On 4 November, Co-Managing Directors Cian Murphy and Tim Harrison-Byrne welcomed over 120 charity leaders to a webinar about what our research is showing us for 2027. If you missed the event and would like to see the recording or the slides, get in contact. In this blog, we provide an overview of the highlights.
1 – 2027 charity costs versus income
Rises in wages and National Insurance (the latter worth around £1.4bn a year for the sector) are all pushing costs up. 41% of charities spent more than they took in in their most recent accounts.
Two-thirds (66%) of UK adults have given in the last three months, below the 70%-plus of the 2010s. However, those who give are giving more. HMRC figures show donations rose from £6.2bn to £8.75bn over the last decade, but inflation means that, in real terms, giving has barely moved. Doubling the Gift Aid figure gives a rough total for public giving of around £15bn to £16bn a year.
With donor confidence negative, giving is unlikely to grow soon. There are two potential areas of growth for income:
Legacies possibly set to grow in 2027
41% of people would now consider a gift in their will, up from 28% in 2010. Legacy income is forecast to more than double to £10bn by 2046. Obviously, this type of income has a long lead-in, so the sooner you can focus on this, the better.
Memberships are on the rise
Interestingly, memberships to many types of clubs and organisations are falling, but charities buck that trend. Charity membership has risen to 27% of UK adults – and this is driven by the under-45s. It’s worth asking two questions: could your regular giving programme become a membership scheme? And could a focus on younger demographics help boost a current membership?
“Charity membership has risen to 27% of UK adults – and this is driven by the under-45s.”
2 – Funders (and feedback)
45% of charities now use AI to write grant applications, and funders report overwhelming numbers to assess and reply to. We’ve heard of charitable trusts and foundations closing rounds early, going offline completely, or funding projects via trustees' networks only.
Others are bringing in AI themselves to address the numbers. Human assessors may be replaced by, or be actively using, AI to sort through the swathes of applications.
These changing numbers mean that feedback to applicants is likely to change, too. Only 23% of unsuccessful applicants in our nfpFunders benchmark got feedback they found useful, and 32% got none, but would have valued it.
3 – AI and the media as gatekeepers
Only 29% of the public recall seeing charities in the media recently, down from 41% in December 2024. Journalists still want to work with charities (86% say charity research and support is vital), but they want human stories and frontline voices more than chief executives. Four in ten now find stories through podcasts. Audit where your charity appears, and how that might help both the public and journalists learn more about your work.
AI assistant trends for charities in 2027
45% of 25- to 34-year-olds would trust what an AI assistant tells them about a charity, compared with 5% or fewer of those aged over 55, which is a huge difference. Take all AI usage insights with awareness of differing demographic usage.
AI tends to only drive a small percentage of charity web visits currently, around 1% on average, but two points to note:
Web visits from AI assistants, whether ChatGPT, Gemini, or others, are steadily increasing (and not all are bots scraping for content)
Visitors are arriving at your site already educated about your mission and more, so they can be ‘worth’ more than a visitor from Google
Read more in our blog: Are AI tools recommending your charity?
Check which AI assistants name your charity, whether they recommend you, and whether the information they generate is accurate.
4 – A year to focus on campaigning
Before you launch into campaign mode, it’s worth preparing. Firstly, find out what people believe about the issue you’re campaigning. Secondly, see whether those beliefs match reality.
For example: people tend to think that global poverty is getting worse, but extreme poverty fell from 36% to 10% between 2000 and 2024. On homelessness, pessimism matches reality: rough sleeping in England is up 164% since 2010.
In the UK, we’re approaching the midpoint of parliament, and probably the last real window for campaigning before parties switch into election mode. Charities are still well placed with MPs: 61% say it is clearer what charities are lobbying for than corporations.
Read more about effective campaigning in our blog: Seven questions to plan your 2027 research around
But public support for charities speaking up has slipped from 71% to 63%, and MPs are aware of this. Show your charity’s worth, build loyalty, and then speak out.
5 – Charity brand growth in 2027
Over the last decade, big brands have got smaller, and smaller brands bigger. We shared a wealth of data on this during the webinar, and can’t go into it all here, but of the brands we track that started below 50% awareness, 87% grew by five points or more, while half of the household names fell.
Our Brand Voice tool shows the fastest risers take different routes: Crisis with a campaigning, activist tone; Mind as a supportive friend; Cats Protection with humour.
We see charities planning to distinguish themselves further in 2027 using more unique brands. Critically, these will be deployed more consistently, and across more channels, in order to reach wider audiences.
2027’s trends for charities
Your very top-line take-homes:
As costs rise faster than income, focus on wills, bigger gifts from existing supporters, and membership
Expect more competition for funding, and more AI on both sides
Know what journos want from you, and what AI says about you – they are your gatekeepers
Before campaigning, check perceptions against reality
There’s still room for small and mid-sized charities to grow their brands, and for large charities to continue distinguishing themselves
More free reports are on their way, including one dropping soon about giving. Until then please take the International State of the Sector survey [LINK]. It takes ten minutes and closes at the end of November.