No significant recovery for charity sector until 2024, data indicates
Melanie May | 10 January 2023 | News
Charities are in the midst of not just a cost-of-living crisis, but a charity sector crisis that is set to continue into 2024 before any significant improvement is seen, according to Charity Excellence’s latest data.
Charity Excellence’s data for June 2019-December 2023 (based on charity data and forecasting data) shows that that key performance metrics have been deteriorating since late 2021. The latest iteration of its predictive model for both resilience (ability to survive in the near-term) and fundraising shows both to be on a downward trajectory with Charity Excellence’s first fundraising forecast (based on its forecasting model data), indicating that they will fall even further before starting to rise again later this year.
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Looking at individual crisis metrics for 2022 alone, Charity Excellence’s data shows that ability to meet demand / maintain services, as well as near-term sustainability, and liquidity were all on a downward slope throughout the year.
The data suggests the sector is now entering the worst phase, which Charity Excellence expects to last at least until the end of Q1 2023, with a high risk of significant charity insolvencies in the coming 6 months and no significant recovery until 2024.
Ian McLintock said:
“Charities have been reporting that fundraising has become increasingly challenging since late 2021. We believe that the next 3 months will be the worst so far, with fundraising beginning to improve from mid-2023, but no significant recovery until 2024. Recovery will be heavily influenced by prevailing economic conditions, so there is a significant level of uncertainty in this.”
More support for charities
In response, Charity Excellence has launched Phase 3 of its sector support programme. Through free access to Biomni’s machine learning platform, Charity Excellence has created AI tech to help charities more effectively access the free support it offers, which includes a Funding Finder, Help Finder, and Data Finder, as well as support to help charities increase their governance, management and fundraising effectiveness.
This includes the launch of Charity Excellence’s AI tech bunnies. The bunnies help charities exploit the Charity Excellence Framework’s fundraising resources, connect individuals to funding and, for those being abused, find free professional support to help them protect themselves.
The tech bunnies have been given 11 knowledge banks of questions and answers, and use these to connect people to the support they need. Every time a tech bunny is asked a question, it learns from that interaction. If they can’t answer a question, Charity Excellence is informed and it is added to the relevant knowledge base. Using the bunnies is free, they can support any number of requests, and they record no personal data.
Charities can watch a 3 minute demo video, find out more or have a chat to a tech bunny by visiting the Charity Excellence website and clicking the icon in the bottom right of their screen.
- Read more on the bunnies in Ian McLintock’s blog here.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.