Reviews
Part of How to conduct a charity communications audit in the UK
How to conduct a charity communications audit in the UK
Audit charity communications in the UK: trustee governance, legal and regulatory checks, evidence, a five-step method and board sign-off.
What to take away
- A charity communications audit in the UK tests output against the charity's objects, trustee duties and fundraising promises, not a commercial brand scorecard.
- The evidence pack is supporter records, consent trails, campaign copy, volunteer briefings, complaints and the published annual report.
- Trustee sign-off is the finish line, so every finding should be written as a decision they can take.
- Fundraising asks, public benefit claims and case studies carry rules that general marketing audits leave out.
- Fix the scope to one financial year and name an owner for each action before the report circulates.
Why a charity audit differs from a commercial review
Commercial reviews ask whether the brand sells more. A charity audit asks whether the message is true, lawful and consistent with a charitable purpose. That reframes what counts as a finding.
Trustees carry legal responsibility for what the charity publishes, so treat the report as a governance document rather than a marketing one. State the evidence, the decision and the risk of doing nothing.
Supporter lists, consent records and case-study permissions need to be checked against the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, with PECR considered for electronic marketing. Check how each record or permission was collected, what lawful basis applies, whether any consent is required and recorded, and whether continued use is lawful, using current ICO guidance as a reference.
Reading a message against the rule that applies to it takes practice; the corporate communications and UK law guide sets out how to classify a message before you judge the wording.
Begin with governance, then channels
Open the governing document and the latest trustee report before the analytics. In England and Wales, check the public benefit requirement under the Charities Act 2011, the Charity Commission register and the latest Charity Commission annual return where required; read the trustee report alongside the relevant Charities SORP. For a charitable company, check its annual report and accounts against Companies House requirements under the Companies Act 2006. In Scotland, check the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005; in Northern Ireland, check the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI) and the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008.
List the audiences the charity has promised to serve: beneficiaries, donors, volunteers, commissioners and regulators. Weight them by duty rather than by spend, because an unfunded beneficiary group can still be the most important reader of the audit.
Charity brand voice rarely sits in a formal style guide. It lives in a tone note, a house style sheet and the memory of whoever writes most of the copy. Test it against real examples from two very different services and ask whether they read as one organisation.
Findings land better with trustees when they map to applicable regulatory duties. Use relevant guidance from the Charity Commission in England and Wales, OSCR in Scotland or CCNI in Northern Ireland; for fundraising standards, check the Fundraising Regulator and the current Code of Fundraising Practice. Include complaints handling and the applicable route for escalating a fundraising complaint. A finding tied to an existing duty is acted on; a finding tied to a preference is not.
Comparing a commercial review with a charity audit
The table below shows where the two methods part company, and why a charity report reads differently.
Commercial review vs charity audit
Commercial review
- Success
- Revenue, share of voice
- Sign-off
- Marketing director
- Data in scope
- Customer records
- Copy constraints
- Advertising codes
- Reader expects
- Persuasion
Charity audit
- Success
- Progress against charitable objects
- Sign-off
- Board of trustees
- Data in scope
- Beneficiary and supporter records
- Copy constraints
- Fundraising rules, defamation
- Reader expects
- Evidence and accountability
Commercial review
- What counts as success
- Revenue, share of voice
- Who signs off
- Marketing director
- Whose data is in scope
- Customer records
- What constrains the copy
- Advertising codes
- What the reader expects
- Persuasion
Charity audit
- What counts as success
- Progress against charitable objects
- Who signs off
- Board of trustees
- Whose data is in scope
- Beneficiary and supporter records, often sensitive
- What constrains the copy
- Fundraising rules, public benefit claims, defamation
- What the reader expects
- Evidence and accountability
Campaign copy that criticises a named supplier, rival or individual can attract a claim. Check the wording for the defences in the Defamation Act 2013 before it goes out.
Run the audit in five steps
The sequence works for a charity of any size, as long as the evidence pack is closed before scoring starts.
Five steps to run the audit
- Agree scope in writingyear, channels, owners, stop date
- Assemble evidence packreports, copy, consent logs, complaints
- Score each output against criteria, record evidence
- Interview small group, including two beneficiaries or frontline staff
- Present findings to trustees as decisions with review dates
- Agree the scope in writing: one financial year, named channels, named owners and a stop date.
- Assemble the evidence packpublished reports, campaign copy, consent logs, complaints and coverage.
- Score each output against named criteriaalignment with charitable objects and public benefit, accuracy and supporting evidence, audience accessibility, consistency, data protection and marketing compliance, and fundraising standards where relevant. For each criterion, record “meets”, “partly meets”, “does not meet” or “not evidenced”, with the evidence, risk and action. Escalate legal or regulatory concerns and unsupported claims rather than averaging them away.
- Interview a small group, including at least two beneficiaries or frontline staff.
- Present findings to trustees as decisions, each with a review date.
Common questions
Does the audit need trustee approval?
Yes. Trustees are accountable for published communications, so findings should reach a board meeting with the evidence attached. Approving the report is separate from approving each change that follows.
How long should a charity communications review take?
A review covering one financial year can be run by one person working part time, provided the evidence pack is closed before scoring starts. Federated charities take longer, because each branch keeps its own records.
Should fundraising copy be audited separately?
Yes, because an appeal makes a direct ask and carries its own regulatory expectations. Check the Fundraising Regulator's current Code of Fundraising Practice and the applicable complaints route, then re-read every appeal, legacy ask and lottery page as a separate sample.
What should the charity measure afterwards?
Set a small number of measures with definitions and blank thresholds before anything changes, so the next audit compares like with like. A comparison of communications measurement tools for UK PR teams is a sensible next step once the measures are agreed.
