The Status of UK Fundraising 2025

Charities are at a proverbial crossroads in 2025. They are balancing an uncertain economy with rising demand for their services. While technological advances have made it possible for them to stretch their budgets further and deliver more impact, they have also thrown up their own challenges.  

Artificial intelligence (AI), for example, has been widely touted as a transformative tool for the charity sector, yet has raised concerns over data security and accuracy, meaning charities must weigh up the benefits and the costs to ensure they are continuing to achieve impact. 

This delicate balance has been reflected in the 2025 Status of UK Fundraising report, conducted by Blackbaud, the leading provider of software for powering social impact. The report revealed that 54% of charities said their fundraising income remained static or declined in the previous 12 months. A third of charities say they met their fundraising target, while 27% did not reach it.   

Of those who said their income declined, inadequate resources was cited as the second most common reason, behind being impacted by the current economic environment.  While three in five charities said they were impacted by the economy, 43% of charities believe they are not adequately resourced – 31% blamed lack of investment in fundraising specifically.  

There were still small signs of optimism – there were slightly fewer charities reporting a decline in income than in the previous year. Similarly, 46% of charities said their voluntary income had increased – again slightly more than in the 2024 report. But the 2025 report adds that “income changes correlated with organisation size”, with 61% of large charities saying their income grew.  

While it appears there is a widening gap between charities who are able to invest in their fundraising and those who are not, fundraising strategies do not have to be expensive to be successful. In fact, digital maturity appeared to be a bigger factor in income growth and the report shows there are organisations of all sizes who consider themselves to be digitally mature. 

Below, we explore three of the key fundraising trends revealed in the 2025 Status of UK Fundraising report  and how charities can make the most of them moving forward.  

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Exceptional gifts drive growth 

Almost half of those who reported a growth in fundraising income attributed it to receiving exceptional gifts, often very large, one-off donations. Blackbaud points out that, while they are mostly one-off and non-repeatable gifts, they are not random: “they are driven by deliberate fundraising strategies that focus on cultivating and nurturing these major donor relationships”. 

Other drivers of growth included “new and different activity” and “enhanced focus on supporter experience”, cited by 36% and 32% of respondents respectively. 

Indeed, there appears to be an opportunity for charities to adapt their fundraising strategies. Of those charities who said their income declined, 43% attributed it to existing supporters giving less. While the uncertain economic climate is certainly a factor, charities also need to reevaluate their current supporter journeys to discover if these supporters are becoming less engaged over time. It may not be a case of investing more in fundraising, but rather pivoting existing strategies to adapt to changing donor behaviour.  

AI impacting digital maturity 

The report revealed an average digital maturity rating of 5.1 out of 10 within the charity sector, consistent with the 2024 rating. However, this rating was slightly higher in 2023 and yet higher in 2022. 

Blackbaud suggests that AI is a significant factor impacting digital maturity among charities. “AI innovations advance by the day, and this focus on new technological possibilities may be affecting how nonprofit organisations perceive and rate their digital maturity,” the report explains. 

Charities of all digital maturity levels have some hesitation around AI. Those who consider themselves to have low digital maturity are “often nervous about AI”, while those with high digital maturity “understand the applications and the benefits but also the limitations of using AI in the sector”.  

Indeed, while more than three quarters of charities (77%) say they use AI – 20 percentage points more than in the 2024 report. However, Blackbaud noted that this use is mostly limited to generative AI and natural language processing. Instead, the report recommends focusing on data, with two thirds of charities saying improved data management is the technology-related benefit that would bring the most value to their current fundraising strategies and operations. 
 

Digital maturity for all charities 

One heartening finding from the Status of UK Fundraising 2025 is that organisation size was not a large factor in whether a charity considered themselves digitally mature or not.  

“Digitally mature organisations can be found in all size groups,” states Blackbaud. “In fact, the split between those digitally immature and digitally mature is relatively even in each size-based segment.” 

This shows that charities of all sizes have the ability to innovate and create new fundraising opportunities. There is indeed a correlation between digitally maturity and income growth. Organisations with an above-average digital maturity score say they experienced income growth, while they were also less likely to say their income had declined. 

Blackbaud concludes: “These findings continue to emphasise that organisations of all sizes can find success and capitalise opportunities for growth through building a culture around innovation and technological adoption that leaves room for testing and realising the benefits of their digital tools.” 

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