Volunteer support and charitable donations have declined sharply in the past two years, according to new research by charity wealth management company Rathbones.
The nationwide survey of 1,022 adults, 852 of whom had given to charity within the last five years, found that a third (35%) have cut back or stopped giving to charity entirely, with more than half (55%) unsure whether they will ever return to previous levels of giving. Over a tenth of respondents (13%) said they would not give to charity at any point in the future.
At the same time, just under a third (31%) of regular volunteers said they had reduced their hours or stopped volunteering completely. Almost half (44%) of charity fundraisers said they had scaled back their charitable activities, with 38% of fundraisers reporting their collections have fallen by 50% or more.
The under 35s were most likely to have given more time to charities, with 38% of respondents in this age group saying they volunteered more in the last two years than previously. In the 35-55 age group, 37% said they had cut back on volunteering or stopped completely, while a quarter (24%) of over 55s said the same.
The research underlines the findings in this year’s UK Giving report from the Charities Aid Foundation, Rathbones said, which found the number of people giving to charity has dropped by four million to its lowest level since 2016.
However, the UK public still donated a total of £15.4 billion to charitable causes last year, with volunteering worth an estimated £24.69 billion a year to the UK economy, according to governent analysis.
‘The British public continue to be generous and support charities whenever they can, but we hear from many that they are feeling the strain’, Rathbones head of charities Andy Pitt said.
“Coupled with increased demand, this has an inevitable impact on the support charities are able to provide.”
The strain from lost support on charities is compounded by rising demand for their services, the survey found. Just over a tenth of respondents (11%) said they had been making more use of charity services or started using them for the first time in the past two years. However, 9% said they can no longer access services they previously relied on due to closures or restrictions.
A Rathbones study of 100 senior charity executives in October found that 70% believe the 2025 budget will hit them negatively financially due to further likely cuts to benefits and rises in taxation.
‘[T]here is acute anxiety in the run-up to the budget,’ Pitt added.
