More than a third of charities saw fundraising growth last year

The proportion of charities seeing an increase in their fundraising income has increased over the last year, a survey has found.

This found that more than a third saw a boost in their 2024 fundraising income, up from less than a quarter the previous year.

The proportion of those who saw a fall in their income has halved, dropping from just over a third in 2023 to less than a fifth last year.

Four in ten said their fundraising income had stayed the same.

“This improvement is something for the sector to be proud of and is testament to charities’ hard work,” said fundraising platform Enthuse, which carried out the survey among 101 charities at the end of last year.

It says that improvements in fundraising last year are “translating into renewed optimism for 2025”.

Six in ten charity representatives surveyed said they are optimistic in a strong performance from their fundraising this year.

However, one in six say they are pessimistic about fundraising growth.

Economic uncertainty

Uncertainty around the economy is the biggest challenge fundraisers face, Enthuse found. This was mentioned by nearly half of respondents as a factor.

Three in ten are concerned that fundraisers will be reluctant to ask for donations “as money is tight”.

Four in five charities say they are planning to offer a physical mass participation fundraising event of some kind this year.

More than half cited increased interest from younger people in raising funds is a reason for their optimism of running such events.

“The research tells us that 2025 could be a big year for mass participation events,” said Enthuse chief executive Chester Mojay-Sinclare.

“After record breaking years for the TCS London Marathon and AJ Bell Great North Run in 2024, the public’s appetite to get involved in physical mass participation events is high and this is an area charities can look to for fundraising growth.”

Analysis released last month by consultancy Massive found that participation in mass fundraising events is exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

This found that more than one in four of participants have taken up fundraising events, such as marathons, since 2022.

These new participants “are younger, well-educated, relatively wealthy and more likely to be female than existing event participants”, the consultancy found.