Shape History on fundraising insights in CAF’s UK Giving Report 2025
Howard Lake | 22 April 2025 | Blogs
Impact-first agency Shape History has analysed Charities Aid Foundation’s annual UK Giving Report to draw out fundraising opportunities.
CAF’s 2025 edition of the report was published on 27 March, based on a representative sample of 13,000 participants. While the UK public donated an estimated £15.4 billion to charity in 2024 (an increase of 11%), the total number of people giving to charity in that year dropped to 50% for the first time since the report was first published in 2016.
It has been a steady decline since that year, from 61% giving to charity in 2016 to 50% in 2024, and from 37% sponsoring someone for charity in 2016 to 21% this year.
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Despite the continued generosity and the financial challenges many have experienced in the past 10 years (and the prosperity enjoyed by some), the continuing decline continues to worry many in the sector.
Seven insights from Shape History
Shape History have therefore focused on the opportunities that the 26-page CAF report present to charity fundraisers. Their 29-page analysis – ‘Fundraising in Freefall: seven insights to take you from nosedive to new heights’ presents seven insights, ranging from ‘your donors’ trust is a valuable asset’ to ‘brand and fundraising go hand in hand’.
They begin by reminding fundraisers to ‘forget volume: the future is value’.
Since fewer people are giving and those who do are typically giving more, they recommend focusing more on major gift fundraising. “Now’s the time to reframe the work as a highly skilled, high-impact, high-value service” they suggest, adding that “[London is] home to 227,000 millionaires, putting its high net-worth popular fifth globally”.
They go further by noting UBS’ Philanthropy Trends Report 2025 which finds that wealthy donors are “increasingly blurring the lines between philanthropy and investing, looking at risk, return, and impact”. In other words, the opportunity of focusing on value rather than volume is “a heady combination of both philanthropy and (impact) investment”.
Donors’ trust
While the top reason respondents gave for not donating to charity was “I can’t afford it” (44%), the second most common reason was “I don’t trust charities to use my money wisely” (19%).
Given the importance of retaining supporters’ trust, Shape History highlight the importance of telling stories, and specifically from those people who are delivering the charity’s services. In particular, “giving hidden front-line gems a chance to speak on behalf of your organisation”.
Shape History recommend being clear on why your solution *is* the solution. “Knowing your ‘why’ is important, but clarifying your ‘what’ and ‘why you’ are imperative in a competitive donor market”. In addition the recommend that charities “lift up voices across the organisation”, by equipping employees with [the] means to help build the right reach and engagement around your campaigns”.
Storytelling appears as an essential skill and communications style in another section of Shape History’s report – “news and culture wants to be hijacked”.
The UK is not a monolith
Analysing CAF’s data in terms of geography shows how distinct different areas are in terms of how many give. For example “London, the North-West and North-East have collectively seen donor numbers drop off by 25% since 2017”.
Choosing the right messaging is the skill that charities need to communicate appropriately. So one of its recommendations is to “size up the opportunity, then co-create with communities”, which can include individuals and collaborating with local/regional charities and organisations.
The ’Fundraising in Freefall’ report concludes by recognising that “the giving landscape is as tough as it’s ever been right now.” But it argues that “in times of radical change, there’s limitless opportunity – the opportunity for organisations to step up to the plate and swing for the fences”.
“Fundraising in Freefall” is available as a free download from Shape History.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.