Financial pressures saw donations drop by £5bn last year – report
Melanie May | 24 April 2023 | News
Charitable giving added £23 billion to the UK economy in 2022, representing 0.8% of total UK GDP, according to a report from the Benefact Group, but the value of donations halved year on year.
Highlighting the contribution of donations and volunteering to the UK economy, the Benefact Group’s inaugural Value of Giving report shows the annual value of volunteering in the UK reached £18.7bn last year. The value of charitable donations added another £4.3bn in 2022, with 76% of people giving – up from 64% in 2018/19.
However, while more gave, they gave less, with donations down £5bn from 2021’s £9.3bn. This is attributed to increased living costs and soaring bills.
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The research was commissioned by Benefact Group and conducted by the Centre of Economics and Business Research (Cebr), and found that the sector’s value to the UK economy in 2022 was larger than the sports and gambling sector valued at £18.4bn combined.
Charitable donations
The report found that charitable donations rose steadily from £5.9bn in 2010/11 to £9.8bn in 2020, falling to £4.3bn in 2022. The average amount given by those donating over a year has more than halved since the beginning of the pandemic, falling from £261 in 2018/19 to £101 in 2022.
Volunteering
It also highlights how the pre-pandemic decade saw a steady increase in the value of volunteering, rising by £7.5bn from £11.2bn to £18.7bn between 2010/11 to 2018/19. The pandemic and lockdown restrictions were then key factors in the annual value of volunteering falling to £11bn in 2020.
A post-pandemic surge in volunteering has seen levels since return to pre-Covid levels, according to the report, with the proportion of adults giving up their free time to help good causes rising from 17.9% in 2018/19 to 29.7% in 2022. However, this has been offset by a fall in the average hours spent volunteering, with average volunteering hours halving since 2020, from 12 hours over a four-week period to six hours in 2022.
Mark Hews, Group Chief Executive Officer of Benefact Group, said:
“The charity sector is a cornerstone of British society and this report quantifies the combined value of the charitable donations and volunteering to the economy, for the first time. As the third largest corporate donor in the UK, charitable giving is at the heart of what we do and we donate all our available profits to good causes. We encourage businesses – who can also play a pivotal role in supporting the sector – to continue to donate and empower their employees to continue volunteering. The combined effort of corporates collectively donating a proportion of their profits and the public kindly giving up time to volunteer can drive a crucial movement for good within society.”
Kay Neufeld, Head of Forecasting and Thought Leadership at Cebr, said:
“Our report with Benefact Group gives a comprehensive overview of the economic value of charitable giving and volunteering in the UK at a time when the country emerged from pandemic restrictions. It is encouraging to see that the share of people giving to charity or volunteering in their free time has not only fully recovered but even exceeded pre-pandemic levels. By quantifying this combined value of giving, we’re pleased to be able to demonstrate the crucial importance of this sector to the UK economy.”
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.