The cost of caution

Why Catholic dioceses can no longer afford to underinvest in fundraising

By Harvey Duthie, Founder & CEO, Belmont Fundraising Ltd.

When I worked on my first diocesan campaign in Armagh in 2002, I was convinced we were standing at a threshold. Here was a model — disciplined, relational, rooted in stewardship — that would open the floodgates to sustainable, ambitious fundraising across the UK and Ireland. What was then somewhat dismissively labelled "the American model" has since been refined, localised, and proven. And yet, more than two decades later, the sector finds itself facing a structural problem that is as much about nerve as it is about capacity.

The recently published AAW/CIoF Fundraising Benchmarks Report 2026 offers the most comprehensive picture of sector-wide fundraising performance we have seen to date. For those of us working in Catholic and faith-sector fundraising, it should serve as both a wake-up call and a roadmap.

What the data confirms — and what it doesn't capture

The report is unambiguous on one point: investment drives returns. The data consistently demonstrates that where skilled, specialist professionals are deployed with the right model and adequate resourcing, the returns are substantial.

What the report cannot fully capture is the chronic underinvestment that characterises so much of the Catholic institutional landscape in the UK and Ireland.

I see it regularly in my practice. Large dioceses operating with a part-time fundraiser, perhaps seconded one day a week from another role, tasked primarily with chasing Gift Aid reclaims rather than building a sustainable income architecture. Many dioceses have no coordinated fundraising function at all.

The visible responses — land sales, deferred capital programmes, drawing down reserves — are not without logic. They solve an immediate problem. But they are not a strategy. And they are finite.

While the reluctance is understandable, it is also costly.

Nobody likes fundraising. That is not a provocative observation; it is a pastoral reality. There is always a more pressing priority — a school under threat, a parish merger, a safeguarding review, a synodal process. There is always a reason to defer.

Armagh Cathedral was built during the Famine in Ireland. Not when conditions were favourable. Not when the economy was growing and disposable incomes were rising. And yet, when I was working in Armagh, during the height of the ‘Celtic Tiger’, I was still hearing reasons why the moment was not quite right for a major fundraising campaign. Prosperity, it turned out, was no more of a spur than hardship had been a barrier. The arguments for deferral are infinitely renewable. They are also, on any honest examination, infinitely weak.

The truth is that there is never a good time to start. The cost of waiting, however, compounds annually.

The case for investment is not theoretical

I have seen that where the right model has been implemented — where parishioners are given the opportunity to understand the need, to ask questions, to reflect, and to give according to their means — the results are transformative. Belmont Fundraising has an obvious interest in encouraging investment in professional fundraising, and I acknowledge that bias openly. But it is the results, not our advocacy, that should carry weight.

We have consistently seen returns of 10x or more on staff investment where specialist expertise is deployed within a structured programme. That is not exceptional performance. That is what happens when you stop treating fundraising as an administrative function and start treating it as a strategic priority.

The broader giving environment supports this. Contactless giving has expanded the transactional base in parishes significantly. Growing numbers of Catholics — including a younger demographic that the data suggests is increasing in the UK — are comfortable with digital giving, planned giving and recurring direct debit commitments. The infrastructure for a step-change in Catholic fundraising income exists. What is missing, in most cases, is the institutional will to invest in the people and programmes needed to unlock it.

The needs are not abstract

Social outreach and community services. The care of sick and retired clergy. The formation and training of seminarians. Urgent capital investment in ageing church buildings. Support for youth ministry and Catholic education. These are not aspirational priorities. They are operational realities pressing on diocesan balance sheets right now.

A church in retreat — one that defers investment, contracts its ambitions and becomes invisible in its communities — will not inspire the next generation. The growing number of young Catholics in the UK represents an opportunity, but opportunities are not self-fulfilling.

The moment is now

If you sit on a diocesan finance committee, a board of trustees, or a chapter with responsibility for financial stewardship, I would simply say this: the evidence is there, the giving environment is as favourable as it has been in a generation, and the communities you serve are ready to respond when asked well.

The question is not whether to invest in fundraising. It is where to start.

Harvey Duthie is founder and CEO of Belmont Fundraising Ltd., a Dublin-based consultancy specialising in Catholic and faith-sector fundraising across the UK and Ireland. He has worked with Catholic dioceses, religious orders and educational institutions since 2002.

www.belmontfundraising.com