State of the Sector – a six-month review

Our recent update on the State of the Sector Report, taken from our InsightHub benchmarking suite and covering the last six months to June 2021, shows promising results for the charity sector as overall income and supporter volumes continue to rise.

This highlights the way charities and supporters have continued to adapt to the impacts of the pandemic and that these changes and innovations continue to engage and deliver with good results.

Overall income is up 7% and recruitment of new supporters by up to 58%. One-off donations continue to be the be the big winner, especially through the re-emergence of direct mail and the continued emergence of digital. Regular giving remains resilient, and new recruits are beginning to come through. Community fundraising and gaming though are both slightly down, although do remain stable.

Community fundraising saw a big boost towards the end of last year and this has continued somewhat into 2021. However, we’re seeing evidence now of a slight drop in activity along with a change in the profile of the audience engaging, with the new digital events attracting a younger less affluent cohort. Combined with evidence of lower ongoing value and cross sell from these supporters it shows that charities must continue to adapt to engage in new ways.

Similarly, the gaming audience appears to be changing with a younger audience likely driven by new online gaming products.

Whilst we are yet to see the full impact of the changes we have seen in ways of giving and types of supporters, and further changes will be inevitable as we hopefully emerge from lockdown, the results do show some of these new trends from the last year may be here to stay.

It’s vital that charities continuously monitor the behaviour of their supporters so they can build from the positives and make the most of the opportunities presented to them. As well as benefitting from the short-term boost from some income streams, they must build resilient relationships through these new (and old) channels to fully engage and nurture their supporters of the future.

You can see further detail on the data and read the full report here.