UK Fundraising in 2026: trends, pitfalls, risks — and the opportunities hiding in plain sight – Raise + Recruit
6 Jan 2026
John Austin

UK Fundraising in 2026: trends, pitfalls, risks — and the opportunities hiding in plain sight

UK fundraising is entering 2026 with a familiar tension: need is rising, costs remain high, and donors are cautious — yet the sector also has more channels, data and tools than ever to grow sustainable income.

Here’s what I’m seeing as the big themes for 2026, and what CEOs, Fundraising Directors and Marketing leaders should watch.

1) The donor mood: “still squeezed, still selective”

Even as inflation has eased compared with the peak, households remain wary about spending and confidence is fragile heading into 2026. That doesn’t mean giving collapses — it means donors polarise:

This is why case for support clarity + trust signals(transparency, safeguarding, ethical fundraising) will matter more than clever creative alone.

Opportunity: charities that can demonstrate local impact, urgency and competence will outperform in a cautious market.

2) Trust, compliance and “licence to operate” move centre stage

Two regulatory shifts will shape fundraising operations in 2026:

Pitfall: treating compliance as a “fundraising team problem”. In reality, it’s a brand and board risk.

Opportunity: charities that make compliance visible (internally and externally) can strengthen trust and improve fundraising quality.

3) AI goes from “interesting” to “operational”

In 2026, AI will move from experimentation to day-to-day execution in:

But the winners won’t be “the charities using AI the most”. They’ll be the charities using it safely, transparently and with measurable uplift.

Pitfalls to avoid:

Opportunity: fast-cycle testing + better personalisation without ballooning costs.

4) Digital diversification: the “platform risk” era

Many charities still have income concentration risk: one major platform, one acquisition channel, one audience cohort.

What’s changing:

Opportunity: invest in portfolio fundraising — multiple routes to supporter growth, rather than hoping one channel will keep scaling.

5) Legacy, regular giving and retention become the growth engines

In a squeezed economy, retention is the new acquisition.

Boards often ask “how do we raise more?” The 2026 question should be: “how do we keep more?”

Expect strong organisations to prioritise:

This is particularly important given the broader “big squeeze” pressures charities face — funding uncertainty, rising demand and cost pressures.

6) The under-discussed risk: staff safety and reputational attack

A growing issue heading into 2026 is hostility, harassment and reputational targeting, including online pile-ons and abuse directed at staff/volunteers — especially for charities working in contested spaces.

Risk: a single incident can trigger donor drop-off, corporate partner concerns, and staff retention problems.

Opportunity: proactive resilience planning:

What to do in Q1 2026: a practical checklist

If I were advising a leadership team for the first 90 days of 2026, I’d push for:

  1. Code readiness audit(policies, agency oversight, scripts, complaints process, training records)
  2. Income concentration map (top 3 income streams + top 3 acquisition channels + single points of failure)
  3. Retention sprint (one improvement to welcome, one to stewardship, one to reactivation)
  4. AI guardrails(what’s allowed, what’s not; sign-off rules; data/privacy checks)
  5. Reputation & safety playbook(who decides, who speaks, what you’ll do in first 2 hours of an incident)

Questions I’m asking sector leaders right now

If you’re a CEO / FD / MD, these are the questions that tend to surface the real risks and opportunities:

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