Monday briefing: Why Britain is becoming less charitable – and what it means for those that need it most
Good morning. Britain donated an estimated £14bn to charity last year, but that seemingly large headline figure masks both a dip in donations and a deeper shift in giving. A new report from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) finds that 55% of the UK population gave to charity last year, down from 69% a decade ago – leaving around six million fewer donors supporting charities. For years, the sector has relied on a shrinking group of committed supporters giving more. But with donations falling for the first time in five years, researchers warn that Britain’s culture of giving is becoming “increasingly fragile”. For today’s First Edition I spoke to Mark Greer, managing director of CAF, about what the new figures reveal about how – and why – Britons give what they do, and the factors that mean they sometimes don’t. First of all, the headlines. Five big stories Middle East | Ministers are drawing up plans to send minesweeping drones to the strait of Hormuz amid concerns in Whitehall that complying with Donald Trump’s demand to send ships could escalate the crisis. Oscars | Paul Thomas Anderson’s counter-culture caper One Battle After Another has won the Oscars war, taking home six awards after a hotly contested season. US politics | Republican lawmakers are pushing back against suggestions from the head of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, that he might remove the licenses from media he – and Donald Trump – deem to be delivering fake news about the war in Iran. Business | Oil company shares have hit all-time highs due to the crisis caused by the war in the Middle East. The combined market value of the six stock market-listed western “super majors” has soared by more than $130bn in the two weeks since the start of the war. Abortion | Vulnerable women in England are still being arrested and facing police investigations over suspected illegal pregnancy terminations, despite parliament backing changes to the law to decriminalise abortion. In depth: A generous country for now – but one where giving could become less normalised
Like many people of my generation, my earliest memory of charity is dropping coins into the slot of one of the model guide dogs that sometimes sat outside shops in the 1970s. The mechanics of giving were simple: a collecting tin, a sponsorship form, perhaps a direct debit leaflet through the post, if you were pushing the boat out. The ways people support charities in the 2020s look very different. But the bigger shift is not how people give – it’s how many people give at all. “I think we’re seeing the continuation of a trend that’s been quite long established – fewer people are giving, and we’ve now seen that dip below close to only half of the population,” Greer tells me. “That’s obviously not a positive trend.” It’s not the first time donations have declined – five years ago there was a similar dip – so it is not necessarily an irreversible change, he says. In the past, falls in giving have been followed by recoveries. But the headline remains that both the amount given and the number of people donating have fallen. *** The shrinking donor base For much of the past decade, charities have weathered falling participation because those who continued to donate tended to give more. But that model may now be reaching its limits. “Over the previous few years we had fewer people giving, but the total amount donated was increasing,” Greer says. “So charities have been reliant on a declining number of donors who were increasing their generosity.” That trend, however, was unsustainable. “Realistically it couldn’t go on for ever – you can’t have fewer people giving while the total amount donated keeps increasing indefinitely,” he says. “So the most concerning thing this year is that we’ve seen the total amount given fall as well as the number of donors.” *** Why people aren’t giving The report suggests economic pressures are playing a significant role. Since 2016 households have faced a series of shocks – from the pandemic to rising costs and higher interest rates. “One of the clearest ways to see the impact is in the demographics that are hit hardest by cost-of-living pressures,” Greer says. Among 16- to 24-year-olds, 61% had donated or sponsored someone in 2016. Last year that figure was 40%. “Cost of living is probably not the only factor in play there,” he says. “But the demographics where money is tightest have certainly seen some of the starkest declines in giving.” *** Are younger people giving differently? The picture among younger donors is more complicated than a simple withdrawal from charity. “Some of that is about how giving is triggered,” Greer mentions. “One of the biggest reasons anyone gives to charity is simply because they were asked to – perhaps by a friend doing a sponsored event, or by a fundraiser in the street.” For younger people, those requests increasingly arrive online, which can cause its own issues. Social media creates a more ad-hoc giving culture, rather than the more reliable funding streams provided by those who used to set up a direct debit after watching a charitable ad on TV or seeing a campaign they chimed with in the newspaper. “Fundraising often happens through social media and other digital networks, so the routes into giving can look quite different.” Younger people may also be contributing in other ways. “We see really strong levels of volunteering among younger people,” he says. “In fact, the rates of volunteering among younger people are broadly similar to those among older people. So people who might have less disposable income are still contributing in other ways.” *** The causes people feel closest to Charitable giving is also shaped heavily by proximity – with people typically more likely to support causes they feel directly connected to, whether that’s a local food bank, a community project or a national health charity for something that has affected them or their loved ones. In 2016, about 19% of donors supported disaster relief or overseas aid charities. Last year that figure was 11%. International crises can also feel distant to potential donors. The report states that in 2016, donations to overseas aid totalled an estimated £970m. By 2025, this had fallen to an estimated £727m – a significant decline in absolute terms, but a much larger decline when accounting for inflation. This comes at a time when the Labour government is also cutting overseas aid. “I think a lot of that is linked to economic pressures at home. When times are difficult domestically, people tend to focus their giving on causes closer to home. Overseas crises can also feel very large and remote to many donors,” Greer says. “Sometimes people feel the impact they can make locally is more tangible than the impact they can have on something happening far away.” *** A fragile culture of giving Taken together, these shifts have led CAF to describe Britain’s culture of giving as “fragile”. “We still have very high levels of generosity in the UK, so we’re not at that point [of the sector collapsing] yet,” Greer tells me. “But if the trend continues, giving could become less normalised – and that’s what I mean by fragile.” Charities may find themselves increasingly having to compete for a smaller pool of donors, or reducing their ambitions in line with falling revenue. Another concern lies with those who are not giving at all. The report found that 28% of non-donors said they were simply not interested in charities. Among higher and additional rate taxpayers, that rises to 49%. “That suggests there’s a job for the charity sector, and organisations like CAF, to engage people who are not giving and show them the impact of what charities do,” Greer says. Reviving a broad culture of generosity matters beyond the sector itself, he added. “We need to revive that culture of giving and ensure it remains widespread – whether that’s through donations of money, volunteering or other forms of engagement,” he says. “Ultimately this matters for the fabric of British society. Civil society thriving makes the country a better place to live, to work, and to enjoy our culture.” What else we’ve been reading
I enjoyed Charlotte Edwardes’ relentless attempts to crack Yvette Cooper’s “glassy reserve” as she shadowed the foreign secretary during a highly eventful few weeks. Lucinda Everett, newsletters team Susie Parr writes for i-D magazine about her late husband, the photographer Martin Parr, saying he was “a huge character with many quirks” ahead of a new exhibition of his work. Martin Simon Usborne’s excellent piece talking to men with prostate cancer raises an important question: when it is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK, why is early screening still not prioritised? Lucinda Regular readers will know of my love for Doctor Who, and may have seen two lost episodes from 1965 have been recovered. They featured Peter Purves, now aged 87, who is interviewed here about getting to watch them again in a surprise screening for him. Martin A tonic for anyone in a grump with their sibling: Catherine Carr writes beautifully about growing up in a different household from her sister, and the knotty magnificence of sibling bonds. Lucinda Sport
Football | Tottenham secured a 1-1 draw at Anfield thanks to a late strike from Richarlison, pictured above, moving them one-point clear of the relegation zone. Football | Lauren James led Chelsea to a 2-0 victory over Manchester United to secure the Women’s League Cup, scoring the first goal in the 19th minute. Formula One | 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli won the Chinese GP for Mercedes. He finished ahead of his teammate, George Russell, and Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari in third. The front pages
“Britain could send minesweeping drones to help clear vital oil route” is the Guardian splash. “Starmer refusing to send warships to Strait” is top story at the Telegraph, the Times has “PM resists Trump’s call for warships in the Strait” and the i Paper says “Help on way for UK energy bills as Iran and US rule out talks”. The FT leads on “Talks with Iran yield results, India says”. The Mail headlines on “Two dead in university meningitis outbreak”, the Mirror says “Crisis of our age”, in reference to the NHS and dementia, and the Sun has “Mother of all insults” about the Beckhams. Today in Focus
‘El Guapo’: The Spanish PM standing up to Trump Madrid-based journalist Guy Hedgecoe explains why Pedro Sánchez has been one of the few European leaders to challenge the US president on Iran. Cartoon of the day | Nicola Jennings
The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Zakia Sewell grew up feeling perpetually “‘in-between’: half-white, half-black; half-British, half-Caribbean, and on the faultline between what sometimes felt like two worlds at war.” But at 15, she went to see the band Pentangle (pictured above) – who fuse British folk melodies with blues and jazz – and emerged “changed forever”. She began to explore British folk culture, discovering, she says, “a very different kind of Britain to the one invoked by […] Rule, Britannia! or by the union jack”. Instead the songs, stories and customs conjured a vision of Britain that was “enchanted, subversive and strange: a Britain I felt I could belong to”. As she got older, Sewell began to recognise connections between British and Caribbean traditions, and met other people, from all walks of life, drawn in by folklore’s uniting power. “They speak to and from a primal part of us that longs for story, ritual, community and a connection to the ground beneath our feet, wherever on the Earth we might stand.” She adds: “I’ll be for ever grateful to Pentangle for that transformative gig.” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
