The majority of grassroots charities and causes are already impacted by the cost-of-living crisis and expect they will raise even less money in the future, according to new report from easyfundraising

It said that the "vast majority" of respondents have seen their income go down - with 62.86% of grassroots charities and causes reporting that the cost-of-living crisis has had a severe or moderate impact on their fundraising income.

There were 1,658 responses to the survey, most of which are very small hyper-local causes and charities with a turnover of less than £5,000 per year.

And they expect things aren’t going to get better soon – 59.36% also predict that income will go down in the future, particularly with the closure of Amazon Smile as charities await their final payment from the platform.

Tina Costello, chief executive of Heart of England Community Foundation, says: “As the CEO of a charity who offers grants to the voluntary and community sector, the easyfundraising report reinforces the conversations we’re having with organisations.

“We know times are challenging for all sectors, but the charitable sector relies on public generosity and grant funding to not only thrive but survive. It is a personal frustration of mine when I hear ‘they need to be sustainable’, how can a charity, often relying on donations and grants, be sustainable when they want to offer an accessible, affordable service to their beneficiaries and balance their ongoing running costs?”

This year easyfundrasing has seen the number of causes that are signed up to their platform increase by 35% and the number of people giving via the platform increase by 49%.

Commenting on its survey findings easyfundraising CEO James Moir says: “People still want to give to the causes that they care about, but household budgets are stretched and often something has to give.

“I think in the past charities saw giving platforms like us as just a small part of what they do, but all our data from sign-ups show that’s starting to change quite dramatically. easyfundraising provides a way that people can give to their favourite causes and it doesn’t cost them anything.

So given the current cost-of-living crisis and the fact that our survey shows grassroots causes aren’t expecting things to be getting better soon, we expect the number of charities who really harness the power of our platform and make the best use of it to start to go up.”

You can see the full survey results here, to download the report.

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