Britain is rapidly losing the charity habit: public donations to good causes plummeted by more than £1.4bn last year and millions of people say they can no longer afford (or want to) donate, according to analysis.
The Charities Aid Foundation (Caf) said in its annual report that while Britons remain generous at heart, society is seeing a major transformation in attitudes towards charitable giving. Only half of people donated to charity in 2025, down from 61% a decade earlier.
Charitable giving was no longer a “deeply ingrained cultural norm” amid rising cost of living pressures and a more skeptical society, said Caf CEO Mark Greer: “Charities can no longer rely solely on habitual generosity or public goodwill,” he said.
The fallout has been felt across the voluntary sector in recent months, with even some of the UK’s biggest charities – including Macmillan Cancer Support, Samaritans and Oxfam – making big cuts to staff and budgets.
The latest annual figures marked a striking downward shift after years in which donor numbers declined but overall giving levels remained stable, underpinned by what Caf calls “a group of dedicated donors” who made larger donations. However, last year the number of donors stagnated and donations decreased.
The collapse in total giving from £15.4bn to £14bn in 2025 was driven by a fall in the average size of charitable giving from £72 to £65. Almost half of people (49%) who did not donate to charity in 2025 said it was because they could not afford it, up from 44% in 2024.
Cost of living pressures have exacerbated a long-term contraction in the size of the UK donor base over the past decade, a trend that accelerated during the Covid pandemic. Caf estimates that there were 6 million fewer people giving to charities last year compared to 2016, which could reduce total voluntary sector income by around £12 billion.
“The decline in charitable donors over the last decade is stark. Giving is no longer a habit in this country,” said Caf customer relations director Philippa Cornish.
Lack of affordability was cited as the main reason for not donating across all income demographics, including those earning more than £125,000 a year. But there were also signs that non-donors didn’t see charitable giving as something they would do: 49% of highest-rate contributors said they were “not interested in charities.”
Collectively, overseas aid charities have been severely affected by these trends. While 20% of donors gave to this cause in 2016, the figure fell to 11% last year, leading to a £250m-a-year drop in donations in absolute cash terms. Caf said this reflects broader changes in donor attitudes toward giving to causes “closer to home.”
By contrast, UK food banks – which barely existed 15 years ago – have accounted for a larger proportion of public donations in recent years. In 2025, food banks will receive £610m, surpassing the amount donated to arts, culture and science (£575m), education (£508m) and homelessness (£442m).
However, food banks report that they also struggle to attract regular donations. The Caf report quotes Swansea Foodbank, which said its supporters were “putting their own families first during the cost of living crisis, which is perfectly understandable”.
Peter Grant, a philanthropy expert at Bayes Business School, said the decline in donations also reflected a more polarized society. “Culture war” attacks launched by right-wing politicians and media against voluntary organizations such as the RNLI and the National Trust had undermined the wider legitimacy of charities among some donors.
The decline in public donations had been accompanied by years of cuts to government funding for charities, Grant said. While many charities would survive the crisis, this would directly affect the amount of help they could provide. “It means reduced services and more hardship for charity beneficiaries,” he said.
Caf’s annual report on the state of giving in the country has been produced in its current form since 2016. It is based on a nationally representative survey of just under 13,000 UK adults.
Kate Lee, chief executive of the National Council of Voluntary Organisations, said: “The drop in donations is a worrying sign for the sector. At a time when demand for charitable support is increasing, a decline of this scale could present serious challenges for many organizations if the trend continues.”
