How Britain stopped giving

Yahoo

31-03-2025

Go Beyond – a small, dedicated charity giving disadvantaged children the chance to visit the countryside and enjoy outdoor exercise – had an entirely different business model 10 years ago.
Then, donations came from multiple sources – from thriving charity stores in cities across the South West, from bucket collections outside supermarkets, from sponsored events and a quarterly email appeal. Now, the stores are all closed, the buckets are largely empty, the events are sparsely attended and email donations have dropped 20 per cent.
'The cost-of-living crisis has really affected the way people support charities,' says Sara Shearman, the director of fundraising at Go Beyond. 'It used to be something people did quite naturally; now, it is seen as a luxury.'
Sadly, it is far from alone in its struggles. Last week, the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) released its latest UK Giving Report, which backed up what floundering charities have been saying for months – that the number of people donating has dropped to critical levels, as the wider British public becomes significantly less generous.
The figures are stark: 55 per cent of the nearly 14,000 people surveyed said they had donated to a charity in the previous year – a drop of 10 per cent from 2019. At a national level, that means 5.2 million fewer people reaching into their pockets. Donation rates were down across the board but particularly among young adults: less than a third of under-25s now support any charity.
The CAF's findings also revealed a reduction in volunteering. In 2023, 7.1 million people helped out in some capacity. Last year, that figure had fallen to 5.6 million. Overall, the number of people supporting charities – whether through donations, sponsorship or time – has fallen to the lowest levels recorded since the CAF began tracking such trends in 2016.
'We are living through a time of real income pressure with budgets needing to go much further, so you'd naturally expect charitable giving to be constrained a little,' says Neil Heslop, the chief executive of the CAF. 'What is concerning is that this trend seems to go beyond this specific economic situation, with people now simply getting out of the habit of giving up their time or money, and the proportion of the public that donates to charity in steady decline.'
Lauren Weymouth, the editor of Charity Times, believes we are in an era of giving fatigue. 'There was a huge fundraising surge during the pandemic, and people did donate generously,' she says, 'but five years on, it has gotten to the point where they are looking at the increase in costs in everything and thinking, 'Well, I have done a lot recently, so I am going to pause on that.''
For Shearman, there are more profound factors at play too. Traditionally, she notes, charities would collect money outside supermarkets – something that has been all but destroyed by our increasingly cashless society. 'Fundraising is mostly online now,' she says, 'but charities have suffered from this. Most of them have invested in technology to accept card payments via the internet, but it is tough on the very small charities that don't have the infrastructure.'
Similarly, there are fewer ways to give money casually than there were before, which is why Shearman has introduced a button on her website allowing people to donate £3.50 to buy a child an ice cream – something she likens to throwing a few coins in a bucket.
These trends have coincided with the rise of the subscription economy, which has spelt trouble for organisations historically reliant themselves on consistent contributions from supporters.
'We think that charities' biggest competitors are other charities but because they rely on subscriptions, it is actually companies like Netflix or Spotify,' says Weymouth. 'People are looking at the money coming out of their accounts each month additionally and thinking, 'Well, Spotify has gone up, but I need that, so I'll cut back on Oxfam.''
Time, too, appears to be more of a premium than ever before. 'We organised a zip wire event but found it really difficult to get people to enter,' says Shearman. 'The money just isn't there and people are much more particular with their time now, which means we have to work so much harder to get the same income.'
And then there is the rise of second-hand-clothing apps, which has proved disastrous for charity shops.
Stephanie Moore is the founder and CEO of Reach Out to the Community, an independent charity shop in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, which aims to combat homelessness and food poverty. Since founding the organisation in 2016, she has seen donations drop in quality and quantity as people have turned to online marketplaces such as Vinted.
'Times have changed and people are selling much more online,' she says. Her shop survives only thanks to donations from older people, who give far more generously than younger generations. Annie Dodd, a volunteer at Reach Out, echoes this. 'Older people are more conscious of not wanting to waste things,' she says. 'I think a lot of young people use [apps such as Facebook Marketplace].'
Similarly, the quality of donations has fallen off a cliff as people increasingly drop off items they cannot sell.
'At the moment, we're getting a lot of stuff we're having to dispose of – cracked plates or broken games consoles, stuff like that; stuff that really shouldn't come to a charity shop,' says Moore.
'Generally I'll only bring stuff in [to charity shops] when I'm moving – I don't know if that's bad, it's just a thing,' says Felix Woods, 22. 'I sell the odd thing, and I know people who do – it's a good way to recycle clothes.'
For Go Beyond, this shift meant it became too difficult to keep its stores open. 'The charity shop is dying,' says Shearman. 'There is a huge amount of competition to attract the dwindling number of good donations left out there, so we decided to close the shops and invest more in fundraising.'
Another issue affecting donations is the damaging perception that charity executives are overpaid. Many such roles come with six-figure salaries, and the median annual salary for those heading the UK's 100 largest charities now stands at just shy of £200,000, according to industry research.
'People feel like they are giving to an organisation that is paying executives more money than they will ever make and it really bothers them,' says Weymouth.
For Nick Connolly, the chief executive of homelessness charity EveryYouth, getting donations from the general public is now too arduous. 'The amount of money you need to invest to make individual giving work is beyond our capability, because to make it worthwhile you need people to give regular gifts – and for that you need to advertise, which costs a lot.'
Instead, Connolly is sourcing money from corporations and fundraisers – but that is not without its own issues. 'Whereas in the past, I would be competing against 20 or 30 other charity organisations, now the number is usually over 100,' he says, noting that Labour's tax raid on employers has only worsened an already dire situation. 'Add to that national insurance increases from the Government and you get a very difficult environment indeed.'
As pressure on the sector (which employs approximately a million people) increases, certain types of organisations are faring better than others. The CAF survey found that people favoured health charities, which scooped up an estimated £2.22 billion of donations last year.
'Health charities are the ones doing the best because people can see the effect Covid had on the health sector and because they can relate to them – everyone knows someone who has been affected by cancer or Alzheimer's,' says Weymouth. 'Meanwhile, environmental charities are really struggling, because while people know that climate change is happening, they're not as closely linked to the cause.'
Weymouth notes that any charities focusing on diversity or inclusion are also suffering more than most – this might be because, statistically, the donors who are still giving a significant amount are more likely to be white and middle class, and may have been put off by overt identity politics.
Similarly, homelessness charities are having a difficult time. 'Homelessness is becoming more prevalent but unfortunately no less stigmatised, so people can be unsure how to respond – if at all,' says Laura Herring, the director of fundraising and communications at St Mungo's. 'The cost-of-living crisis also means that people aren't able to give as much, or as often, as they would like to.'
All in all, it is a bleak situation – except for one area. Charity bequests are up by a significant amount, as people donate less in life but more in death. In the past 20 years, money bequeathed to charity in people's wills has risen from £1.7 billion a year to £4 billion, totalling about 15 per cent of all donations.
'It is a brilliant way of giving because it costs you nothing now,' says Richard Radcliffe, the founder of Radcliffe Consulting, which specialises in legacy fundraising. 'This is an ageing society and so it makes sense. It's incredibly convenient, there are inheritance tax benefits, and it makes you feel really happy because you can choose a charity close to your heart.
'We call it life-driven, death-activated. Honestly, I think it is the future of the sector – and increasingly the only way for many charities to survive.'
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