individuals with mental health issues or concerns, those with long-term health conditions, those with English as a second/additional language, those who identify as Deaf/deaf and disabled, and individuals and famillies from particularly deprived backgrounds. Our team utilises a range of techniques to ensure we are able to engage with all relevant audiences in the best possible way, including our chattabout methodology, online communities, auto-ethnography, utilising BSL or foreign-language trained interpreters or moderators/interviewers as well as a range of more traditional approaches.
Our expertise and experience in undertaking charity and third sector research includes a range of audiences and approaches, such as:
A project to explore the challenges and barriers that unique family groups experience when it comes to keeping their children safe online. We wanted to gain a rich insight into family life, to understand how child online safety features in their world. How do parents feel about it, how do they engage with the topic, how do they talk to their children about it and what are the challenges? By providing this insight we were able to explore where NSPCC resources fits into the conversation, how they can support families and what the opportunities are for NSPCC
Social Return on Investment (SROI) evaluation focused on the Blue Prescribing project carried out by WWT at Steart Marshes. This is a social prescribing project aimed at getting people with mental health problems involved in outdoor group activities in Somerset.
Research utilising a large scale qualitative process to understand the emotional drivers which connect people to museums, resulting in the creation of a practical report and toolkit to support museums in delivering better programmes and communications which resonate with these key emotional levers
Project ECHO is an internationally recognised collaborative model of health education and care management that empowers health and social care professionals everywhere to provide better care to more people where they live. It works via a series of hubs, usually supporting external communities of practice via digital technology. Marie Curie commissioned M·E·L Research to carry out an independent process evaluation of Project ECHO at Marie Curie. The aim of this evaluation has been to understand the extent ECHO has met its intended aims, to unpick differences in the running of ECHO at Marie Curie and to learn wider lessons, to help shape Project ECHO in future.
YMCA Newcastle commissioned M·E·L Research to explore the interest, desire and opportunities facing YMCA’s digitalisation agenda, focusing particularly on what young people and wider YMCA service users want from digital services.
If you would like to discuss a social or market research project or evaluation in the charity or third sector please do get in touch with our team below.
NSPCC commissioned M·E·L Research to deliver an annual brand tracking study among professionals working to keep children safe. This study formed part of a longitudinal programme, with this wave representing the fifth iteration, enabling robust trend analysis over time. The core purpose of the research was to monitor NSPCC’s brand health, understand perceptions and usage of its services, and identify emerging safeguarding challenges to inform strategic decision-making.
The target audience comprised safeguarding professionals with decision-making responsibilities across a range of…
Sport Wales commissioned M·E·L Research to deliver a pilot project designed to open up dialogue with funded partners and better understand their experiences of receiving support. The wider context for this work was a desire to ensure that support provision remained relevant, effective and responsive to the evolving needs of a diverse partner base, including National Governing Bodies (NGBs), National Partners and Regional Sport Partnerships. The core business need was to generate evidence-based insights that could help shape and improve the support offer. Specifically, Sport Wales wanted to understand how their support was…
M·E·L Research was commissioned by the Royal British Legion (RBL) to co‑design and deliver a pilot Lived Experience Panel. The pilot aimed to test whether a structured panel of people with lived experience of the Armed Forces community could meaningfully inform RBL’s campaigns, policy and research work. The model was delivered over a short, intensive period to “test and learn” during live organisational strategy projects. The pilot explored feasibility, impact, support needs, and the potential for scaling or embedding the approach. M·E·L Research supported recruitment, developed and delivered all training, and provided…
Help for Heroes commissioned M.E.L Research to develop a detailed segmentation of the UK charity-giving public, focusing specifically on individuals who support – or could be encouraged to support – military and veterans’ charities. The charity sought an evidence-based understanding of the motivations, behaviours and communication preferences of potential supporters, with a view to strengthening engagement, improving message resonance, and ensuring its offer aligns with what matters most to supporters and prospective supporters.
Barnardo’s commissioned M·E·L Research to carry out an independent evaluation of the Children that We Care For (CtWCF) Mental Health and Wellbeing (MHWB) pilot service in Sandwell. The service was delivered in partnership with Sandwell Children’s Trust and aimed to address a clear gap in emotional and mental health support for children that are cared for and care experienced young people. Nationally, demand for children and young people’s mental health support has grown, with a higher proportion of children and young people living with probable mental disorders.
The Children and Young People’s Health Equity Collaborative (CHEC) was a three-year partnership between Barnardo’s, the UCL Institute of Health Equity (IHE), and three Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) – NHS Birmingham and Solihull, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, and NHS South Yorkshire. Its vision was that all children should enjoy good health and positive wellbeing, reduce child health inequalities and improve the outcomes for CYP from underserved communities by acting on the social determinants of health.
Breakthrough T1D is a leading global charity committed to accelerating life-changing breakthroughs to cure, prevent and treat Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). Alongside funding critical research into a cure, we are also deeply invested in improving lives today—through better technology, healthcare access, and emotional and informational support for everyone living with T1D. One area of growing importance is the experience of ageing with Type 1 Diabetes.
Shelter is the leading charity in the UK on homelessness and housing issues. Shelter has a strong, established voice on the issues of home quality, availability, affordability and tenure security through both campaigning and advocacy. Shelter runs campaigns to raise awareness and seeks to influence housing policy, working with government and other organisations to advocate for changes that can deliver sector wide improvements.
