We don't have a data problem. We have an action problem.
Belmont Fundraising Ltd. – 4 November 2026
Anyone who works in fundraising will have noticed it. Over the past few months the reports have kept coming: giving indices, sector surveys, benchmarking studies, regional analyses, webinars to unpack the reports, and LinkedIn carousels to summarise the webinars.
The headline numbers are serious. CAF's UK Giving Report showed total giving dropping from £15.4 billion in 2024 to £14 billion in 2025, with the number of donors falling for the first time in five years. The share of people giving held at 55%, but the average gift shrank from £72 to £65. Over the decade, an estimated 37 million adults gave in 2016, compared with around 31 million in 2025. Closer to home, more than 100 Irish charities told a survey this year that they face systemic funding problems. And for the first time, Catholics in Fundraising's Catholic Generosity Report has mapped the UK Catholic charity sector: around 840 charities with £1.89 billion in income. Between 2021 and 2024, total income grew by a quarter while voluntary income grew by just 7%.
We have read all of them, and our reaction is simple: so what?
That is not a dismissal of the research, far from it. This work is valuable and often provides the fuel for further investment in fundraising. At least three of our clients are using data to justify additional investments to their CEO, Board or Trustees. It is a challenge to the rest of us. The sector has become remarkably good at describing its own decline. We can quote the statistics, name the trends, and diagnose the causes. What we are much less good at is walking out of the briefing and changing what we do on Monday morning.
Diagnosis has become a comfortable substitute for treatment.
What the data is actually telling us
Strip away the commentary and the evidence points to three uncomfortable truths.
First, your income is more fragile than your totals suggest. For years, headline figures held steady while donor numbers fell. That was not resilience. A shrinking group of committed supporters was carrying a growing load. The Charity Finance Group has advised trustees to stress-test reserves policies against the risk of losing a small number of high-value regular donors, given how concentrated income now is. If your board has not had that conversation, it should happen before the end of 2026.
Second, giving is no longer a habit. It is a decision. CAF put it bluntly: "Giving is no longer a habit in this country." Donors now weigh causes against each other, evaluate impact, and give to fewer organisations with more intention. Every gift now has to be earned and re-earned. Organisations still relying on inertia, such as the standing order nobody has thanked in six years or the appeal that goes out because it always goes out, are relying on something that no longer exists.
Third, mass acquisition is a harder road than ever. Nearly half of non-donors in 2025 said they could not afford to give, up from 44% the year before. You cannot out-market a household budget. The growth opportunity is in depth, not breadth: the people who already know you, already trust you, and have the capacity to do more.
For the many Catholic communities we work with, the Catholic Generosity Report sharpens the point. Two findings stand out.
First, Catholic charities are efficient fundraisers. They spend around 20% of voluntary income on fundraising, compared with 25% for the largest UK charities. Dioceses, missionary organisations and international charities raise about £9 for every £1 spent.
Second, legacies make up only around 12% of their voluntary income, against 32% among the top 100 UK charities. This is despite legacy fundraising returning roughly £36 for every £1 invested, double the comparison group. Yet only 12 of the 19 legacy-receiving charities in the benchmark invest in it at all. The clearest opportunity in the data is also the least developed. With the report pointing to inheritance tax changes in April 2027, the window to act is now.
Add CAF's finding that people who give to religious causes are the most generous donors of all, at around £90 a month. Dioceses and parishes are sitting on some of the most loyal and generous supporters in the country. Too often those supporters are unknown by name, unthanked, and never asked for anything more meaningful than the second collection.
What massive action looks like
Action does not mean another strategy document. It means a small number of decisive moves, owned by named people, measured weekly. Here is where we would start.
Know your top 100 by name within 30 days. Not as a database export, but as people. Who are they, what do they care about, when did someone senior last speak to them, and what would they say if asked how they feel about your organisation? If the answers are unclear, that is your most urgent risk.
Make retention a board-level number. Acquisition is the metric that gets celebrated. Retention is the one that pays the bills. Report first-year and multi-year retention to your board alongside income, and pick up the phone to every donor who has lapsed in the past 24 months. A reactivated donor costs a fraction of a new one and already shares your values.
Ask the people who can say yes. The data tells us fewer people are giving more. The logical response is to invest seriously in major gift and legacy conversations. Many organisations do the opposite and spread thin resources across low-value mass activity because it feels safer. A face-to-face conversation with someone of capacity is sometimes uncomfortable, but it is also where transformational income comes from.
Stop doing something. Most fundraising teams are at capacity. Taking new action requires ending old activity: the event that breaks even, the mailing nobody evaluates, the report nobody reads. Be ruthless with anything that consumes time without building relationships.
Put leadership in the room. Fundraising is not a department. Donors want to hear from the bishop, the vice-chancellor, the chief executive, and the chair. If senior diaries do not contain donor meetings every month, the organisation has quietly decided that fundraising is someone else's job.
Urgency is easy. Grit is what counts.
Every sector report produces a brief burst of urgency. It fades within weeks, because urgency is an emotion and emotions don't sustain.
What sustains change is rhythm. Hold one 30-minute meeting a week. Track three numbers: donor conversations held, asks made, and lapsed supporters re-engaged. Assign a named owner to each. Review progress honestly, adjust, and repeat. It is unglamorous, and it works. In 25 years across dioceses, universities, and international development, we have rarely seen an organisation fail for lack of insight. We have seen many stall for lack of follow-through.
Give it 90 days. At the end, you will have results to show your board, not just research to cite.
The next report is already being written
There will be another giving report next spring and another benchmarking study after that. They will be published whether or not you act. The only question is whether your organisation appears in the next set of figures as part of the decline or as the exception to it.
The data has done its job. Now it is our turn.
Belmont Fundraising works with dioceses, universities, and international organisations to turn fundraising strategy into income. If you are ready to move from analysis to action, we would welcome the chance to talk to you.
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