Macmillan Cancer Support tops YouGov’s 2015 CharityIndex rankings

For the third year in succession, Macmillan Cancer Support was the UK’s top charity brand, new analysis from YouGov’s CharityIndex finds.

The 2015 CharityIndex rankings show the organisation retains its position ahead of Cancer Research UK in second (the same position as 2014) and Help for Heroes in third (as it was in last year’s rankings). The rest of the top five is rounded off by RNLI in fourth (improving from eighth in 2014) and the British Heart Foundation in fifth (which drops by one place).

The list features three charities that YouGov tracked for the first time last year. Two Alzheimer’s charities – Alzheimer’s Research UK and the Alzheimer’s society – enter the list for the first time highlighting an increased focus on the disease in recent years.

The other first-time entry into the top ten is Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. It has managed to reach consumers outside its geographic base in London and the Home Counties through high profile media opportunities, including Paul O’Grady’s ITV programme “For the Love of Dogs.”

CharityIndex measures the public’s perception of charities on a daily basis across a range of measures. YouGov’s 2015 rankings were compiled using Buzz scores from across the year. Buzz scores measure whether people have heard anything good or bad about a charity in the previous two weeks.

YouGov’s 2015 end of year charity brand Buzz rankings (2014 rank in brackets):

1 (1) Macmillan Cancer Support – 13.7

2 (2) Cancer Research UK – 9.4

3 (3) Help for Heroes – 7.1

4 (8) RNLI – 5.3

5 (4) British Heart Foundation – 5.2

6 (9) Dogs Trust – 4.9

7 (N/A) Alzheimer’s Research UK – 4.8

= (5) Royal British Legion – 4.8

9 (N/A) Alzheimer’s Society – 4.7

10 (10) Marie Curie Cancer Care – 4.6

= (N/A) Battersea Dogs & Cats Home – 4.6

= (7) British Red Cross – 4.6

= (13) National Trust – 4.6

Briony Gunstone, Associate Director in Public Services and Not-for-Profit at YouGov, says: "In the three years YouGov has been releasing the CharityIndex rankings Macmillan Cancer Support has always been top. It maintains its pre-eminent position through effective marketing and media activity as well as perennially successful events such as the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning.

"There are a couple of areas of this year’s list that are worth drawing attention to. The first is that in a year dominated by global crises, most notably the situation in Syria and attendant migration crisis, only one internationally focussed charity – the British Red Cross – makes the list. This hints at how difficult it can be for aid charities to create a constant noise about the vital work they are doing.

"The second is the continuing decline of scores across the sector. For the second year in a row the average Buzz score for the sector as a whole has decreased. This could be for a number of reasons but it is evident that the rolling series of negative headlines in the sector over the past year has been noticed by the public."

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