Seven questions to plan your 2027 research around
Autumn is when most charities set next year's budgets, and when we get asked what should go in the research line. This year the answer is less obvious than usual. There is a new Prime Minister, AI is in every conversation, and donor behaviour has changed since Covid.
Here are the seven questions we think are worth planning around, with what our data says on each. Cian and I will go through them properly in a webinar on Wednesday 4 November at 2pm GMT (9am Eastern), and you can register here.
1. Where is the money coming from?
Fewer people give than before Covid, but those who do give more. Around two-thirds of UK adults tell us they have given to charity in the last three months, a little below the level before the pandemic, while the average amount given by those who do has risen faster than inflation. For six years, more people told us they had cut their giving than increased it, and that only flattened out at the end of last year.
Two other income sources are moving. Deaths are expected to overtake births in the UK by the end of the decade, so legacy income will grow for demographic reasons whatever fundraisers do.
Trusts and foundations, meanwhile, are swamped. ACF's Foundations in Focus report last October had members reporting application volumes up 50 to 60%, and more recently 100 to 400%, with AI described as a likely factor. One trust has stopped taking applications and now chooses who to fund through its trustees' own networks. The question for 2027 is which of your income sources are squeezed and which are not.
2. Journalists, AI or you: who gets your message across?
Fewer people are seeing charities in the news. Recall of charity media coverage was 29% in June, down in five of the last six waves, and part of the reason is where people now go for answers.
In March, 73% of the public told us AI makes it harder to know whether information online can be trusted, and 58% said it is already replacing tasks they used to do themselves.
Earlier this year we tested what different AI models say when people ask them about charities. One of the best-known charities in the country was named in most of the answers about its cause, but was the first suggestion only one time in twenty. Surprisingly, only a quarter of the sources the different AI models drew on were charity websites.
Journalists want more from charities. In our 2024 survey of 152 journalists, 86% said research and support from charities was vital to their work, and half said they were more likely to cover a story when a charity had spoken out against government policy. A third wanted to hear from the chief executive, but fewer than three in ten could name a chief executive who had impressed them. Journalists would rather hear from front-line staff and beneficiaries than anyone else, because that is where the stories are, but the case for change has to come from the top, and in 2024 they told us they hear too little of it.
Podcasts are a newer part of this. In our 2026 survey, four in ten journalists said they find stories through them, the first time we have measured it. In 2027 we will be asking the public and MPs whether they hear charities there too.
3. What does effective campaigning look like now?
With a Labour majority for at least two more years, charities have a more receptive audience at Westminster than they have had for some time.
85% of Labour MPs say it is acceptable for charities to challenge government policy even with their own party in government, against 58% of Conservatives in opposition. The same party split shows in how MPs rate individual charities. Those campaigning on poverty are rated effective by two-thirds of Labour MPs and under a third of Conservatives, while animal welfare and cancer charities score the same with both sides.
That matters for timing. 2027 is the midpoint of this parliament, and probably the last year in which the government is making policy rather than preparing for an election. If you want change, this is the time to ask for it.
“2027 is the midpoint of this parliament, and probably the last year in which the government is making policy rather than preparing for an election. If you want change, this is the time to ask for it.”
MPs tell us that a specific, constituency-relevant ask gets an answer, and that mass email campaigns get in the way of the constituents they are meant to help, though they clearly work often enough for charities to keep sending them. With a new Prime Minister, a new minister for civil society and a Civil Society Council, the contacts that matter have changed again.
4. Which brands are growing, and how?
Growing a charity brand is difficult. Over the last five years, only a third of the brands we track grew their awareness, half stood still and one in six fell. Almost none of the biggest brands grew, and the growth that did happen came from smaller, cause-specific charities.
Trust in charities as a whole sits at 63%, seven points below its 2023 peak, so nobody is being carried along by the sector's reputation. So what should your brand strategy be in this landscape? That is the question we will take on in the webinar.
5. Which audiences are you missing?
Under-35s volunteer at about twice the rate of over-65s in our data, yet in Ireland, where we have tracked the same charities for a decade, awareness of long-established brands among 16 to 24 year olds has fallen from 89% to 71%.
Membership is the other audience story. Charity membership has risen from a fifth of UK adults to more than a quarter since 2020, while membership of sports clubs, hobby groups and professional bodies has fallen. Part of the reason looks to be charities' own recruitment. Compared with a decade ago, more members say they joined to get news about the cause or because an appeal moved them, and the largest group of members belongs to a campaigning charity.
Some charities have made membership tangible for younger people, with discounted passes and offers aimed at under-26s. Membership is starting to look like another form of regular giving, and it is worth asking whether it could be one for you.
6. What does the sector itself think is coming?
From 2 November, we are launching the International State of the Sector survey, and we need your help filling it in.
The nfpResearch International State of the Sector goes to charity staff, leaders and trustees in the UK, Ireland, Canada, the US and Australia, with partner bodies in each country, and asks whether people expect gradual or fundamental change and what is driving it, how AI is being used, how the workforce is faring and how confident organisations are of being here in three years.
The findings will be available publicly in February. Please complete it and share it following its launch on 2 November.
7. What do you want to hear from us about?
We love writing free reports for the sector, and we would like to know which ones to write next.
Our most downloaded is Membership and the Charity Sector, ahead of Into the Corridors of Power on campaigning at Westminster.
This year's additions are Board Behaviours and MPs' Perceptions of Trusts and Foundations.
Should we refresh the membership report, given the figures above? Is there something missing? Tell us in the comments or by email.
The webinar
Cian and I will go through all seven questions above, with the data behind each, on Wednesday 4 November at 14:00. It is open to everyone, so please share it and sign up.