Evidence library

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) has been conducting research into giving behaviours across the UK for decades. In these unprecedented times that we find ourselves in due to the COVID-19 crisis, we have been monitoring public reactions to charitable giving as well as talking to charities about their concerns. As such, since 17th March, CAF has conducted a number of one-question surveys with charities (pulse surveys) to measure the mood as things very quickly evolve. These have been sent out by CAF via email to our charity clients (base sizes for each survey shown on the charts below) with surveys completed quickly to obtain a snapshot.

In addition, as part of CAF’s ongoing polling work with YouGov, we used our late March survey to ask the general public questions around charitable giving and COVID-19.

The implications of COVID-19 on public donations

• 58% of people said they were very or quite worried about the security of their household income over the next six months in the wake of the outbreak.
• Overall, 14% of people say that they are likely to donate to charity less than they usually do over the next six months in the wake of the outbreak, whilst 22% say they will likely donate more than usual.
• People aged 45 to 54 are the most concerned about their income in the next six months, with 73% saying they are very or quite worried,and are the most likely to say they will donate less than usual because of the crisis.
• Charities which support the NHS garner the most support with four in ten (40%) people saying they are likely to donate to one in the next three months because of the crisis. Local and national charities are the next most popular at 34% and 23% respectively, followed by international charities, which only 13% say they will donate to because of the pandemic.
• More than half of people expect to help their neighbours or friends with shopping/errands (56%) or check on vulnerable or elderly neighbours (51%).
• The majority of people (56%) agree that the Government should provide financial support to charities if their income is affected by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. 13% Disagree, 24% Neither agree or disagree, and 7% don't know.

Charities and sustainability CAF asked around 300 charities what top three things they need the most right now:

1. 56% said unconditional cash grants. This was followed by just under two-fifths saying
2. Government mandating that other funders must relax any cash grants (18%) and
3. unrestricting all restricted funding (18%).

In terms of how long they thought they could operate in their current form, assuming no extra help became available, the majority (54%) of charities said up to 12 months, and within that, 37% said up to 6 months. CAF note that these are high levels and should be of concern.

• One in four charities have seen an increase in demand for their services because of the crisis
• 35% plan to use Job Retention scheme
• 18% plan to use the business rate relief scheme