Charities face more complex attacks, warns regulator
Howard Lake | 27 August 2026 | News
Charities are facing attacks from bad actors using increasingly complex methods, and those methods sometimes exploit the overlaps between different regulators, according to the Charity Commission’s second annual Charity Sector Risk Assessment, published this month.
The report records a sustained rise in concerns about charitable status being abused for private benefit. There were 374 such cases in 2025-26, a 29% increase on the previous year, which had itself risen 38% to 291 cases from 211 in 2023-24.
Complexity, and where regulators do not reach
The Commission points to a growth in what it calls “particularly complex case work”, frequently involving charities working in fields covered by several regulators, or where the boundaries between regulatory remits are not clearly drawn. It passed information formally to other agencies, among them HMRC, the police and local authorities, 500 times in the last year, an increase of 8%.
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The regulator highlighted an additional risk faced by those charities that deliver sensitive services to vulnerable people in areas with no subject-expert regulator at all, including out of school settings and certain housing services. Where the quality of those services is inadequate, the Commission says, users may have little opportunity for redress. The Commission itself has neither the powers nor the resources to fill that gap, and has raised the matter with government.
Tight margins, and a harder route to registration
For fundraisers, the financial section confirms the contrasting experiences of many charities recently. Overall sector income grew slightly faster than total spend, which the Commission treats as an early sign of recovery. But that recovery is of course uneven: two in five charities spent more than they received, and one in four charities with income below £10,000 reported only just breaking even in 2024.
The report also notes that artificial intelligence is now facilitating fraudulent applications both to register a charity and to apply for grants. Fewer than half of registration applications, 45%, now result in a new charity being registered. In 2016-17 the figure was 72%.
Paul Latham, the Commission’s Director of Communication and Policy, said:
“The vast majority of charities are well run, making a positive difference to lives and communities every day. However, our assessment highlights the growing scale and complexity of risks they face.”
Read the Charity Sector Risk Assessment 2026 in full on GOV.UK.
- Almost a third of charities experienced a cyber-breach or attach in last 12 months, survey finds (12 April 2024)
- Charity Commission publishes new guides on cyber-crime and fraud (2 December 2024)
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.