The geography of giving in the UK suggests local giving does not meet need in deprived areas, and more donations could be unlocked in affluent places. Tackling these issues will be a step towards levelling up.
The voluntary sector’s role in tackling regional inequalities is only hinted at in the 2022 Levelling Up White Paper. So our latest report, Donation Nation: the Geography of Charitable Giving in the UK, takes a closer look. It finds two broad facts about the UK charitable giving landscape which indicate that giving – people gave £12.7 billion in the UK in 2022 in total – does not support the levelling up agenda to the extent that it could.
The most affluent places have the greatest ability to give. And it’s true that places with higher incomes have a higher share of the population giving to charity. But these shares are not as high as they could be in these better off places.
The capital is an example: Birkenhead residents are as likely to give as Londoners, despite the gulf in economic performance. And there seems to be a regional disparity at play. A higher share of Southerners give, as they tend to be richer. But when comparing like for like, people in the Greater South East are up to 15 per cent less likely to give to charity than those in the rest of the UK with similar average incomes.
This ‘untapped capacity’ in the donor pool combines with ‘missing generosity’ among donors in more affluent places. As Figure 1 shows, donors in many affluent cities give a smaller share of their overall expenditure than less affluent places. Those green dots in the bottom right quadrant (e.g., Brighton, Edinburgh, Reading) have the greatest potential to increase charitable giving: they have higher shares of people giving, but donor generosity is lacking compared to poorer cities like Blackburn, Coventry, and Liverpool.
Source: Beauclair 2019
Note: No data for Belfast. Share of expenditure donated based on donors only. Affluence scale is the reverse of Beauclair’s CAMEO scale for affluence, which is based on transaction data. High affluence cities are 4.5 or higher on the affluence scale, low affluence cities 3.5 or lower
The highest deprivation is found in the North, West Midlands, and Wales. But donations to local causes do not adequately meet need in these places. Donors in the North East and North West have a preference for giving locally, but economic circumstances limit the overall volume of donations. Meanwhile Yorkshire, West Midlands, and Wales have neither, having the lowest donations per donor to local causes of all regions.
It is in fact London donors who give the most to local causes in absolute terms, despite having the lowest deprivation levels in the country. What’s more, charities dedicated to alleviating local poverty are most popular among donors in the Capital, far more than the most deprived regions.
It’s the same story when considering where charitable organisations are located. There are more charities per head in the Greater South East than elsewhere in the country. And there are fewer charities specifically focused on local economic needs in more income-deprived areas.
Why the mismatch between charitable activity and local need? Put simply, charitable giving reflects a place’s ability to give (Figure 2). The cities with the lowest shares of people giving and least served by charities are also the least affluent. Lower incomes mean lower donations, preventing need being met in these areas. Charitable activity is instead concentrated in the richest cities with the least need.
Source: Beauclair 2019, NCVO 2023
Note: England and Wales cities only. High affluence cities are 4.5 or higher on the affluence scale, low affluence cities 3.5 or lower
These two facts highlight the mismatch between the geography of giving and geography of need. Together, they mean that something needs to change if the charitable sector is to play a larger role in the levelling up agenda. The report makes recommendations to national and local government, as well as national charities to help address this.
Over the long term, national government must get the economy firing again across the country, particularly in UK cities outside the Greater South East. The economy drives the ability to give. So raising rates of giving in the long term, particularly in places with high need, involves lifting disposable incomes. This is one of the core steps set out in Cities Outlook 2024, alongside further devolution and planning reform.
In the meantime, steps can be taken to improve the level of donations in better-off places and the flow of funds raised to meet the geography of need.
National government can pursue policy to incentivise targeting donations from more affluent areas to places that need them most. As an example, Onward’s recent policy proposal of ‘Charitable Action Zones’ would see match funding from government for donations specifically targeted toward high need areas. More broadly, Whitehall should set a strategy on the role of charitable giving as part of the continuation of the levelling up agenda.
The creation of local charitable funds, which divert donations to local charities under the umbrella of a wider cause, are an option for local government. These could help channel local giving toward local need in more deprived areas, building capacity for charities on the ground. There is precedent for this: the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Fund is already helping homelessness in the city region. But what works in Manchester may not apply in Leeds or Cardiff. Local authorities will have to tailor approaches based on existing variation in preferences for local giving.
Finally, ‘Levelling Up Charity Partnerships’ should be undertaken by large national charities. These schemes would see them working with local charities pursuing similar causes in high need areas, targeting donations more effectively and overcoming local economic constraints. Beyond this, national charities should open up the ‘black box’ on where their donations are spent across the UK. Increased transparency and data sharing are needed to fill in this evidence gap on how charitable giving supports levelling up.
To what extent does charitable giving in the UK support tackling regional inequalities? To answer this question, this report sets out the geography of charitable giving in the UK, how it relates to local economic performance, and investigates whether the geography of giving meets the geography of need.
Join Centre for Cities for the launch of a new briefing exploring the geography of charitable giving across the UK.
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