It’s been a record-breaking year for charitable giving with more than £550mn raised for almost 20,000 UK charities, according to the country’s leading fundraising platform, JustGiving.
Despite the rising cost of living, JustGiving has seen the most donations to good causes and the highest total amount raised since it started more than 20 years ago.
This year, almost one million (+950,000) JustGiving fundraising pages were set up, which is on average 2,600 pages per day and overall, 9% more than last year.
Highlighting the sheer generosity of people across the world, JustGiving has seen two million more donations to UK charities this year when compared to last and 3.5 million people donated to a good cause more than once.
April was the busiest month of the year for giving overall, with tens of millions of pounds donated to London Marathon fundraisers.
Meanwhile, the Friday feeling played its part throughout the year, as the most popular day of the week to donate to charity.
Running, walking, cycling and swimming were the most popular fundraising activities that people took on in 2023, with over 65 million miles recorded on fundraisers’ Fitbits and Strava apps. This is the equivalent of 2600 laps around planet earth, or 169 trips to the moon.
Most popular fundraising activities on JustGiving
- Running
- Walking
- Cycling
- Swimming
- Climbing / Hiking
- Football
- Coffee Mornings
- Skydiving
- Boxing
- Rugby
- Dancing
- Baking
- Tough Mudder
- Movember
- Online Streaming
Sitting just outside the top 10 is up and coming fundraising activity Online Streaming, with almost £1.5mn raised for good causes by fundraisers on platforms such as Twitch, YouTube and TikTok.
Meanwhile, charitable skydiving challenges increased by 40% and collectively raised almost than £5.5mn.
However, skipping challenges saw the biggest increase in popularity overall, with 286% more sponsored skips this year than last, raising almost £230,000.
Fundraising efforts for events such as Coffee Mornings increased by 127%, raising more than £2mn, followed by Movember which increased by 24% and raised almost £800,000.
Also in 2023, thousands of fundraisers put their hair to good use.
Insight from JustGiving shows that mullets are not only making a comeback in fashion but also through fundraising, with 13% more individuals growing a mullet for charity this year, than in 2022.
In stark contrast, more than 3,600 people shaved their hair off for good causes raising millions in the process.
When looking at which areas of the UK donate the most to charities and good causes, Norwich tops the list as the most giving area, with one in five (22%) of its residents donating to charitable causes on JustGiving this year.
Bristol, which was crowned the most generous UK city last year has slipped to number two, closely followed by Reading.
Top 10 most generous areas across the UK
- Norwich
- Bristol
- Reading
- Cambridge
- Manchester
- Nottingham
- Preston
- Cheltenham
- York
- Glasgow
Meanwhile, charity types that received the most donations overall this year were cancer, children and mental health related.
Top 10 types of charities people donated to
- Cancer
- Children
- Mental Health
- Humanitarian
- Poverty
- Alzheimers and Dementia
- Local
- MND
- Heart disease
- Brain Tumour
Pascale Harvie, President and General Manager of JustGiving said: “The enormous generosity from people across the world has made this a record-breaking year for giving, with more than 18 million donations to almost 20,000 UK charities.
“Despite it being a very difficult year for so many people, I have consistently been amazed by the incredible lengths that individuals have gone to, in order to raise funds and awareness for the causes closest to them.
“To every single person that has supported a good cause this year, on behalf of all of our charity partners, thank you.”
