The research we do is tailored to your organisation´s needs and the methods are chosen and combined accordingly.
Here are some of common topics we can help with.
Sometimes, all your organisation needs is some good, practical advice.
A little support can get your research project underway with confidence and at very little cost.
Your organisation may already be collecting feedback from your service users, donors, or stakeholders and may just benefit from independent expert review of your questionnaires and processes to make sure you’re getting it right.
At Sirel, we love chatting about research and are always happy to share our expertise. So, whether you need a simple questionnaire redesign, a chat about survey methods, or just some reassurance that you’re doing it right, there really is no job too small!
The challenges
Across the third sector, organisations are struggling with staff and volunteer recruitment and retention. Many gather feedback from their teams to understand how build moral and support wellbeing, often through casual chats or ad hoc surveys.
Often these in-house approaches fall short. The questions can be poorly written, the topics unbalanced, and team members can feel uncomfortable being fully honest. This can lead to low response rates, guarded answers, and an incomplete or misleading picture.
The Third Sector Working Lives survey is designed to avoid these issues. The questionnaire has been developed by Sirel in partnership with Scottish charities, social enterprises and TSIs, and follows recognised best practice in how it is structured and delivered.
This means you can feel confident the results will give a clear and balanced view of working life in your organisation
The survey is managed entirely by Sirel, so team members can feel confident their responses are confidential. This helps people speak more openly and leads to more honest and useful feedback.
Possible approaches
For most organisations, this type of research works best as an online survey open to all staff and/or volunteers. This can be supported by other options, such as paper surveys or telephone interviews, for those who may find online access difficult.
Focus groups and/or in-depth interviews can also be used to add more depth and context to the survey findings.
What you receive
Every organisation receives a summary of their results, including comparisons with the wider third sector, along with a follow-up call to talk through the findings.
You can also choose a full report in PowerPoint format, with a clear overview of key findings and a detailed summary of results.
Organisations who take part over multiple years can track their progress over time.
The Third Sector Working Lives survey helps charities and other third-sector organisations understand how staff and volunteers experience their work.
It offers a structured, independent way to gather honest feedback and see how your results compare with other similar organisations across the third sector.
The challenges
Through day-to-day conversations and informal feedback, many organisations already have a sense of how beneficiaries experience their services. This can be a helpful starting point, but on its own it can be patchy, incomplete, or reinforce existing assumptions.
Over time, beneficiaries may also build strong relationships with staff. While this is positive, it can make people less likely to share negative feedback, either out of politeness or concern about affecting that relationship.
Sirel works as an independent partner to help separate what is already known from what still needs to be understood. Together, we identify the key gaps and agree a clear, practical approach to gathering the right evidence.
As an independent third party, we create space for honest and constructive feedback. Beneficiaries can speak openly, knowing their responses won’t affect their relationship with your organisation.
Possible approaches
The best approach will depend on the topic, how the findings will be used, how your organisation connects with beneficiaries, and any accessibility needs.
This might include surveys (online, by post, in person or by phone), in-depth interviews, focus groups, or accompanied visits.
What you receive
The outputs will depend on the aims of the research, but typically include a clear PowerPoint presentation and/or written report.
Where useful, this can also include infographics, short animated summaries, or action planning sessions to help share findings and support next steps.
The challenges
Understanding supporter audiences isn’t always straightforward. It can be difficult to reach beyond your most engaged supporters, to ensure that your questions are fair and balanced, and to encourage honest, representative feedback.
Sirel provides independent, structured support to help you overcome these challenges. We design a robust, independent research engagements that deliver reliable and honest feedback.
Possible approaches
We use a number of practical approaches to understanding supporter relationships that depend on the audience and the type of feedback we’re looking to gather.
These can include testing your communications before they launch, exploring supporter sentiment and experience to understand how engaged they are, and assessing future support potential to see how likely people are to stay involved or deepen their support.
We can also identify barriers to engagement and track emerging risks so you can respond early and stay connected to your audience.
What you receive
You will receive clear, accessible outputs that help you understand your supporters and act on what you learn. This typically includes a written summary of findings, supported by straightforward visuals and key data, alongside real quotes that bring supporter views to life.
Where helpful, we can also provide audience profiles, segmentations, simple summaries for boards or funders, and practical recommendations. The focus is always on giving you usable insight that strengthens relationships and supports better decisions.
The challenges
For many charities, the main challenge when conducting research with the general public is reaching out beyond their existing audience. If your charity is pushing out surveys through its audience on social media, it’s likely to be listening to an echo chamber that is very distinct from the public at large. This is one of many ways in which unstructured and biased survey samples can provide misleading results, despite the best of intentions.
All research methods, from online and postal surveys to in-person and telephone interviewing, have some strengths and some weaknesses. Choosing the wrong approach can leave you needlessly out of pocket or low on confidence in the results.
Sirel brings years of industry experience in general public research design to create research that speaks to the right people, in the right proportions using the right surveying approach. We do not markup external costs and are motivated only to ensuring that the approach and sample size makes the most efficient use of your budget.
Possible approaches
There are countless ways in which we can interact with the general public to find the answers that your organisation needs. From qualitative approaches, such as focus groups and in-depth interviewing, to larger scale quantitative exercises like surveys conducted online, by post, by telephone, and in-person, each approach has its value in finding different audiences and drawing out different types of feedback.
What you receive
There are many ways in which we can bring general population level data to life for your organisation, including any of the following:
- Reports and summaries (full report in Word/PDF, executive summary in PowerPoint)
- Data and analysis files (data tables, raw datasets)
- Visual insights (charts, infographics, segmentation diagrams)
- Audience profiles (pen portraits, personas)
- Journeys and mapping (supporter/public journey maps)
- Voices and lived experience (vox pops, verbatim comments, transcripts)
- Recommendations and next steps (action plans, briefings, workshops)
The challenges
Gathering reliable feedback from beneficiaries and stakeholders can be difficult to get right. It takes time to design clear questions, reach the right people, and interpret responses with confidence, all while managing day-to-day delivery of a dynamic research project.
Feedback collected in-house can often be incomplete or overly positive, as people may not feel comfortable being fully open.
Sirel provides independent, structured support that helps overcome these challenges. By creating a safe and impartial process, we help you gather honest insight, avoid common pitfalls, and turn feedback into clear, usable evidence.
Possible approaches
Surveys are often used to gather structured feedback from larger groups, helping to show patterns and trends. Alongside this, conversations such as interviews or focus groups can provide deeper insight into people’s experiences, concerns and suggestions.
Where appropriate, feedback is best gathered at different stages, before, during and after a project, to evidence need, monitor experiences, and demonstrate longer-term outcomes. The aim is always to keep the approach proportionate, accessible, and focused on what will be most useful to your organisation.
What you receive
You will receive clear, accessible outputs that are designed to be used, not left on a shelf. This typically includes a written summary of findings, supported by straightforward charts and key data, alongside real quotes that bring the findings to life.
Where helpful, we can also provide audience profiles, simple visual summaries, and tailored briefings for boards or funders. All outputs are focused on giving you a strong evidence base, along with practical recommendations, so you can demonstrate your impact with confidence and make informed decisions about what comes next.
The challenges
Existing data is often spread across different systems, formats and teams, making it difficult to get a clear, joined-up picture. It can also be hard to judge how reliable or relevant that information is, or how it fits with wider evidence in the sector.
Without time and capacity to review it properly, valuable insight can sit unused. Sirel works with you to take stock of what you already have, assess its strengths and gaps, and identify where external sources can add depth or context.
We provide an independent, structured approach that turns scattered information into something credible and useful.
Possible approaches
This work typically starts with a review of your existing data and materials, including feedback, monitoring information and previous research. We then identify relevant external sources that can help answer your key questions.
What you receive
You will receive a clear, structured summary of the evidence available to you, combining your own data with any relevant external findings.
Our outputs are designed to be practical and easy to use, whether for planning, reporting, or making the case to funders and stakeholders.
Where appropriate, we also provide recommendations on how to strengthen your evidence base over time, ensuring you get the most value from both existing and future data.