There’s been pretty constant surveillance of the UK economy, interest rates and inflation – and of course the impact on the British public. Everyone’s been watching with baited breath to see what’s next; perhaps none more so than the charity sector. As the cost of living crisis turns into the cost of giving crisis, charities continue to struggle with increased demand on their services aside reduced income. Admirably, they’ve shown the same resilience, creativity, and tenacity as always and continue to do stoic work with their beneficiaries. But what’s likely to happen in 2024 for the non-profit sector? Are fundraising trends set to carry on along the same trajectory or could it evolve into something new?

What's happened in the charity sector over the past 12 months?

Charities have been worried with 90% expressing concern in 2022 about how the cost of living crisis will impact them when surveyed by CAF online. We know that many supporters have simply been unable to donate as much thanks to inflation and the massive increases in general outgoings. From energy to food to clothes, everything has been affected, leaving the average donor questioning if they’re able to continue giving to charity.

In response, charities have been forced to make do with less as they cater for more need. But despite this rather gloomy outlook, there is a chink of light in the form of some recent data.

The UK Giving Focus Report by software providers Blackbaud showed some hopeful findings;

The youngest generations have arrived as the most generous UK givers
Giving is distributed across more channels than ever before
Concern about overhead is high among donors

The report, which combines insights from big hitters like JustGiving and the Bowelbabe fund showed that overall giving actually rose by 4.2% between 2021 and 2022 showing that generosity of the British public continues on.

Let’s explore what else transpired from the report.

Individual stories are still a fundraising win

From donations raised in 2021, there was overall growth of 10% in 2022 with money spread between over 23k charity organisations.

The first half of that year saw large increases which were driven by mass donations to the Ukraine war (beginning in February 2022). We also saw Dame Deborah James’ campaign hit full momentum, where she raised over £8M for her Bowelbabe fundraiser. This took it to the second spot in JustGiving history, just behind Captain Tom Moore’s 2020 fundraiser for the NHS.

Another key finding in the report was from research that found nearly 50% of donors felt motivated to give because of current news and causes that they personally care about.

Senior Vice President of JustGiving, Pascale Harvie noted that charities should learn from these successes, saying:

“Ultimately, the success and resiliency of personally-organised fundraisers teaches organisations the value of capturing moments of inspiration to make the greatest impact, even in uncertain times.”

Charity supporters need to feel valued

It's thought that one of the reasons the Bowebabe fund worked so impressively was through the charity working in partnership with Cancer Research.

Dame Deborah James had a clear intention; to raise awareness of symptoms of bowel cancer and fund more research, and that, combined with Cancer Research’s massive audience and stewardship made for a powerhouse.

Partnerships specialist at Cancer Research Tom Lay says the best support for fundraisers is to offer personalised support, make them feel valued and always maintain honesty.

“Whether it’s a written thank you card in the post, or a pair of socks before they do the marathon or just by being there to listen, let your supporters know how wonderful they are.”

Donors still want to keep giving

The report said that over 50% of donors said no impact had been made on the way they give, with younger generation giving more now than pre-Covid times.

The importance of understanding how donors are feeling and listening to what they have to say cannot be over-estimated. Four fifths of donors say they’re motivated despite just 43% saying they knew what difference their donation has made.

Economic crisis means uncertainty for sure, but charities and fundraisers should stay optimistic and remember that support is still out there and people want to continue giving.

You can download the report here

So what’s next for charities in 2024?

Forecasts are currently suggesting a continuum of the cost of living crisis up until as late as 2028, which generates great concern for fundraisers.

Charities can expect several significant changes by 2024 and competition for funds may well get tougher. Donors will be carefully considering who to give their money to and charities and fundraisers alike will need to put forward a powerful case.

Digital technology and charity

The continued growth of digital technology will provide new ways for charities to communicate with supporters and donors, which if used well could definitely be an advantage.

These technologies can help charities analyse data and identify patterns, allowing them to better understand donor behaviour and preferences. This, in turn, can help charities create more personalised fundraising campaigns and donor experiences.

We know from research that donor types and identities are important factors behind why a person chooses to give.

Read more about donor identity here

Blockchain technology for more secure donations

Another technological advance that charities can benefit from is the increased use of blockchain technology for service users and service delivery alike.

Blockchain is a type of database able to continuously maintain a growing list of ordered records. These records (or blocks) are linked using cryptography that contains secure information such as a timestamp, transaction data and linking data to the previous block.

Blockchains make donation more secure than ever, ensuring accountability and transparency in the donation process which is a key concern for donors. Charities that use blockchain technology may be able to offer donors greater confidence in the impact of their donations.

Overall, the future of charities in 2024 (and beyond), will be shaped by a combination of new technologies, changing donor expectations and the need for stronger relationships with supporters.

It will be vital for organisations to adapt to these changes and continue to innovate in order to remain successful.

Fundraising with generative artificial intelligence

We already use A.I. throughout so many of the things we do and use without even realising and charities can expect to see an increase in the use of A.I. and machine learning to help with donor retention and engagement.

A subtype of A.I. – Generative A.I. has been a particular talking point in 2023 and will continue to accelerate into 2024 and beyond.

What’s specifically impressive about generative A.I. is its ability to process information at incredible speeds whilst developing algorithms that predict and improve. Generative A.I teaches itself as it goes along and has the capacity to do any number of tasks including text generation, instant 24/7 chatbots, media creation (audio, video, imagery) and make light work of the tedious admin tasks in every corner of the working world, to save resources and time.

In terms of digital fundraising, Generative A.I. will allow charities to generate personalised communication based on what it’s learned about a particular donor. It can write copy based on algorithms that tell it which has the most read rates and it can create content for social media platforms that instantly has impact.

Donors will be able to find out information more quickly from ChatBots, which can give cues on information and even prompt donations. ChatBots can be integrated software that allows instant donations with one click, thus removing the risk of losing donors on the journey from awareness to donation.

We know from The 2022 Donor Pulse Spring Report in our blog about what charities could expect in 2023 that 36% of millennial and Gen Z donors said they would give more if it were easier to donate, which means that ChatBots could make a great impact.

Onward, these donations can be digitally managed too, with instant updates on relevant databases which feed back to communications. Donors can be identified and reached by scanning social media for activity that shows concern or interest in a cause.

Enabling a time-saving artificial intelligence programme to take over the arduous tasks, means more time for the human to human contact in fundraising that still works best.

It’s expected that in 2024, generative A.I. will be commonly used across industry and be a central advantage point for charities moving forward.

Continued transparency, ethical conduct and accountability

As always, charitable organisations can expect to face increased scrutiny as donors continue to demand transparency and accountability from the organisations they support.

Effective communication is paramount and charities will need to demonstrate their impact in clear and measurable ways.

As we’ve seen from the success stories over the past 3 years, the nonprofit sector would do well to focus on building strong relationships with donors and supporters.

To do that requires even greater emphasis on personalised interactions, a deeper understanding of donor motivations and continued compliance.

Environmental sustainability to be a top priority for donors

As the climate crisis becomes more urgent, 2024 will see those with green credentials grow in popularity.

Like with every industry type, the third sector is also expected to take action to reduce emissions. Charities that actively show sustainability as a priority could well attract and retain donors over others in the same category. Likewise, charities aid could be increased for those organisations specifically targeting helping the climate emergency.

More flexible giving

Flexible giving gives greater control to the regular donor, with a monthly choice about whether they want to give or not, or choose to increase or decrease their usual amount as required. Disposable income fluctuates for most of us, having more control over donations according to financial situations at the time would certainly hold appeal.

The desire for flexible giving is reflected in findings from digital payment specialists PayPoint, who reported that 64% of donors said they’d like the option to alter monthly donations.

Childrens charity Unicef have a great example of a flexible giving scheme for their donors. Each month, supporters are texted a brief overview of what their money is going towards along with the option to reply ‘SKIP’ should they wish to miss the donation that month.

This has proved to be a powerful persuader for face to face fundraisers when faced with objections about affordability. Giving the potential donor autonomy can often be the tipping point where they sign up.

From the charity perspective, flexible giving definitely holds potential to improve retention. Later down the line it could even see donation amounts increase as the cost of living crisis eases and people feel able to donate more than their fixed amount to ‘make amends’ for those times they skipped or paid less.

Charities can offer flexible giving options by text, online digital accounts or even a charity app to revise their reoccurring rates.

The rising fundraising trend of inverse giving

Inverse giving is another relatively new theory in the world of charity donations with recent findings from tech for good donor platform Enthuse.

They found that a whopping 27% of the public felt like supporting a cause when a charity was bad mouthed by the media.

Inverse giving works on basic psychology of wanting to support the underdog and our instinctive urge to defy unfair authority. Quite often the public show their approval or disapproval on a topic through action that directly undermines politicians or the media.

A great example of inverse giving is the refugee crisis. When Nigel Farage accused the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (R.N.L.I) of being a ‘taxi service for illegal immigration’ in 2021, a crowd funding campaign appealed for help to buy a hovercraft for English Channel rescues named ‘The Flying Farage’. Donations shot up to the point where the R.N.L.I reported overwhelming support.

Another example of inverse giving was the response to the Covid pandemic. In response to the virus and its impact on society, the public made huge contributions to the NHS to keep them buoyant and show support.

In terms of the cost of living crisis, the UK have generally remained stoic about the way they donate, with donation value remaining steady even as the economy deteriorated.

By openly sharing how economic crisis is impacting services and beneficiaries, charities will often gain sympathy from the public, actually leading to more donations thanks to the sense of comradery.

Looking ahead, charities that keep up with current affairs and see how they can use criticism of their sector to their advantage and get the inverse giving response from the public.

Other predictions in the charity sector for 2024 and beyond…

Charities would also do well to keep their eye on the overall trends on social media and check in with ad spends and investments into the major platforms.

With news that the Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta empire has lost $700BN in value and has made 11 thousand redundancies, and that Twitter has seen significant reduction in ad spends since Elon Musk’s takeover, social media has definitely peaked. Even TikTok, which had seen exponential growth is slowing, moreso since countries began banning the platform after learning China’s data privacy scandal

Although nothing is expected in the immediate future, it’s important that charities check the toxicity and overall decline of any platforms they’re appearing on. Putting reputation and ethics at the forefront of any marketing activity is paramount to the charity sector, so it may be wise to start thinking about a focus on other revenue streams than social media.

Another interesting angle on fundraising comes in the form of Gaming. Gamers for Good engages the gamer community by hosting tournaments which offer prizes that include donations to charitable organisations of their choice. Gamers add donation buttons to streams, asking their audiences to donate while they watch them play or as a reward for a particular move.

Although still in its fledgling stages, Gaming for Good is set to continue growing and be a great option for diversifying charity fundraising techniques.

Like with any successful organisation, a thriving charity is based on continually finding innovative ways to reach audiences and inspire people to give.

Fundraisers will need to learn from past successes, watch how current trends evolve and even aim to predict what’s next. Charities must be responsive and flexible while continuing to meet the expectations on compliance and professionalism.

There’s no doubt that times are changing and bold steps will need to be taken to survive and thrive. We know that the passion, resilience and innovation that each charity possesses are the best ingredients to help them navigate the journey ahead.

What’s ahead for charities and fundraising in 2024?

What's happened in the charity sector over the past 12 months?