About Us

Jacinta Ashworth founded Ashworth Research in 2001, to offer top quality, freelance market and social research consultancy to the non-profit sector. Prior to this Jacinta was employed for nine years by a leading UK research agency. Jacinta is committed to helping charities and other civil society organisations better understand their stakeholders, create evidence-based strategies and improve their marketing and fundraising, through producing high quality research insights. Ashworth Research is a growing business, built upon excellence in delivery, attentive client service and providing real value for money. We thrive on repeat business from a loyal customer base who appreciate what we do and we gain new clients each year. Try us – you won’t be disappointed!

How we work

  • When projects demand it, Jacinta will often work with other research Associates to provide you with an expert team of highly experienced researchers, who each have at least 20 years' experience in the research industry. 
  • We don’t delegate the project management to junior researchers, as often happens in agencies, so you have the reassurance of senior researchers actively involved at all stages who, when it comes to reporting, know the research data firsthand.
  • Ashworth Research is a virtual organisation; all associates work from home offices.   
  • We outsource support services such as graphic design, survey fieldwork or data processing to our partner suppliers, all of whom have a track record for quality work. 
  • This means you get the skills and expertise of a large agency at an attractive price.
  • Ashworth Research has a strategic partnership to provide market and social research services to Compass Partnership management consultants.

 

 

Jacinta Ashworth

Jacinta has over 25 years' experience in the market research industry, specialising in quantitative surveys for the public and not-for-profit sectors. She was Senior Associate Director with BMRB until 2001, with projects ranging from the largest Government social surveys to small budget charity assignments and she enjoyed the very different challenges of both. Since going freelance, Jacinta has gained a reputation for providing high value quantitative and qualititative research for charities. Jacinta is passionate about using research to help nonprofit organisations increase their influence and achieve greater social impact. In 2013 she was appointed as a trustee of Thames Hospice.

 
 
 

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Sue Clegg

Sue Clegg has over 25 years’ experience as a qualitative social research expert. She is adept at conducting in-depth interviews, moderating focus groups, and the skilled thematic analysis of qualitative data to yield meaningful actionable insights.  She started research as an academic and then worked at leading research agency BMRB before going freelance. Her extensive experience is mainly for public sector and organisations in the nonprofit sector - particularly on health, welfare and disability issues. She volunteers for Healthwatch Bucks.

 
 
 

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Becky Lewis

Becky has worked in the research industry both agency and client side. Her 20 years' experience spans commercial, public and third sector research and insight. Becky joined BMRB as a graduate trainee in 1999 where she worked alongside Jacinta on several projects for charity and government clients. Whilst Director of a youth research agency she acquired knowledge and skills of new research methods and techniques and reaching Millennials. Becky started freelancing in 2013 and is also an established trainer in the research industry.

 

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Amanda Long

Amanda has over 25 years’ experience in marketing and market research, both qualitative and quantitative, private and social sector, working for several research agencies such as Gallup and BMRB during this time.  She became a freelance market research consultant in 2003. She has particular experience in social and media research, online surveys, qualitative research and interviewing opinion leaders and senior level executives.  She is also a long-standing Director of a local charity, the Harrow Women’s Centre.

 

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Jacinta Ashworth

Jacinta Ashworth is a Research Consultant with over 25 years' experience in conducting market and social research. From 1992 to 2001 she was employed by BMRB International, a leading UK market research agency, starting out as a graduate trainee Research Executive and leaving as Senior Associate Director and account manager for charity research. While at BMRB, Jacinta focused on managing research for the public and not for profit sectors. She carried out quantitative surveys for many central Government departments and public sector agencies including the Home Office, DSS, DfEE, the Central Office of Information, the Office of Manpower Economics and ACAS and among others, as well as many resident satisfaction surveys for local authorities, and numerous charities. Her work covered crime, citizenship, volunteering, racial discrimination, employment and careers, health, disability, benefits, human resources, customer satisfaction measurement, charity fundraising and marketing, and international aid and development. Jacinta carried out stakeholder research for various national charities on image, branding, communications, fundraising and supporter relations; clients included Oxfam, Save the Children, MAF, Blue Cross and Gingerbread, as well as policy and campaigning research leading to published reports for SCOPE, the British Heart Foundation and the National Centre for Volunteering.

Since establishing Ashworth Research in 2001 Jacinta has specialised in providing freelance research consultancy to the not for profit sector, for clients such as CAFOD, Tearfund, Compassion UK, a consortium of hospices, Caring for Ex-Offenders, and L&Q Housing among others; on topics ranging from awareness and image, to communications and fundraising, to client satisfaction and impact evaluation. She is skilled in carrying out quantitative surveys, qualitative focus groups and depth interviews, and secondary analysis and desk research. Her associates have assisted on some of these projects. During this time Jacinta has also worked extensively as a Research Consultant for Compass Partnership, who are specialist management consultants to nonprofit organisations. Jacinta uses research with trustees, beneficiaries and other stakeholders to: inform strategic reviews, evaluate effectiveness of services and measure board performance. Clients include the Royal British Legion SSAFA, RAF Benevolent Fund, NSPCC, MS Society, the Willow Foundation, DrinkAware, Citizens Advice, Turn2Us and the Royal College of Nursing among others. Two recently published reports, co-authored with Mike Hudson, are 'Delivering Effective Governance: Insights from the boards of larger charities,' (2012) and 'Building Outstanding Leadership Teams: insights from charity chief executives' (2014), the latter gaining a feature article in Third Sector magazine.

Jacinta holds the MRS Diploma and is a full certified member of the Market Research Society and is a member of the Independent Consultants Group (ICG). She has delivered professional training on postal surveys and charity research. She has presented at the NCVO Trustees Conference in 2012 and 2013 and at the NCVO annual 'Evolve' Conference in June 2014. In September 2013 she was appointed as a trustee of Thames Hospice, an £8m charity based in Windsor. She sits on the Income Generation and Marketing sub-committee and is helping to guide the charity through a period of expansion, as we build a new hospice.

 
 
 

Sue Clegg

Sue Clegg has over 25 years’ experience in qualitative social research.  She began her research career in universities, working on studies such as a pan-European review of residential care for people with learning disabilities and an exploration of the actions people took when they first experienced stroke symptoms.

Sue later moved to the qualitative social research department of BMRB, a large research agency.  Whilst there she worked on many projects, including mixed methods social policy work.  One of Sue’s largest projects, which is still quoted in relevant literature, looked at how and why people used front of pack food labelling when making choices about buying and using food products.

Since leaving BMRB Sue has been working as a social researcher for clients such as NHS England, various NHS bodies across the country, local authorities, The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Food Standards Agency in Northern Ireland, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and charities including SSAFA, Hertfordshire hospices and WAVE (We’re All Valued Equally).

Sue volunteers for Healthwatch Bucks, which entails collecting experiences of users of publicly funded health and social care services.

 
 

Amanda Long

Amanda Long has over 25 years’ experience in marketing and market research, both qualitative and quantitative. She is a statistics graduate with a Master's Degree in Marketing from the University of Westminster.

Amanda is an ex Board Director who has worked for many blue chip agencies such as BMRB International, The Added Value Company and Gallup.

At BMRB International, she worked for over 6 years in the adhoc media research unit. Her clients at BMRB included Flextech, BBC, BBC Trust and FT.

Prior to BMRB, she worked for the Roy Morgan Research Centre (Gallup Australia) before transferring to Gallup UK in 1988. At Gallup she was involved in a wide range of social and media projects and numerous surveys amongst opinion leaders. From Gallup she moved to the Added Value Company, a marketing agency where she worked on projects for clients such as Pepsi Co, Unilever and Kodak.

She became a freelance market research consultant in 2003. As a freelancer she has worked for clients such as the British Medical Association, London University and Edelman. She has particular experience in online surveys and she has conducted many qualitative studies involving depth interviews with opinion leaders and senior level executives. She has been an interim Insight Manager for Middlesex University and the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association.

She is a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and a Credited Member of the Market Research Society. She has presented papers at the BDS Sponsorship & StreetTalk conferences, written articles for Admap and Mediaweek and run training courses on questionnaire design and qualitative research.

In addition to her commercial work, Amanda is a Director of the Harrow Women's Centre (HWC), a registered charity that she has been a volunteer/director of for over 20 years.

 
 
 
 

Becky Lewis

Becky Lewis has over 20 years market research experience and an excellent understanding and knowledge of research strategies, methodologies, analysis and interpretation. She has been collaborating with Jacinta on Ashworth Research assignments since 2014. She currently works as a freelance Insight Consultant, operating as The Insight Fountain. Her clients include Pension Wise, the Southern Policy Centre, The Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

She has a particular focus on analysis and insight, coupled with a flair for producing visually-arresting presentations. She has strong project management skills from conception through delivery to implementation. She has sector knowledge of government, charities, finance and education as well as general consumer experience.

Previously Becky was Research Director at YouthSight a full service agency and access panel specialising in young people, students and young professionals. She was responsible for overseeing design and delivery of all research projects as well as managing and training the research team. Qualitative and quantitative research was carried out predominately online. Clients included brands (Red Bull, RBS, Barclays), government (Ofsted, BIS, YPLA, Student Loans Company) and many universities.

Becky has also worked in the Insight team at London Underground where she managed ad hoc surveys, the Mystery Shopping Survey and Customer Satisfaction Survey. In a role as the ‘Voice of the Customer’ she was responsible for consolidation of customers’ attitudes, needs and desires and disseminating the insight throughout the business from station staff to board.

Prior to that, Becky worked in the Social Division at BMRB where she worked on a range of face to face, telephone, postal and online surveys. Her clients included The Home Office, The Competition Commission and charities such as Oxfam and Save the Children. Her key projects for the Home Office included the Home Office Citizenship Survey, the Crime and Criminal Justice Survey and the British Crime Survey. Her analysis was included in Home Office reports of these surveys.

Becky graduated from the University of Exeter with a BA (Society Economy and Social Policy) and a MA (Applied Population Research). Becky is a certified (full) member of the MRS (Market Research Society), a member of the SRA (Social Research Association) and member of the Independent Consultants Group (ICG). She gained her MRS Diploma in 2002. She is an Academy Associate at the Research Academy tutoring on the MRS Advance Certificate and Diploma courses.