Facing formidable headwinds.

PR still struggles to measure outcomes at a level that adequately explains where, when and how it is making a difference. As the third sector faces what the Guardian, in its look ahead to 2026, called ‘formidable headwinds and an ominous financial crunch’ comms teams will be pivotal to tackling the pressure on fundraising income and compensating for shortfalls in government funding.

A perfect storm of reduced resources and the growing need to plug the gaps in desperately needed services and research means charities must wring maximum value out of every pound they spend on attracting, engaging and retaining supporters. Winning hearts and minds is always challenging but never more than in a cost-of-living crisis with intense competition to attract volunteers and donations.

Instead of focusing on volume and sentiment of coverage, which are flimsy metrics for any sector, charity comms teams can now obtain more detailed intelligence about the impact of their media relations activities on consumers. This is made possible by combining two consumer-centric data sets:

• Metricomm’s media audience data, which calculates the likely size of audience that has found and read earned news coverage and

• YouGov CharityIndex data*, which draws on a substantial UK panel to track consumer response to third sector brands

Focusing on the audience reveals hitherto unseen relationships over time between what appears in online media coverage and consumer reaction through the funnel, as reported via CharityIndex. Then, robust statistical analysis helps identify the extent to which earned media contributes to upper funnel awareness and lower funnel conversion.

The analysis quantifies when, where and how media coverage influences buzz, awareness and intent, for example. It can highlight the topics in coverage which are producing uplift in certain types of website visit or contributing to an increase in donations. It also pinpoints which named media and types of story are most effective at engaging people.

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*The analysis is also possible with other brand tracking data sets.