The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations is the membership organisation for Scotland's charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. Charity registered in Scotland SC003558. Registered office Caledonian Exchange, 19A Canning Street, Edinburgh EH3 8EG.
2026 Fundraising landscape
SCVO has compiled insights into Scotland’s fundraising landscape for third sector organisations, highlighting the challenges fundraisers report facing, and the alternatives being explored to overcome those hurdles.
Sources
- CAF UK Giving Report 2026
- CAF UK Local Giving Report 2026
- Scottish Third Sector Tracker Pulse 1 (2026)
- Scottish Third Sector Tracker Wave 12 (2026)
- SCVO Individual Giving in Scotland (2026): donations, legacies and fundraising
- SCVO 2025 Scottish Voluntary Sector Workforce Survey: Focus on Fundraisers
- SCVO State of the Sector 2026: Financial data
About
On this page we have pulled together insights into Scotland’s fundraising landscape for third sector organisations, highlighting the challenges fundraisers report facing, and the alternatives being explored to overcome those hurdles.
In short, the research shows a challenging landscape, resulting in a stressed workforce that still manages to produce results that have allowed the sector to continue delivering crucial services to communities.
The information for these insights came from four SCVO reports: Individual Giving in Scotland (2026): donations, legacies and fundraising, 2025 Scottish Voluntary Sector Workforce Survey: focus on fundraisers, Scottish Third Sector Tracker Pulse 1, Scottish Third Sector Tracker Wave 12. Additional data came from CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) and the SCVO State of the Sector 2026. We recommend reading the full reports for detailed findings and data.
This summary aims to provide a broader overview of fundraising in the third sector that helps fundraisers evaluate and benchmark their approaches in conversation with the sector at large, and highlights the specific challenges this part of the workforce faces.
Donations and fundraising: the big picture
- Individual giving from the general public was worth an estimated £1.2bn to Scottish charities in 2023.
- Data from the Spring 2025 Scottish Third Sector Tracker suggests that a rising number of voluntary organisations saw positive growth in both donations and fundraising income, suggesting some reasons for cautious optimism despite the challenging financial environment.
- Nine in ten organisations taking part in Wave 12 of the Scottish Third Sector Tracker reported acting in response to current financial pressures by applying for funding (72%), developing new income streams (42%) and using financial reserves (32%).
However
- Difficulty fundraising is an issue for 40% of respondents in Wave 12 of the Scottish Third Sector Tracker.
- CAF reports a reduction in both the number of UK donors and the average value of donations, resulting in a decrease in total UK giving.
- According to CAF's UK Local Giving Report 2026 Scottish people donated an estimated £910m to charity in 2025, down from an estimated £1.1bn in 2024.
- 34% of fundraisers are dissatisfied with their job, with 33% reporting unrealistic targets set by management as a top challenge.
- 3 of the 5 main challenges reported by 97% of organisations taking part in Wave 12 of the Scottish Third Sector Tracker relate to fundraisers’ work: difficulty fundraising (40%), rising costs and inflation (38%), and financial or cash flow constraints (32%).
- Procurement remains a limited source of income generation for many organisations. Only 10% of organisations described applying for contract opportunities as easy or fairly easy. Many organisations view procurement systems as overly complex, resource-intensive and disproportionately geared towards larger organisations with specialist capacity
Responses collected through the Scottish Third Sector Tracker Pulse 1’s focus groups evidence three main challenges regarding funding:
1) Scarcity and competitiveness
2) Excessive demands from funders
3) A perceived unequal relationship between funders and organisations
- A repeated theme is that funding is scarce, unpredictable, and increasingly competitive.
- Funding delays from Scottish Government and local authorities cause financial crisis points.
- Oversubscribed funds with narrow or “whacky” criteria that exclude otherwise suitable organisations.
- Participants stated that bureaucracy takes resources away from frontline work and is not proportionate to funding levels, particularly an issue reported with statuary funding.
- Disproportionate monitoring that is not reflective of impact, described as reporting on “what colour of socks everyone’s wearing.”
- Participants believe that funders expect professionalism and accountability from the sector but do not model these behaviours.
- Participants commonly reported a lack of transparency, arbitrary decisions and poor communication from funders.
Individual giving (donations and legacies), a crucial source of income:
- Income from individual giving made up 15% of the Scottish charity sector’s income in 2023, down from around 20% in 2018 and previous years.
- Income from individual giving has fallen in real terms by over £240m in recent years, from £1.45bn in 2018 to £1.2bn in 2023.
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Donations
- Donations are the most important source of individual giving for charities, but have decreased.
- Scottish people donated an estimated £910m to charities in 2025, down from an estimated £1.1bn in 2024
- Lack of affordability was the main reason for this drop, reflecting cost of living issues: one in five people say they cannot afford to give to charity.
- The relative importance of individual giving can also vary depending on organisation size. For example, donations made up almost 20% of the collective income of small charities in 2023, but only around 10% of the income of larger charities.
In Spring 2025, 24% of the Scottish Third Sector Tracker respondents whose organisations had seen an overall increase in turnover said that donations had been the income source that had contributed the most to that increase, up from only 7% in Spring 2023.
If Tracker respondents’ experience reflects the wider sector, despite donations going down slightly, they still are a crucial source of income for the sector.
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Legacies
- Legacy income to Scottish charities has almost doubled over the last decade, rising from £83m in 2013 to £151m in 2023.
- Legacy income has become a crucial source of income for many Scottish charities and is often unrestricted, making it a particularly valuable gift.
- Almost half of all Scottish charities’ legacy income goes to Scotland’s top 50 charities, which received £66m in 2020/21, with the biggest share going to health causes (Scottish Legacy Market Report 2023).
Note that many donations gifted by individuals and legacies given in Scotland will go to large UK charities and are not included in the data for Scottish charities.
Trusts and Foundations
- In 2023, income from grant-making trusts and foundations accounted for more than £580m - 7% of the sector's total income.
- This was more than double the £280m received in 2018, when trusts and foundations accounted for just under 5% of sector income.
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Corporate giving
- Private sector grants and gifts bring around £50m into the sector each year.
- Corporate giving appears to be growing, in part due to community funding via windfarms etc. The £50m figure also excludes funding from foundations established by corporate bodies, which has also been an area of growth in recent years.
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New SCVO figures for Donations, Legacies and Grants will be available Autumn 2026
The sector's main response to recent financial challenges:
- According to the Scottish Third Sector Tracker there has been an increase in fundraising-related actions taken in response to current financial challenges.
- Nine in ten organisations taking part in Wave 12 of the Scottish Third Sector Tracker reported acting in response to financial pressures by applying for funding (72%), developing new income streams (42%) and using financial reserves (32%).
- During focus groups for Pulse 1 of the Scottish Third Sector Tracker, respondents reported:
- Applying to more independent funders.
- Avoiding local authority procurement due to excessive workload and low returns.
- Building informal partnerships with other small third sector organisations.
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Specific responses to current financial challenges
Over the past year, we have seen an increase in the number of organisations undertaking fundraising activities, reflecting the increasing need to secure additional sources of income.
The chart below shows that applying to new funders, applying to existing funders for new funding, and developing new income streams including fundraising were the top three most popular responses to financial challenges in Spring 2026 (Scottish Third Sector Tracker).
- 64% of Tracker respondents in Spring 2026 reported applying for funding from new funders in the previous six months, up from 52% in Spring 2025.
- In Spring 2026, 45% said they had applied for new or additional funding from existing funders in the previous six months, up from 31% in Spring 2025.
- 42% reported they had developed new income streams including fundraising in Spring 2026, up from 21% in Spring 2025.
Donors in Scotland
- According to CAF's UK Local Giving Report 2026 Scottish people donated an estimated £910m to charities in 2025.
- This is down from an estimated £1.1bn donated to charities by Scottish people in 2024 (CAF UK Local Giving Report 2026 )
- The mean (average) amount donated per month by Scottish donors in 2025 was £50, down from £56 in 2024.
UK giving trends
2025 saw a reduction in both the number of donors and the average value of donations, resulting in a decrease in total UK giving:
- In 2025 the British public donated an estimated £14 billion - this is a decline from £15.4 billion in 2024 and is the first decrease in total giving since 2021. (CAF's UK Giving Report 2026).
- The fall was driven by a decrease in the average donation amount, which dropped from £72 in 2024 to £65 in 2025.
- Only half of the UK population (50%) now donates to charity, down from 58% in 2019.
- CAF estimates that around six million fewer people donate to charity than a decade ago.
- One in five people say they cannot afford to give to charity - lack of affordability was the main reason cited by non-donors (49% in 2025, up from 44% of non-donors in 2024):
We compared responses from fundraisers in the 2025 Workforce Survey to responses from voluntary sector staff in other roles and the wider Scottish workforce.
While fundraisers report somewhat lower levels of job satisfaction than staff working in other roles, they also demonstrate a particularly strong commitment to their work. The findings suggest that while fundraisers are highly motivated by the impact and purpose of their work, they are more likely to feel constrained by unrealistic performance expectations, and to feel less supported by management.
- 84% of fundraisers feel they are doing useful work for society, far higher than 57% reported in the wider working population (2025 Scottish Voluntary Sector Workforce Survey: Focus on Fundraisers versus CIPD Working Lives Scotland 2025).
Fundraiser, Workforce Survey“The projects I have worked on have made a real difference to the local community.”
- 54% of fundraisers are fairly or very satisfied with their jobs.
- Fundraisers were slightly more positive about pay than other respondents, and slightly more likely to agree that they are paid fairly and that their pay covers their basic needs.
- Note: survey respondents may not reflect the wider fundraiser experience. Many fundraisers who responded were experienced, senior-level staff who had been in their roles for 3+ years.
- Stress levels among fundraising staff were similar to those in the wider voluntary sector workforce, and they were actually less likely than others to have taken time off due to work-related stress.
However
- 34% of fundraisers were dissatisfied with their job, compared with 23% of respondents in other roles.
- Fundraisers showed slightly lower confidence in the long-term stability of their job and pay, and were somewhat less optimistic about the future.
- Fundraisers reported challenges relating to line management support. 36% of fundraisers reported poor management and leadership as challenges (compared to 26% of respondents in other roles).
- 33% reported unrealistic targets set by management as a challenge (compared to 12% of respondents in other roles reporting the same issue).
Fundraiser, Workforce Survey“Ever increasing fundraising targets, little recognition of what's been achieved already.”
The findings suggest a degree of polarisation within the fundraising workforce: many fundraisers report very positive employment experiences, but a large subgroup report low job satisfaction, high stress and intentions to leave.