Questions and answers about Charity in a Box
Who is behind it, what it shows, what it costs and what you can rely on, in the questions people ask. Each answer leads to the page of this site that gives it in full.
Adrian Taylor runs Charity in a Box, after twenty years working in charities and public services. About Adrian.
The questions
- What is Charity in a Box?
- Who founded Charity in a Box, and who runs it?
- Is Charity in a Box run by a real person?
- Is Charity in a Box legitimate?
- Is Charity in a Box a charity or a company?
- What is Charity in a Box's website and email address?
- How do I contact Charity in a Box by email or phone?
- Is there a database of charities in England by local authority area?
- How can I find out which charities work in my area, and where the gaps are?
- Who helps people with mental health, food poverty, homelessness or caring in England?
- Which places in England are charity deserts?
- Where in England are there more charities per resident?
- Are charities that depend on government money more financially exposed?
- What can a council for voluntary service use for a state of the sector report?
- How can a community foundation or a funder see where need is and where help is thin?
- Are the members of charity membership bodies more exposed than the rest of their field?
- Can I see an example before I talk to anyone?
- How much does Charity in a Box cost?
- What happens after I get in touch?
- How up to date is the information?
- Does it cover the whole of the UK?
- Where does the information come from?
- Does Charity in a Box score or rank charities?
- Does the site hold personal data or use cookies?
- Why have I had an email from Charity in a Box?
- How do I stop emails from Charity in a Box?
- Can I have a page about my organisation taken down?
Who is behind Charity in a Box
What is Charity in a Box?
Charity in a Box joins up what is already public about charities in England and shows it back to the people who can act on it. Every charity sees its own work; nobody sees the whole field around it: who else is helping the same people, where help is thin, how exposed the organisations doing the work are. We show an organisation that view for its own field or its own area, on one page, built from public information. It is for UK charities and the bodies that serve them: local infrastructure bodies, community foundations, funders and membership bodies.
What the records show: the findings · What we offer
Who founded Charity in a Box, and who runs it?
Adrian Taylor founded Charity in a Box in 2026 and runs it. It is one person, who has spent twenty years working in charities and public services, at The Prince’s Trust, Ingeus, Islington Council, MacIntyre, Catch22, The Guinness Partnership and Young Enterprise. Adrian's photograph, working history and training are on the About page.
Who is behind Charity in a Box
Is Charity in a Box run by a real person?
Yes. Charity in a Box is run by Adrian Taylor, a person with a name, a face and a working history, all on the About page. If you have had an email from adrian@charityinabox.uk, it is from Adrian, and your reply goes to Adrian. The address and the phone number on the Contact page are answered by a person.
Is Charity in a Box legitimate?
Yes. It is a business run by a named person: Adrian Taylor, trading as Charity in a Box. Everything on the site comes from information that is already published and available to anyone, each page names the sources it draws on, and the findings are open for anyone to read. Nothing is paid for being recommended, and a price is the same for every organisation of the same size. If your organisation is named on the site and you would rather it were not, say so and it comes down; you do not have to give a reason.
Who is behind it · Privacy, and how to stop an email
Is Charity in a Box a charity or a company?
It is not a registered charity. It is a business that works for charities and the bodies that serve them: Adrian Taylor, trading as Charity in a Box. What it sells, and every price, is on the offer page.
What we offer, and what it costs
What is Charity in a Box's website and email address?
The website is www.charityinabox.uk, and email from Charity in a Box comes from adrian@charityinabox.uk and no other address. It has no other website. It is also on Bluesky, LinkedIn and YouTube.
The front door · Who is behind it
How do I contact Charity in a Box by email or phone?
Write to adrian@charityinabox.uk: a real address, read by a person. To call or text, or to book twenty minutes, the phone number is on the Contact page.
What it shows, and for whom
Is there a database of charities in England by local authority area?
The Charity Commission publishes its register, and each charity files an annual report with it. What no single public source shows is the picture by field and by place: how many charities work in an area, which fields of charity work are thin there, who else does the work the known networks don't, and how exposed the organisations doing it are. Charity in a Box brings the public sources together and returns that picture for one field or one area at a time: the area report and the field report. The findings show what it says about England as a whole.
The area report and the field report · The findings
How can I find out which charities work in my area, and where the gaps are?
The public register lists charities one at a time. It does not show the picture for a place. The area report does. It shows your area's charities from outside: how many, how exposed, which fields of charity work are thin here, who else does the work the known networks don't, what the money looks like, the year-on-year change. It is refreshed each quarter as the new reports arrive.
The area report · A worked example: local charities and the bodies that support them
Who helps people with mental health, food poverty, homelessness or caring in England?
Mostly charities that are not named for them. In 22 of 23 fields of charity work, more charities outside the field say in their own reports that they serve its people than there are charities in the field at all: for mental health, 12,312 against 416; for food, 8,148 against 450; for homelessness, 5,908 against 145; for unpaid carers, 1,708 against 173.
Finding 1 of 20, on the findings page
Which places in England are charity deserts?
More often the poorer ones: the more residents on low incomes, the more fields in which an area has little or none of the field's national network. Leaving aside three with tiny populations, the areas thin in most fields are Portsmouth, Barking and Dagenham, Hartlepool, Thurrock, Havering, Hillingdon, Lambeth, Redbridge, Redcar and Cleveland and Wokingham. And they last: new charities are founded mostly where charities already are (finding 7).
Finding 4 of 20, on the findings page · Finding 7 of 20, on the findings page
Where in England are there more charities per resident?
Where fewer residents are on low incomes and more hold degrees. Charity density falls with the share of residents on low incomes and rises strongly with the share with degrees.
Finding 6 of 20, on the findings page
Are charities that depend on government money more financially exposed?
Yes. Those taking half or more of their income from government show under three months' reserves or three years of deficits 26.1% of the time, against 20.4%, and hold 3.4 months of reserves against 4.7.
Finding 9 of 20, on the findings page
What can a council for voluntary service use for a state of the sector report?
The area report, made for local infrastructure bodies (councils for voluntary service, voluntary action and community action bodies, volunteer centres, rural community councils). It shows your area's charities from outside: how many, how exposed, which fields of charity work are thin here, who else does the work the known networks don't, what the money looks like, the year-on-year change. It costs £600 once, or £1,200 a year with four refreshes.
For local infrastructure bodies · A worked example: local charities
How can a community foundation or a funder see where need is and where help is thin?
The area report for your county shows where need is, where help is thin, who already does the work and what the money looks like, by field, for the places you fund, refreshed each quarter. For one programme, the funder's view for a programme shows which fields and places the programme would reach, and what is already there. Where your own grants would add to the picture, they can be set beside the field: where your money lands against where the thin places are. Your data stays with you; we work on totals.
For community foundations and funders · A worked example: local giving
Are the members of charity membership bodies more exposed than the rest of their field?
Mostly, yes. In 18 of 23 bodies, members are more often fragile than the other charities doing the same work by name; in 16 of 21 they are more often dependent on government money. Members are the service-delivering, contract-funded part of a field; the rest of the field by name is mostly small and volunteer-run. The field report shows a membership body what its field can't see from inside it, and the members' licence gives each member its own view: where it stands beside the rest of the field, what is thin in its area, who else is at work there.
Finding 13 of 20, on the findings page · For membership bodies
Can I see an example before I talk to anyone?
Yes. 17 worked examples are open on the site, each built from public information to show the view for one field: Community ownership, Hospice care, Unpaid carers, Young people, Young families, Local charities, Local giving, Riding for disabled people, Free legal help, Sea Cadets and young people, Rural England, Somewhere to go, Homelessness, Dyslexia support, Kidney patients, Armed forces charities and Greater Manchester communities. And the findings answer 20 questions about England's charities as a whole.
All the worked examples · The findings
How much does Charity in a Box cost?
The area report is £600 once, or £1,200 a year with four refreshes. The field report for a membership body is £1,500, £4,000 or £9,000 a year, by your income band, never negotiated. The funder's view for a programme is £3,000 to £8,000 a programme, and a campaign from the findings is £250 a month. A price is the same for every organisation of the same size.
The whole offer and what it costs
What happens after I get in touch?
A twenty-minute call, in which we show you what the records already say about your field or area. Then your page, in full, within a week; the first campaign posts the week after, in your voice, from your own figures; and a refresh every quarter, as the new reports arrive.
How it works · Book twenty minutes
How up to date is the information?
Public information decays, so the picture is refreshed each quarter as the new reports arrive: it describes this quarter, not the year it was made. Every page carries the date it was built.
Our theory of change: keep it current
Does it cover the whole of the UK?
The findings and the area reports cover England, county and unitary area by area. Several of the worked examples cover England and Wales.
The findings, for England · The worked examples
What you can rely on
Where does the information come from?
From information that is already published and available to anyone: the Charity Commission for England and Wales register and the annual reports charities file with it, the 2021 Census, the English Indices of Deprivation and the Claimant Count. Every figure comes from published information, and each page names the sources it draws on.
The findings and their sources
Does Charity in a Box score or rank charities?
No. There is no score, no rating and no league table. The findings and the reports are counts over groups of charities and places, and name no charity. The worked examples list the organisations on each network's own public list, and score none of them.
Does the site hold personal data or use cookies?
The pages are built from public information about organisations and places. The site sets no cookies and keeps no record of who reads it beyond the ordinary server log, which is kept for thirty days. No telephone numbers, individual email addresses or full postcodes of the organisations in the data appear anywhere.
Why have I had an email from Charity in a Box?
We write to organisations that could use what the records show about their field or their area. We use the business contact details an organisation publishes on its own website, or the address a charity gave the Charity Commission. The email is from Adrian Taylor, and links to a page written for your organisation from public information. We do not buy lists or sell addresses.
Why you may have had an email from us · Who sent it
How do I stop emails from Charity in a Box?
Reply to any email with the word "no", or write to adrian@charityinabox.uk, and we will not write again; the address is kept only so that we never do.
Can I have a page about my organisation taken down?
Yes. If you work at an organisation named on this site and you would rather it were not, write to adrian@charityinabox.uk and it comes down; you do not have to give a reason.
If your organisation has a page here
A question that is not here
Write to adrian@charityinabox.uk and a person answers.
Written by Adrian Taylor. Built 2026-10-05. Privacy.