Army Cadets Charitable Trust
Using data to change perceptions and connect more young people with life-changing opportunities.
Audience research for charities
When did you last speak to the people you’re here to support? Audience research shows you how people really see your brand, use your website and experience your organisation. That means you can make decisions based on evidence, not assumptions.
Why research matters for charities
Design around real needs
It’s easy to make decisions based on what we think people need. Research brings your audiences into the conversation, so you can build around what they actually need and what motivates them.
See your charity from the outside
When you’re close to an organisation, it’s hard to see it the way others do. Research gives you an independent view and the evidence to challenge long-held assumptions.
Remove barriers to support
Small barriers can have a big impact. A confusing form, a missing link or unclear wording can stop someone finding help or making a donation. Research shows you where these barriers are, so you can fix them.
Include those you might be missing
The people who find it hardest to use your services are often the least likely to give you feedback. Research lets you hear from a wider range of voices, including people with lived experience and those facing access barriers.
Spend your budget where it counts
Charity budgets are stretched. Research gives your team evidence to prioritise content, design and services, so time and money go where they’ll make the biggest difference.
Build confidence and buy-in
Evidence makes it easier to agree on a direction. Research helps you make the case to trustees, leadership and colleagues, and move forward with confidence.
Our research methods
Interviews and diary studies
In-depth conversations with your audiences about their needs, experiences and relationship with your organisation. Diary studies follow people over days or weeks, which shows behaviour a single session might miss.
Surveys and polls
Feedback from a wider group of people. This ranges from short polls that inform a specific decision to detailed surveys on needs, perceptions and behaviour.
Usability and prototype testing
We watch people use your website or test early designs in one-to-one sessions. This shows what works and where people struggle, before and after you build.
Information architecture
Through content audits, card sorting and tree testing, we work out how your content should be organised so people can find what they need.
Data and analytics
We analyse tools such as GA4 and Microsoft Clarity to see how people use your website and where they drop off. A/B testing then shows which changes make a real difference.
Website review
We assess your website for accessibility against WCAG 2.2, check performance across devices, and compare your experience with similar organisations to show where you’re strong and where there are gaps.
How it works
Stage One
Scope
A short questionnaire and scoping session help us understand your goals, audiences and existing evidence. We then recommend an approach that fits your budget and timescales.
Stage Two
Research
We carry out the research with your audiences, using the methods we've agreed. We keep you updated throughout, so there are no surprises.
Stage Three
Analyse
We bring everything together and look for patterns across what we've seen and heard. We separate clear evidence from early signals, so you know how much weight to give each finding.
Stage Four
Recommend
We turn the findings into clear, prioritised recommendations your team can act on. Your audiences will keep changing, so we can also help you build research into how you work over time.
Our research case studies
See how we've helped charities understand the people they support and what changed as a result.
Alcohol Change UK
Observing user behaviour to reveal user needs, pain points and goals to reduce alcohol harm.
Accord
Building a sustainable, user-centred digital platform through our strategic partnership and user insight.
“As an education membership organisation, our digital success relies on attracting and retaining subscriptions. Studio Republic analysed our user behaviours using Google Analytics, session recordings, and surveys, identifying UX improvements in key journeys, page structure, design, and search filters. We were impressed by their evidence-based approach, which led to impactful enhancements. Since implementing their recommendations, our average session time has increased by 21% and membership by 37%.”
Richard John
Director of Programme Operations, Association for Citizenship Teaching
Audience research FAQs
We start with the questions you want to answer. Our pre-scoping questionnaire and scoping session help us understand your goals, audiences and existing evidence so we can recommend the methods most likely to give you useful answers.
Yes. We’ll recommend the approach we believe will give you the strongest evidence, but we’ll always work within your priorities, budget and timescales.
Your team knows your organisation and audiences incredibly well. Research complements that knowledge by testing assumptions, uncovering things you may not have seen and showing how people actually behave.
It depends on what you want to learn and the method we’re using. We’ll recommend an appropriate number of participants based on your objectives, audience, and budget. You don’t always need a large sample to uncover useful insights.
Absolutely. We can review existing research, analytics, survey responses, user feedback and other evidence alongside any new research. That means building on what you already know rather than starting again.
It depends on the methods we use, the number of participants and the amount of planning, research and analysis involved. Once we understand what you need to learn, we’ll provide a clear scope and cost for the recommended approach.
That depends on the type and scale of research. Analytics reviews and polls can often be completed relatively quickly, while interviews, usability testing and diary studies require more time for recruitment, sessions and analysis. We’ll agree on a realistic timetable with you during scoping.
UX research focuses specifically on how people interact with a digital product or service: for example, how they navigate a website, find information or complete a task. User research (sometimes called audience research) looks more broadly at the people your organisation is here to support. It can help you understand their needs, motivations, behaviours and perceptions, as well as how they feel about and interact with your organisation, both online and offline. UX research is therefore one part of a wider user research approach.
We turn what we’ve learnt into clear, actionable recommendations. Depending on the project, this might include a research report, presentation, prioritised recommendations, personas, journey maps, an improved information architecture or recommendations for further testing. The important part is that the research doesn’t sit in a document. It gives your team something practical to act on.
Want to know your audiences better?
Hi, I’m Claudia, an Audience Researcher who loves connecting with people and understanding how they engage with charities. If there's something you want to understand about your audiences, your website or your organisation, book a free 30-minute call or drop me an email.
