Coronavirus has been tough for charities and - as the country recovers from the economic freeze of lockdown - we’re facing an unprecedented recession.
With widespread job losses across the country and less cash in circulation, raising funds will become more challenging. And that’s against a backdrop of increasing demand for the crucial services provided by the third sector.
It’s a time of drastic economic uncertainty for charities and voluntary organisations. But recession is nothing new, and we can look back to 2009 for insight into its effect on giving.
In this post, we dive into CAF’s Impact of recession report, produced after the UK’s last recession, alongside new research into the impact of COVID-19, and discover some ways to improve fundraising in extremely difficult economic times.
Do people give less during a recession?
In short: yes. Our Impact of recession report found that the total amount of charitable giving fell during the last recession by 11% when compared with pre-recession rates.
Positively, despite the tough financial situation in 2008/9, over half of the UK adult population continued to donate to charity every month. However, it was the size of those donations that changed. People were still giving when they could, but the average amount per donation decreased during the recession.
What happened to giving so far during coronavirus?
The unique challenges presented by coronavirus have already affected the sector in two key ways: increased demand for services and a reduction in overall giving.
Our charitable giving coronavirus research across May 2020 found that charities experienced a sharp rise in demand for their services: one in three UK charities (35%) reported a spike in demand for their services because of the crisis, a significant increase from 26% a month earlier.
Despite the increase in demand, over half of the charities we interviewed reported a drop in donations. What’s more, half of all charities surveyed said they had sought or received some form of emergency grant funding to get them through the crisis - further outlining the challenges faced by the sector.