What are the most popular causes?

Donations

Since 2015, children and young people’s charities have been the most popular cause for people to donate to. Before then Medical research was the most popular cause for a long time in terms of the number of people donating. Religious causes receive the largest share of donations in terms of total money given.

In a typical month around half the population makes a donation to a charity, and around 70% give at least once a year. The typical monthly donation is £14. Read more about fundraising with the public.

Volunteering

Around 37% of people volunteer at least once a year, and 22% do so every month – that’s nearly 12m people.

The most popular causes to volunteer for were:

• Sports clubs which 57% of volunteers had volunteered for in the past year
• Hobbies or social related clubs (40%)
• Religion (38%)
• Children’s education and schools (29%)
• Youth and children’s activities (24%)
• Environmental and animal groups (19%)
• Local and community groups (17%)