How Changing Donor Behaviour is Rewriting the Rules

Introduction: A Sector at a Crossroads

Only 50% of people in the UK donated to charity last year — the lowest on record and a sharp warning sign for the sector.

At the same time, needs are rising – from food banks to hospices – yet fewer people feel able or motivated to give.

What does this mean for the future of fundraising when we are relying on an ever smaller group of people to give?
And how can charities adapt to these shifts in donor behaviour to sustain their missions?

In this article I have pulled together the latest evidence on changing donor habits and suggested actions for charity leaders to innovate and invest in future-ready strategies.

The Decline in Donors

Fewer people are giving—and this is happening across every region and age group. Here’s why that matters, and the urgency of rebuilding donor bases.

The proportion of UK public donating to charity has fallen to 50%, an all-time low. In 2017, nearly two-thirds of people gave; now it’s just half.

Every region in the UK has seen donor numbers decline, with some of the steepest drops in the North West, North East and London. London, notably, is now the first region where fewer than half of people donate to charity (49%, down from 64% in 2017). This shrinkage in the donor pool is happening across all age groups, but it’s especially pronounced among young people.

Demand for charitable services continues to rise. Charities are helping more people in need with fewer resources, facing higher costs and limited public funding.

A New Era of Digital Giving

Digital is the foundation of modern fundraising. From smarter tools to behaviour-led journeys, here’s how the most effective charities are adapting.

The shift in how people give isn’t just about moving from cash to card – it’s about how integrated, data-driven, and experience-led the giving journey has become. Direct debits remain important, but now digital wallets, embedded apps, and mobile-first journeys dominate.

Charities using Social Sync are seeing higher fundraiser engagement and better overall ROI because they are tailoring their supporter journeys in real time. In fact, activation rates jump from 25% to 85% when behaviour-driven engagement tools like Messenger and WhatsApp are used effectively.

Similarly, brilliant tools like Fundraise Up are setting a new standard for digital donation experiences. Their AI-powered donation forms personalise suggested amounts, encourage recurring giving, and optimise every touchpoint to increase conversion. Their platform integrates with a charity’s website, supports a wide range of payment options (including digital wallets and crypto), and offers real-time analytics to continually refine performance.

This is the new frontier of giving: multi-platform, behaviour-informed, and experience-led. Data isn’t just an admin tool – it’s the key to understanding and motivating supporters. By tracking how people interact across channels, charities can deliver timely nudges, personalised asks, and richer storytelling.

Donors expect to receive instant and timely messages (through their preferred channels) to acknowledge their support, to motivate them as they log their training miles, to thank them for hitting their targets and keep them informed on the charities work and impact they are helping drive. Not get linear email journeys that are simply deleted.

To future-proof their income, charities need to:

Invest in smart analytics platforms that surface meaningful insights, not just spreadsheets.
Build supporter journeys that adapt in real time, based on actions and preferences.
Empower fundraisers with digital tools that sync across platforms – Facebook, JustGiving, Go Fund Me and your custom microsites – to create seamless experiences.

Digital isn’t a department anymore. It’s the infrastructure for modern fundraising. The challenge for charities now is not simply being present online – but being relevant, personal, and responsive.

Preparing for the Great Wealth Transfer

Over £5.5 trillion is about to change hands. The organisations that build meaningful relationships with Gen X and Millennials today will be tomorrow’s legacy winners.

The UK is on the cusp of an unprecedented intergenerational wealth transfer, with an estimated £5.5 trillion expected to pass from Baby Boomers to younger generations by 2050. This “Great Wealth Transfer” presents both opportunities and challenges for the charitable sector. While Baby Boomers have traditionally been the backbone of charitable giving, their successors—Gen X and Millennials—are set to inherit significant assets. However, these younger cohorts exhibit different philanthropic behaviours:

Gen X (born 1965–1980) is more pragmatic and values financial stewardship, often giving to causes with clear, tangible results.
Millennials (born 1981–1996) prefer recurring giving, impact transparency, and are highly responsive to digital campaigns and peer-to-peer models.

Charities need to start planning for this transition now—by building relationships with Gen X and Millennials that reflect their values, offering legacy giving options, and presenting clear, purpose-led missions with measurable impact.

Engaging Younger Donors: Why It Matters

Gen Z isn’t just the future - they’re shaping the present. Fundraising needs to meet them where they are: social-first, purpose-led, and built around community.

Gen Z (born 1997–2012) is emerging as a formidable force in philanthropy. According to Blackbaud Institute’s research, 84% of Gen Zers support nonprofit organisations, charities, or causes in some capacity. Their engagement is characterised by:

Digital engagement – favouring TikTok, Instagram, and WhatsApp for interaction.
Authenticity and transparency – demanding clarity and honesty from charities.
Peer influence – acting on recommendations from friends and influencers.
Action beyond giving – they want to volunteer, campaign, and use their voice.

GoFundMe, highly popular among Gen Z, has leaned into these preferences. In partnership with Meta, they’ve introduced social-native fundraising tools like in-video donation buttons and integrated Instagram and Facebook fundraising journeys. According to GoFundMe’s Social State of Giving report, Gen Z is ten times more likely than Baby Boomers to share their donations on social media. Nearly half share causes or fundraisers at least once a week, and many are driven to give or get involved through social content.

For charities, the lesson is clear: If you’re not in their feed, you might not be in their future. Adopting shareable, interactive, and mobile-first fundraising tools isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s essential to reach and inspire the next generation of givers.

The Rise of Fitness-Based Fundraising

Participation is the new donation. Fitness challenges are opening doors to younger supporters and stronger engagement—but only for charities who invest in the experience.

While donor numbers are falling overall, one area continues to grow: fitness-based fundraising. From running events and walking challenges to virtual treks and sponsored sporting milestones, this format is proving especially popular with younger, digitally active audiences.

According to the Top 25 Mass Participation Events Report 2024, event fundraising rose by 16% in 2023, reaching £132 million across the top campaigns. This growth is driven by accessible, inclusive formats, with many campaigns offering both virtual and physical options. Cancer Research UK’s Skipping Challenge raised £7 million in its first year alone. These campaigns succeed because they blend personal achievement, social purpose, and digital shareability.

What’s behind this success?

Hybrid formats – events that combine physical and virtual options, allowing wider participation
Community-driven models – team challenges and leaderboards increase motivation
Social storytelling – events are visual, emotional and easy to document across Instagram, TikTok and Strava
Gamified experiences – tracking progress, earning badges, and celebrating milestones boosts engagement.

Fitness-based events also perform well on two of the sector’s toughest challenges: new donor acquisition and fundraiser retention. They attract large volumes of first-time givers through personal networks and create a natural space for charities to build relationships.

Crucially, fitness challenges resonate with younger generations and open up new corporate and influencer partnerships. They are a powerful vehicle for both income and reach. But they’re not passive. They require investment in supporter experience, motivational messaging, and follow-up storytelling to convert participation into long-term support.

This is more than a trend. It’s a clear signpost towards a future of active, participatory giving—and a wake-up call for charities still focused on traditional, ask-led fundraising.

Digital Maturity and the AI Imperative

AI won’t replace fundraisers—but fundraisers who use AI will outpace those who don’t. Here’s how the sector is catching up, and where the real opportunity lies.

The latest Charity Digital Skills Report highlights an urgent challenge: the sector is falling behind on digital readiness and AI adoption. While 61% of charities are experimenting with AI tools, only 11% are using them strategically across their organisations. Even fewer – just 5% – are actively building towards this.

Meanwhile, only one in three charities see AI as a priority, despite its clear potential to reduce admin, improve communications, personalise supporter engagement, and unlock fundraising creativity.

Yet the appetite is there. Nearly 60% of charities want to develop a general understanding of AI, and 58% want practical guidance on how to use tools responsibly. But systemic barriers stand in the way – from a lack of funding and digital confidence to low board-level understanding and leadership vision.

Key takeaways:

50% of charities lack the skills and confidence to use emerging tech trends.
66% say they struggle to progress digitally due to financial and capacity constraints.
60% of small charities are still at the ‘curious’ or ‘starting out’ stage with digital.

If AI is to be a force for good in the sector, we need to close the skills gap and make space for exploration, experimentation and ethical growth. It starts with investing in people – not just platforms.

Charities that build digital maturity now will be those best placed to:

Streamline operations and reduce repetitive admin

Deliver personalised supporter journeys at scale

Improve service access and experience for beneficiaries

Use predictive analytics to better anticipate need and opportunity

As the report warns, “Now is the time to tackle, and close, these gaps, or the sector will run the risk of being left behind in the AI revolution.”

What These Shifts Mean for Sustainability

Donor volatility, ageing cohorts, and fragmented giving formats all point to one thing: we can’t rely on the models of the past. Charities must act now to remain relevant and resilient.

Donor volatility:

The sector saw £15.4 billion given in 2024 – a remarkable total – yet this masks significant instability. Around 3.9 million people cancelled a regular donation last year, highlighting unprecedented donor churn.

Charities are increasingly reliant on a shrinking pool of givers, making income streams less predictable and less secure.

Generational risk:

Younger donors are noticeably disengaging, raising concerns about the future donor base. Only 36% of 16–24-year-olds donated in 2024.

By contrast, older demographics still give at higher rates – in fact, young people are the only age group where well under half donate to charity.

This over-reliance on older supporters poses a long-term risk, as their generosity will need to be replaced by new generations in the years ahead.

Shift in giving formats:

The ways people support charities are changing, which affects the reliability of funds. Traditional monthly giving via direct debit remains widespread (used by 47% of donors – about 8.2 million people – each month), but many now prefer one-off or unconventional giving methods.

More than a third of donors still give in cash, and others contribute through online campaigns or micro-donations (such as rounding up at the checkout). This diversification means income is spread across varied channels, often in smaller increments, making it harder for charities to forecast and plan long-term.

Collectively, these shifts pose a challenge to the sustainability of charitable income. Fewer people giving – and giving in less predictable ways – translates to greater uncertainty for fundraising planners.

At the same time, recognizing these patterns provides insight for strategy. Charities will need to strengthen donor relationships, adapt to changing preferences, and engage the next generation to secure stable support.

This reflection on sustainability sets the stage for the concluding strategy section, where we outline how organisations can navigate and thrive despite these emerging challenges.

From Insight to Action: Strategies for Future-Ready Fundraising

This is the moment to move. These five shifts are your blueprint for building a fundraising model fit for the next decade.

The trends are clear. So what should charity leaders and fundraisers do next?

Charities ready to thrive must take bold action:

Diversify income models – Reduce reliance on shrinking donor bases by expanding income streams: digital campaigns, peer-led fundraising and corporate partnerships.
Invest in supporter experience – Make every interaction count. Personalised messaging, timely feedback, and clear impact updates all build loyalty.
Embed innovation in your culture – Allocate budget and leadership support to test, learn, and scale new ideas. This could mean launching a new digital tool, piloting a gamified event, or running a youth ambassador programme.
Harness behavioural data – Use insights to tailor journeys and trigger timely calls to action. Monitor drop-off points and optimise for engagement. Plug the leaky bucket.
Develop digital and AI capability – Train teams, upskill boards, and build partnerships with tech providers. AI and automation can lift capacity and help smaller teams achieve more.

The future belongs to the organisations that adapt boldly and centre their work around people – both those they serve, and those who support them. The choice is no longer whether to evolve, but how quickly and intentionally you do it.

The Future of UK Fundraising: How Changing Donor Behaviour is Rewriting the Rules