Major charities’ brand images may have turned around in the past 12 months after a challenging few years, according to a public polling firm.

YouGov’s latest CharityIndex found Macmillan Cancer Support’s brand remained the strongest of the 50 high profile charities tracked.

The CharityIndex score takes into account perceptions of a charity’s quality, value, impression, satisfaction, reputation and whether consumers would recommend the brand to others.

Cancer Research UK was in second place with the British Heart Foundation following in third. The remainder of the top five is made up of the RNLI and Marie Curie.

The top five remained the same as last year. All charities saw at least a slight improvement in their index score, except Marie Curie which fell from 29.6 to 29.5.

The average index score of the 32 organisations that the CharityIndex has consistently tracked over the past four years increased to 22.9 in the year to June, from 21.5 in the previous period. The improvement lifted the average above the 22.6 registered in June 2015.

The study found RSPCA was the top charity brand driving the improvement, with its index score improving by 2.7 points to 21.2 in the 12 months to the end of June. Cancer Research UK followed with a 2.3 point improvement to 42, before NSPCC which improved 2.2 points to 26.8.

Shelter, the British Heart Foundation, and Macmillan Cancer Support all improved by 2.1 points each.

YouGov associate director Briony Gunstone said charities have been under “intense scrutiny” over the past few years, impacting on the public perception of the sector. However, Gunstone said the worst may be over.

“What is unclear, though, is whether this is because the number of negative headlines about the sector have declined or whether it is the result of charities being better at getting across the value of their work.”

Access a summary of the figures here.

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