Children’s charities have emerged as the most popular good cause the public is planning to support and donate to at Christmas.

According to latest research half of those giving over the festive period plan to back children’s charities.

The second most backed cause at Christmas is supporting people impacted by homelessness.

Charities helping those facing housing issues are being backed by more than two in five donors. This is an increase of around 15% over the last six months.

The figures have been revealed by Enthuse in its latest Donor Pulse research into giving trends.

Seven in ten (72%) say they are planning to donate this Christmas, Enthuse found. This is one percentage point up on the same time last year.

Donor satisfaction is strong at this time of year, according to Enthuse, which found that more than two fifths of people say they enjoy giving to charity at this time of year and are actively seeking good causes to back.

Campaigning is working too, Enthuse found. Three in ten say they donate in response to charities’ calls for contributions. Almost half say this response is to a specific Christmas appeal.

Two in five say they are more likely to donate at Christmas than any other time of year. A third say this is through giving money, while a for a quarter it is by taking part in a sponsored event. In addition, three in five say they are more likely to donate items at Christmas, including for food banks.

Support for children’s charities over Christmas will be welcome news to this sector, which is facing an existential crisis in support, research released earlier this year suggests.

Analysis by nfpResearch in October found that children’s charities are facing a long term decline in popularity among the public due to an ageing population looking elsewhere for good causes to back and younger donors waiting longer to have children.

Researchers found only a quarter of donors now rank children and young people’s charities as their favourite good cause, compared to four in ten a decade ago.

Importance of younger donors

Generation Z set to be most likely age group to donate this Christmas, the research has also found.

Four in five young people aged between 18 and 24 say they are planning to donate to charity over the Christmas period.

However, this proportion drops to just a half among those aged 55 to 64 years old.

The online fundraising platform says that the figures show how “younger donors could be critical to the success of charity campaigns” over the festive period.

“Christmas continues to be a generous time of year and it’s great news for charities that so many are actively looking to give over this period,” said Enthuse chief executive Chester Mojay-Sinclare.

“The younger generation are much more inclined to give over December, and there’s still time for social media and email campaigns to make an impact, as well as more traditional methods like text messages and phone calls.”

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