UK Giving Report 2025: Trends in giving

Only half of people gave to charity in the last 12 months.

For the first time since we began tracking this metric, the proportion of people donating to charity has fallen to only 50%. 

Sponsorship levels, already on a downward trajectory, appear to have been permanently lowered by the pandemic, following the temporary restrictions on public events. When combining both metrics, 55% of people in the UK gave to charity through donation or sponsorship in the last 12 months.

The largest decreases in donors are in the north west, the north east and London.

The number of young donors has dropped by a third since 2017.

Only 36% of 16- to- 24-year-olds say they donated or sponsored in the past 12 months. This is a decline of around a third since 2017, when 55% had done so. 

The percentage of young people who give to charity has been in steady decline since that time, with an acceleration seen during the pandemic and then again during 2024. 

Although donation rates are down across the board, young people are the only demographic in our study where well under half say they give to charity.

Reasons for not donating include affordability, lack of trust, and a lack of interest

Across all age groups, the main reason provided for not donating is affordability. However, it was particularly the case among 35- to 54-year-olds, while not trusting charities was a bigger concern for older people (aged 55+), and not being interested was more of an issue among the young.

In total, 29% of people who had not donated gave a reason that indicated a lack of interest in charities, rising to 34% of 16- to 24-year-olds and 38% of 25- to 34-year-olds. This included the answers: “There hasn’t been a charity that’s interested me enough”; “I just didn’t want to”; “It didn’t occur to me”; “I forgot”; and “I don’t particularly care about giving to charity”.