Prepared for Dorset Community Action by Adrian Taylor, 2026-10-05. If you work there and would rather this page came down, say so and it comes down.

Dorset Community Action: what the records show, and what we could do together

1. What you say, and where we read it

We read your website (DCA Home » Dorset Community Action) and your public channels.

Figures you publish: “Get Started - Click here A Thriving Voluntary and Community Sector : we support a vibrant network of over 3000 organisations, ensuring they have the training and tools to succeed in making a lasting impact.”; “ACRE and its 38 county-based member organisations, work together to advocate on behalf of rural communities, and support a wide range of community-led initiatives using nationally established good practice.”

Your channels: x (closed to readers, not read); linkedin (closed to readers, not read); facebook (closed to readers, not read).

2. Dorset’s charities, from outside

590 charities are based in Dorset, 15.5 for every 10,000 residents, where 17% of residents are on low incomes. 20% show under three months’ reserves or three years of deficits on their latest return; 7% take half or more of their income from government. The five largest hold 40% of the area’s charity income.

Rural communities in Dorset

In Dorset, the national network for your field (rural communities) sits below the middle of England's areas for the number of people counted there (gold in the chart below where a field has none recorded here or is in the thinnest fifth). Across England, 1,586 charities outside the field say in their own reports that they serve the same people, against 52 in it.

The 25 fields, against England

For each field of charity work we have mapped, where Dorset stands among England’s 152 areas for the presence of the national network per person in need. Gold bars are the fields where no presence is recorded here: 6 of 25.

Dorset: the bar is where the area stands among England's 152 areasnone recorded here, or in the thinnest fifthEngland's median area

Point at a bar for its figures. Thin first A to Z

Who does the work here, by register purpose

A charity records up to three purposes, so the circles overlap. Point at one for its count.

3. Sample campaign

Three posts in your voice from the figures above, each with its picture, ready to use. Every figure is from public information and no charity is named.

4. What working together looks like

	What you get	What it costs
The area report	Your area's charities from outside, with your own field first: how thin the known network is here for the people you work with, who else does the work, how exposed the area's charities are, what the money looks like. A page like this one, in full, refreshed each quarter.	£600 once, or £1,200 a year with four refreshes
A campaign from the findings	Three to five posts a month in your voice, each with its picture, from your area's own figures.	£250 a month

The first month: a twenty-minute call, your page in full within a week, and the first campaign posts the week after. Prices are set by income band from the public register and are the same for everyone in the band.

5. How to say yes

Reply to the email with a day that suits, call or text Adrian on the number in the email (it is on the Contact page too), or write to adrian@charityinabox.uk.

What this can and cannot say. These are counts over groups of charities and places from their own returns and reports and from national statistics. They do not rank any charity, name any, or say why. A thin field is one where the known network is thin for the people counted here, not one where nobody is helped.

Built from public information: the Charity Commission for England and Wales register and the annual reports charities file with it (OGL v3.0); Census 2021 (ONS); the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG); the Claimant Count (ONS). Privacy.