Evidence library

Each year CAF surveys charity leaders to understand the challenges they face, and to assess the impact these challenges have on the sector’s ability to meet the needs of its beneficiaries.

The pandemic has shown how essential charities are within the community, whilst they face their own challenges of financial sustainability and addressing the increasing digital charity landscape.

Income challenges More than half of charity leaders (58%) say that generating income and achieving financial sustainability is one of their top three challenges, with an increasing number of charities planning to use reserves to cover income shortfalls.

Optimism for the future? The majority of charity leaders (81%) are optimistic about the future of their organisation, however fewer are optimistic about the future of the charity sector in general (50%).

Government While charity leaders agree that over the next five years government will view charities as service providers (69%), charities in Scotland and Northern Ireland are more likely to feel government values their input.

Technology While the majority of charity leaders (89%) believe that technological change is relevant to their organisation, larger charities are more likely to have invested in tech solutions during the pandemic.

Online fundraising Seven in 10 charity leaders (72%) reported introducing, or planning to introduce, new methods of giving; however only two in five charity leaders (41%) are increasingly adopting online fundraising and only a quarter (24%) report having the knowledge to make this online fundraising truly effective.