The study into how organisations can learn from one another reports on the pilot of a benchmarking club, in which 22 national umbrella organisations participated. From the results of measurements taken of common performances such as communicating with members and providing representation to government, it was concluded that voluntary organisations would benefit from similar practices.

Ben Kernighan, director of services and development at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), which acts as secretariat for the Forum, said: “I hope that this benchmarking pilot exercise will be the first of many between similar types of organisation. Formal benchmarking clubs provide valuable opportunities to learn from one another’s positive and negative experiences, and establish ways of measuring performance against one another. Benchmarking has the potential to become one of the key tools in promoting a more collaborative approach right across the sector.”

The study also recommended that a new Performance Improvement Hub, being developed as part of the Government’s ChangeUp infrastructure review programme, should take the lead role in promoting and developing benchmarking initiatives in order for information to be co-ordinated effectively throughout the sector.

Chair of the National Umbrella Forum and chief executive of Volunteering England Christopher Spence said: “I welcome this report which demonstrates the potential value of benchmarking as one mechanism enabling umbrella bodies to satisfy themselves, their funders and other stakeholders that they are operating efficiently and effectively as well as learning from one another ways of improving their services.”