How can charities rebuild a “culture of giving”?

There are six million fewer UK donors compared with a decade ago. The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) estimates that the sector has lost out on £12.4bn in income as a result. Mark Greer, Managing Director at CAF, said, “where it seems that giving was once a deeply embedded cultural norm, it has now become increasingly conditional, selective, and fragile.”

 

 

Why have people in the UK stopped giving?

 

It’s worth noting that a significant proportion of people in the UK do still engage with civil society. In 2025, 84% of people in the country were involved in civic life in some way, from serving as a trustee to signing a petition. But only 50% donated to charities (55% if you count sponsoring someone).

 

Looking at the broader economic context for charity fundraising, it’s perhaps no wonder that some people have stopped giving. The cost-of-living crisis has forced a tightening of personal and household finances, but there is some hope. Government data shows that the percentage of adults in food insecure households fell from 11% to 9% between 2023/24 and 2024/25 and the proportion of UK working-age adults who cannot afford basic items also fell in the same period.

 

However, in April 2026, 79% of UK adults still reported an increase in their cost of living compared with the previous month and 62% said they were spending less on non-essentials. This aligns with CAF’s finding that more people (49%) in 2025 said they weren’t giving to charity because they couldn’t afford it, up from 44% in 2024.

 

But affordability wasn’t the only reason for not donating in the last 12 months — 19% said they don’t trust charities to use their money wisely. Trust has been an undercurrent in public discourse about charities for more than a decade, with the Charity Commission reporting an all-time low in 2018, although the mean score for trust in charities has improved, reaching 6.5 in 2024 and 2025 up from 5.5 in 2018.

 

The remainder of people who didn’t donate could be broadly defined as apathetic — they didn’t want to, or there hasn’t been a charity that interested them enough; it didn’t occur to them, or they don’t particularly care about giving to charity.

 

 

Creating a culture of giving

 

In a fundraising climate marred by tricky household finances, trust issues, and public apathy, what can charities do to help create a culture of giving?

 

 

Ask more?

 

There’s an old charity sector adage: “most people give because they were asked”. So perhaps charities simply need to ask more. But if the major issue is charities losing donors, simply upping the number of asks is unlikely to be the answer. That’s reflected in CAF’s findings: most people who gave were prompted to give by a friend, family member, or colleague and did so for emotional reasons.

 

 

Ask the wealthy?

 

If the biggest problem with giving is affordability, charities could focus their fundraising efforts on the well-off. However, CAF found a greater concentration of, what could be defined as apathy, among higher rate taxpayers. This group were twice as likely to say a charity hasn’t interested them enough to donate, for example. With some £3.1bn sitting in donor advised funds in the UK, ready to be distributed to charities that can spark major donor interest, this feels like an urgent problem to address.

 

 

Ask young people?

 

Historically, the major attrition risk has been lower levels of regular giving in younger generations. CAF found that 16-24 year olds were most likely to have bought something from a charity shop rather than given a one-off or regular donation. And apathy was high in this group too.

 

Nearly one in three non-donors overall said they were not engaged with or interested in charities and this was higher for young people and those living in London. If charities know that younger people give differently, success is more likely with an approach like the ’Share the Meal’ app, which meets their needs for real-time information, rapid response, and control over their giving.

 

 

Ask existing donors for more?

 

There are calls to think radically about traditional fundraising models to help raise more from existing and new donors.

 

Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t going to rebuild public trust or turn apathy into empathy, but there is evidence to show that it could help charities raise more from existing connections through better targeting and resulting cost-savings. For example, in 2022 Pancreatic Cancer UK used AI to select an segment to appeal to from their database and saw an 111% increase in net income compared to previous appeals.

 

An alternative approach could see commercial sector tactics for keeping prices in line with inflation baked into charity sector giving models, with donors being given the option to auto-increase their direct debits in line with rising charity costs.

 

 

Stop asking, start listening

 

What if the answer to these issues isn’t only about asking different people to donate or asking the same people in different ways? What if it’s about ceding control, just a little? About taking a step back and encouraging the communities the sector supports to tell their own stories, not just to drive donations, but to help retain donor support. If charities act as a guide for donors – as the connection to rather than the voice of the people and places they support – they could address donor apathy with authenticity.

 

Charities still need to ask for donations, but they could also benefit from listening more to their supporters to understand their motivations and what prompts them to give. If charities understand motivations, they can help create experiences that meet donors’ underlying needs, whether those are to learn more about the issue the charity works on or to find a community with shared lived experience.

 

Making a donation must go beyond a transaction. It should be the start of a conversation, joining a community built on shared values, and committing to a better future.