Charities supporting three times as many people with essential aid, research finds

Howard Lake | 8 July 2025 | News

The Charity Commission has published its annual public and trustee research, revealing that charities are now supporting three times as many people with essential aid as five years ago, while facing increased financial pressure.

The Commission’s annual survey of public attitudes to charities reveals that in the last year 9% of people received food, medical or financial support from charitable organisations, compared to just 3% five years ago.

While demand for such services has risen dramatically, the research shows that charities themselves are feeling increased financial pressure. Over the same five-year period, the proportion of people who said they’d donated to, or raised funds for charity in the past year, fell from 62% to 48% as households have felt the pinch.

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Nearly half of charity trustees (46%) said their charity had been forced to make changes as a result of cost-of-living pressures in the past year, including stopping some services (11%) and using more of their reserves than expected (17%).

Despite these challenges, public trust in charities remains high, with almost 60% of people reporting high trust in charities, placing them second only to doctors among trusted institutions. Public confidence in charitable spending has also improved, with over 6 in 10 people believing donations are reaching the intended cause, up 7 percentage points in 12 months.

On banking, 38% of trustees reported problems with their charity’s bank, down from 42% in 2024, though the issue remains significant.

The full findings are available on GOV.UK.

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.