2023 saw record-breaking £550mn donated to UK charities through JustGiving
Melanie May | 3 January 2024 | News
JustGiving saw the most donations to good causes and the highest total raised since launch in 2023, with £550mn going to almost 20,000 UK charities.
Almost one million (+950,000) JustGiving fundraising pages were set up – an average of 2,600 pages per day and 9% more than last year. There were also two million more donations to UK charities in 2023 compared to 2022, and 3.5 million people donated to a good cause more than once.
April was the busiest month of the year for giving overall, with tens of millions of pounds donated to London Marathon fundraisers, while Friday was the most popular day of the week to donate to charity.
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The most popular fundraising activities were running, walking, cycling and swimming, with over 65 million miles recorded on fundraisers’ Fitbits and Strava apps. This, JustGiving says, is the equivalent of 2600 laps around planet earth, or 169 trips to the moon.
Most popular fundraising activities on JustGiving
Overall, running, walking and cycling were the most popular, but streaming saw almost £1.5mn raised for good causes by fundraisers on platforms such as Twitch, YouTube and TikTok.
JustGiving also reports that charitable skydiving challenges increased by 40% and collectively raised almost than £5.5mn. However, skipping challenges saw the biggest increase in popularity overall, with 286% more sponsored skips this year than last, raising almost £230,000.
Fundraising efforts for events such as coffee mornings increased by 127%, raising more than £2mn, followed by Movember, which increased by 24% and raised almost £800,000. Hair challenges were also popular with 13% more individuals growing a mullet for charity than in 2022, and more than 3,600 people shaving their hair off for good causes.
Top 10 activities:
- Running
- Walking
- Cycling
- Swimming
- Climbing / hiking
- Football
- Coffee mornings
- Skydiving
- Boxing
- Rugby
- Dancing
- Baking
- Tough Mudder
- Movember
- Online streaming
Most generous areas across the UK
Norwich was the most giving area, with one in five (22%) of its residents donating to charitable causes on JustGiving last year, while Bristol, which was 2022’s most generous UK city, slipped to second place, closely followed by Reading.
Top 10 areas:
- Norwich
- Bristol
- Reading
- Cambridge
- Manchester
- Nottingham
- Preston
- Cheltenham
- York
- Glasgow
Top 10 causes donated to on JustGiving
Most popular causes for donations were cancer, children and mental health related:
- Cancer
- Children
- Mental health
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Alzheimer’s and dementia
- Local
- MND
- Heart disease
- Brain tumour
Pascale Harvie, President and General Manager of JustGiving said:
“The enormous generosity from people across the world has made this a record-breaking year for giving, with more than 18 million donations to almost 20,000 UK charities.
“Despite it being a very difficult year for so many people, I have consistently been amazed by the incredible lengths that individuals have gone to, in order to raise funds and awareness for the causes closest to them.
“To every single person that has supported a good cause this year, on behalf of all of our charity partners, thank you.”
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.