Small Charity Challenges in 2025

When NCVO published its UK Civil Society Almanac towards the end of last year, it highlighted a number of pressures and challenges facing the Sector.

At Minerva, there was no surprise that NCVO had pointed to the particular problems facing small charities. It is perhaps worth noting that NCVO considers a small charity to be one with an annual income of under £1 million, while other organisations regard £1.5 million as the line between small and medium size.

Of particular interest was NCVO’s finding that public donations have dropped from 54% of small charities’ income to 25% – and that this has left 73% of small charities without a primary income source. The report also points out that small charities suffer in terms of statutory funding, receiving just 4% of total government support.

Whilst Minerva would agree that small charities – however they are defined – are handicapped in the race for Government funding, very few of our present or past clients would regard public donations as their primary source of income. On the contrary, most rely on grants from trusts and foundations and the National Lottery – especially Awards for All – as the mainstay of their annual income, although we encourage all our clients to diversify into the challenging – but potentially rewarding – fundraising areas of corporate and high net worth (HNW) individuals, as well as building up their databases of regular public donations.

This situation also begs the question: why does the public appear to prefer giving to large, mainly national, charities rather than small local ones ? Minerva’s informal research in this area suggests that the public tend to give to the charities they know – so prefer the household names, which can afford frequent and widespread advertising campaigns, to the small charities with whose aims and work in the community they may be unfamiliar.

Ast least one charity Minerva has worked with has decided to take on the big charities in their local area through, for example, the use of radio interviews, advertorials in local papers and free news-sheets, and leafleting public locations where potential supporters are likely to congregate. This proactive work has generated corporate support as well as additional public donations.

An example worth copying?