Charities across the UK doing good
As part of our series on charitable giving during a recession, we want to take a moment to remind ourselves of the value of charities in our society.
By reflecting on the impact of the Third Sector, and the way people give, we believe organisations can be better prepared for the challenges that lie ahead.
What are we talking about here?
A Charity in English law is an organisation established for charitable purposes only, for public benefit.
There are around 183,000 charities in England and Wales, with 25,000 in Scotland and just over 7,500 in Northern Ireland, based on the various Charity Commission statistics across our UK countries.
People gave £11.3 billion to charity in the UK in 2020, and the average monthly donation in 2021 was £49 according to the 2021 UK Giving Report from CAF.
Who gives to what causes & how much do they give?
There’s plenty of good will for giving across UK society, across a variety of interests and causes.
- Religious groups receive the largest donations and gained the highest proportion of the total donations made during 2021.
- Sports and Recreation and the Arts sector saw their average donations fall in recent years, while overseas aid relief has increased its average, according to CAF’s 2022 UK Giving Report.
What's happening to giving now?
Despite a growth in giving during the Covid-19 pandemic and a peak driven by the war in Ukraine in March 2022, levels of giving have been declining.
We can relate much of this to the pressures on peoples’ income driven by the growing economic crises being felt across the UK.
Sponsorship and Donations have fallen across gender, age and regional groupings according to CAF too.
Fewer young people give to charity, but it’s good to see that with large-scale sponsorship events, such as the London Marathon has reported at 43% year on year rise this year, for about 1700 charities. Peoples’ capacity to give is resilient!
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What impact do charities have?
The value of charity is multiple. It’s relatively easy to understand the impact of manufacturing on society, according to the Charity Commission’s research. Their Value of Charity report also encourages politicians, businesses and policy makers to acknowledge the importance of charities in what they deliver, as well as their impact on social cohesion, individual wellbeing and engagement.
The largest sector of activity across charities are in social services, culture and recreation. Most organisations are small, and most depend on volunteers to deliver their services.
Charities form an integral and increasingly important place in the UK society, and oftentimes take the place of traditional public services like cancer research, contributing over £15bn in GDP and 900,000 jobs back in 2018, based on NCVO statistics.
Charities provide services in demand across society
The value created by volunteers and group participants won’t be immediately visible in income and impact assessments – the indirect or Social value to others in a community.
Tackling the Funding Crisis through innovation
The recession’s effect on fundraising, means a Funding Gap for many.
A combination of increased demand on services, plus a potential decline in fundraising income is a difficult situation to tackle.
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Our experience goes back two decades, with a foundation building and providing critical digital services and products for the financial services and retail industries.
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