New Understanding Society case study says value of charitable donations in the UK fell by more than half in 2022
The Benefact Group’s first Value of Giving report said charitable donations amounted to £9.3 billion in 2021, but dropped to £4.3bn in 2022, “likely down to the cost-of-living crisis”. They used Understanding Society data on the frequency and level of charitable donations to write the report.
The Benefact Group is a collection of financial companies first established in 1887 as the Ecclesiastical Buildings Fire Office, whose profits go towards funding the charitable giving of the Group’s owner Benefact Trust.
Their report, published in 2023, found that
- 76% of adults donated to charity in 2022, up from 64% in 2018/19, but the average amount given fell
- the fall in donations reversed a decade-long upward trend, from £5.9bn in 2010/11 to an estimated £9.8bn in 2020.
The Group also looked at our data on the frequency and volume of voluntary work, and used hourly wage data to calculate a value for it, showing that:
- the decade before the COVID-19 pandemic saw a steady rise in the value of volunteering, from £11.2bn in 2010/11 to £18.7bn in 2018/19
- the pandemic caused this figure to fall to £11bn in 2020, but 2022 saw volunteering return to pre-Covid levels.
The report also identified themes to explore in future, such as measuring the charity sector’s worth better to demonstrate its value to the economy. The Group now aims to bring together organisations and stakeholder groups “to discuss issues, agree research areas and commission research” and to identify “initiatives and policy recommendations”.
Read the case study
This research used Understanding Society data from Waves 1-11
Findings and impactIncome and expenditureMoney and finances
