The Future of Nonprofits: Key trends and marketing tactics for charities

2025 has navigated a complex landscape for the charity sector. While experiencing growth, it grapples with increasing demand and limited resources, facing a “triple threat” to sustainability that encompasses financial strain, operational challenges leading to workforce exhaustion, and a critical gap in trust and visibility of impact, a shift towards local giving, and evolving consumer behaviours driven by digital engagement. 

To thrive, charities must strategically embrace transparency, optimise digital engagement, cultivate donor loyalty, and refine their measurement approaches. 

In this article, we will take you through the key pressures, challenges, opportunities and marketing tactics that organisations within the third sector must endure and try to continue their growth journey.

The global charity landscape: Navigating paradoxical pressures

In a time where many consumers are concerned not only about the state of their financial outlook, but also what is happening in the world around them, the charity sector is facing some of its biggest challenges to date. 

Summarised as a landscape of resilience and rapid growth, yet also marked by a widening gap between rising demand and limited resources, means organisations need to find ways to respond to the challenges they face in order to survive.

Sector resilience: Growth in the face of adversity

Despite the known challenges, the charity sector’s underlying health remains strong, supported by a long-term trend of steady global growth. 

Data from the UK Charity Commission highlights this momentum, with a record 9,840 registration applications processed in the 2024–25 financial year — a 9%  increase compared to the previous year. This surge reflects society’s continued need for formal charitable structures and showcases the sector’s entrepreneurial drive.

Despite ongoing economic uncertainty, high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) continue to be a reliable and influential funding source. The wealthy are not only building their assets but actively donating them, mirroring global philanthropic trends. In the UK, the wealthiest 0.01% of the population donated nearly £8 billion in 2023, underscoring the strategic potential of legacy and asset-based giving programmes.

The sector’s strength confirms its capacity for growth, yet this very success intensifies competition for funding, a challenge already recognised by 32% of charities as a major concern.

The demand-resource tension: A global crisis point

The defining strategic challenge for 2025 is the growing gap between organisational capacity and community need. An alarming 78% of charities worldwide report an increase in demand for their services over the past year, with 47% describing this rise as significant.

This surge is not incidental. Charities cite persistent economic hardship, ongoing social crises, and, most critically, the structural withdrawal of public services as key drivers. These factors indicate that the sector is not managing a short-term spike; it is confronting a sustained escalation in need.

A majority (83%) of charity leaders expect demand to keep rising over the next year, a figure that climbs to 90% among humanitarian organisations in lower-income countries. This sustained strain is pushing the sector to a chronic pressure point.

As public systems retract, charities are increasingly required to fill essential service gaps once managed by the state. This evolution transforms them from supplementary support providers into core pillars of community infrastructure.

In this context, short-term crisis appeals are no longer sufficient. Effective communications must position organisations as permanent, foundational service providers, making the case for flexible, unrestricted funding that strengthens long-term capacity, not just restricted project-based grants.

Key challenges: The triple threat to sustainability

To navigate the coming years successfully, marketing leaders must first understand the core operational constraints that threaten long-term sustainability. These challenges are interconnected, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of limitation.

The financial sustainability crisis: The unrestricted fund deficit

Financial sustainability remains the most pressing concern, cited by 62% of charities. This strain is intensified by a global funding imbalance:

• Charities in high-income countries benefit from an average of 4.1 funding sources, often with stronger corporate and government support.
• In contrast, organisations in lower-income countries average only 3.4 sources.

The disparity deepens when examining the nature of income. Only 28% of income in lower-income countries is unrestricted, compared to 40% in higher-income contexts. This heavy dependence on restricted funding (up to 72% in some cases) limits agility, innovation, and strategic investment.

As a result, many organisations are confined to running donor-funded projects while underinvesting in core infrastructure like administration, technology, and staff development—a dynamic widely recognised as the “nonprofit starvation cycle.” Without sufficient coverage of essential costs, long-term sustainability and impact are undermined.

Operational strain and workforce exhaustion

Operational pressures continue to mount, with 66% of charities reporting significant internal challenges. Rising costs (29%) and difficulty in maintaining strong teams (24%) are the leading causes. This strain is compounded by a sector-wide staffing crisis:

• Nearly one in four charities has already reduced services and cannot cut further.
• 36% face recruitment challenges, leaving the remaining staff with heavier workloads.

Escalating inflation and minimum wage increases are further tightening budgets, forcing difficult decisions around staffing, service delivery, or even mergers and closures. For marketing teams, this reality must be communicated clearly. Competitive pay, professional development, and reliable infrastructure are mission-critical expenses, not optional overheads. Strategic communication should also humanise the workforce, connecting donor empathy directly to operational resilience and long-term impact.

The trust and impact visibility gap

External engagement remains another critical challenge. 24% of charities struggle to raise awareness of their work, and 9% face difficulty building public trust. Measuring and demonstrating impact is also a key issue for 23% of organisations, yet  35% of donors say they would give more if they better understood a charity’s results and impact.

In today’s landscape of information overload, misinformation, and cyber risks, simple honesty no longer suffices; transparency must be demonstrable. This gap creates an accountability deficit, where donors increasingly rely on third-party platforms such as Charity Navigator to assess financial health, accountability, and transparency.

To close this gap, marketing must shift from reporting activities (e.g., “we ran 10 workshops”) to communicating validated outcomes (e.g., “10 workshops led to a 30% sustained positive change, verified by X data”). Donors’ growing reliance on third-party assessors, such as Charity Navigator, to evaluate financial health, accountability, and transparency further underscores the need for charities to demonstrate and market the highest standards of verifiable accountability.

Latest movers and shakers: The Decolonisation Imperative

Global philanthropy is experiencing a seismic power shift. The mandate for 2025 is clear: Redefining international aid. This involves strategically investing in localisation and equity by moving resources and decision-making authority away from the traditional, centralised model and into the hands of community leaders who are best positioned to drive change. This isn’t just an ethical choice; it’s the future of effective impact.

The key pillars of the decolonisation imperative will not only affect how charities operate, but also the rules of engagement for marketing professionals.

Shifting power dynamics: From charity to solidarity

The Decolonisation Imperative is the biggest strategic pivot in modern philanthropy. Major international organisations are recognising that the old aid model is broken, pushing for a fundamental restructuring of how aid is delivered. Look at players like Oxfam, which is leading the charge by shifting the narrative from traditional charity (defined by generosity) to one of solidarity (defined by justice).

This is not merely a communications exercise; it’s a mandate for radical structural change. The core goal requires organisations to place power, funding, and decision-making authority directly into the hands of local partners and communities in the Global South.

The implications for marketing communications are far-reaching. This new direction mandates rethinking narratives, specifically moving away from “poverty porn” or imagery that portrays beneficiaries as helpless victims. Authentic storytelling must now prioritise equity and justice, elevating local voices and leadership to demonstrate that funds are genuinely shifting power, not just offering temporary relief.

The dominance of local giving

The movement toward localisation is strongly validated by donor preference globally. Local charities consistently receive the most support, with 71% of charity donors having given money to them in 2024.

Support levels drop off significantly for organisations operating on a larger scale: 46% of donors support national charities, 23% support international charities working in the donor’s country, and only 12% support international charities working outside the donor’s country.

 This clear preference indicates that donors value immediate, verifiable impact within their community. 

For many charities, this presents a challenge; demonstrating through their marketing how they align with donors’ needs and support the drive to give locally.

For international organisations, marketing success is increasingly tied to acting as a transparent conduit for local empowerment. Messaging and content strategies must prove that funds enable the capabilities and leadership of local partners, rather than showcasing the heroic actions of the foreign aid provider. They can strategically bridge this distance by hyper-localising campaigns, highlighting specific community projects, and explicitly featuring the local partners that execute the work. As for Global charities, they must market themselves as sophisticated networks of highly effective local teams to win donor confidence.

Consumer behaviour 2025: Drivers of global generosity

Understanding what drives people to give is key to effective resource allocation and strategy planning. Currently, global generosity reflects a mix of geography, culture, and evolving generational habits, especially around digital engagement.

The global giver profile: Participation, methods, and local bias

In 2024, 64% of people donated money globally, though participation and generosity differ sharply by region. Africa stands out as the most generous continent, with 72% donating and 1.54% of income given, far surpassing Europe’s 0.64%. This points to a deeply embedded culture of philanthropy.

A particularly striking trend is the bias toward local giving; only 12% give to international causes outside their country. This shows that donors value visible, close-to-home impact and trust built through proximity.

For national and global organisations, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. To overcome the distance gap, marketing should hyper-localise messaging, highlight community-level projects, and showcase local partners who deliver the work. Ultimately, global charities must position themselves as networks of strong, trusted local teams to earn donor confidence.

The role of social pressure in giving

Social norms strongly shape philanthropic behaviour. In countries where donors report high social motivations such as duty, guilt, or expectation, the average income donated is 1.61%, nearly three times higher than in countries with lower social motivations (0.56%).

For international campaigns, this calls for hyper-localised strategies. In high-normativity regions, marketing can leverage community influence and shared duty. In lower-normativity regions, messaging should focus on personalised empathy, measurable impact, and showing how individual donations drive real change.

Cause preferences also vary globally. Across every continent, children and young people consistently appear among the top supported causes. Beyond this, preferences differ: in Africa, religious organisations are the most popular; in Asia, poverty relief leads; in Europe, humanitarian aid and disaster relief dominate; in the Americas, homelessness is a key focus; and in Oceania, health charities attract the most support. This shows that while social motivations influence generosity, effective campaigns also need to align with locally relevant causes to strengthen engagement and impact.

Generational giving: Engaging digital natives

How donors discover charities is shifting fast, driven by generational digital fluency. Social media is now the top global discovery channel (14%), ahead of local presence (11%) and word-of-mouth (10%), particularly in Asia.

Digital-native generations, especially Gen Z and Millennials, are socially conscious and increasingly define giving trends. Cryptocurrency giving is accelerating, with growth expected to surge in 2025 as wealth moves to crypto-savvy investors.

These donors expect seamless, mobile-first experiences and social-platform integration. Tools like in-video fundraising widgets on Twitch or Instagram Live harness peer influence and community motivation, making it easy for young donors to give in real time.

To summarise the key donor behaviours:

Donor behaviour snapshot: where, how, and why people give

Top trends: Technological & strategic shifts

To survive the current operational strain, charities must embrace a suite of technological and strategic trends focused on efficiency, ethical data use, and service evolution. This included adopting the right technologies to elevate not only their marketing processes, but also the digital experience. 

The AI mandate: Efficiency, personalisation, and ethical governance

In marketing, it’s no secret that AI is transformative. And now, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has stabilised from initial hype into a necessary operational component. 

Charities are also integrating AI to increase agility, to better understand their donors and to enhance service delivery and counter the operational strain caused by the staffing crisis and rising costs. For the majority of adopters, key applications include personalising supporter journeys, automating admin-heavy tasks, analysing donor trends, and improving accessibility via content translation and transcription.

It significantly optimises email marketing by assisting with effective subject lines, the single most influential factor for open rates (65% of marketers agree) and helps automate supporter journeys to boost donation timing. AI is also used for advanced personalisation in digital fundraising platforms, tailoring donation requests based on individual donor behaviour and preferences.

However, the adoption of AI is fraught with caution, necessitating a strong governance framework. 

While 68% of marketers feel positive about AI, only 62% of consumers share this sentiment, reflecting a significant trust vs. excitement gap. Consumers cite data breaches, biased decisions, and workforce reductions as key risks. Given the high operational scrutiny faced by charities, ethical governance must precede deployment. Organisations must develop transparent data ethics policies to prevent a single instance of algorithmic bias or a data lapse from shattering donor trust, the sector’s core currency. Recently, articles have surfaced in the UK media, exploring the increasing use of imagery created through AI by charities, including the UN. While the charities that were questioned stated AI was used to protect the real people, it raised concerns over wider factors such as consent, transparency and the images reflecting extreme stereotypes rather than real-life situations.

So while it is clear that adopting AI into your marketing strategy can unlock great opportunities for improving the digital experience of new and existing donors, it is also clear that there are some areas where it should not be adopted to ensure transparency and trust is protected. 

Web3, crypto, and decentralised philanthropy

The substantial growth of cryptocurrency giving, with $2 billion donated in the five years leading up to 2024 and exponential growth expected in 2025, makes Web3 technologies an unavoidable strategic vector. The foundational principles of Web3- decentralisation, permissionless access, and a community-driven ethos- align philosophically with the sector’s push toward decolonisation and local empowerment.

Tactical opportunities within Web3 include using Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) for unique fundraising campaigns, leveraging blockchain’s inherent transparency to track funds from donation to deployment. Organisations must also develop strategies to engage with Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs), which represent pools of community-driven capital actively seeking mission-aligned investments.

Content and SEO in the age of AI (SGE adaptation)

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) remains a key tool for charities, providing discoverability, sustained organic traffic, and credibility. However, the landscape is being fundamentally reshaped by AI-driven search experiences (like Google’s Search Generative Experience, or SGE) and chatbots, which often summarise information directly, potentially reducing the necessity for users to click through to original websites.

If AI tools increasingly handle the presentation of generic information, the only content that will reliably capture clicks and build long-term authority is that which offers unique, human expertise and validated experience, content that AI cannot replicate. Charities must adapt their SEO strategy to focus less on mechanical keyword usage and more on usefulness, authenticity, and authority. This requires publishing structured, factual answers (e.g., FAQs, resource lists, clear, short paragraph answers) to optimise for AI quoting, combined with compelling human stories, testimonials, and impact visuals to drive emotional engagement and website visitation.

Evolving marketing tactics: A strategic response framework

Addressing the challenges of demand, funding scarcity, and the need for trust requires a comprehensive upgrade of the marketing toolkit, moving toward integrated, digital-first strategies. To capitalise on the digital opportunities presented by the global trends being seen today, marketing strategies must also be proactive, ethical, and data-driven.

Here are a few ways in which charities can evolve their marketing strategies to support their continued mission for growth. 

Prioritising transparency and trust building

Organisations must meet the escalating donor demand for accountability through complete transparency, which is paramount for establishing long-term relationships.

Implement advanced transparency tools: Charities should prepare for the future by exploring the use of distributed ledger technology (blockchain). This technology promises to provide real-time traceability of donations, creating an immutable ledger of transactions that assures donors that funds are tracked from contribution to final application.

The impact content mandate: Marketing budgets must pivot toward generating and distributing detailed impact reports. Financial reports should also be broken down into simple, digestible formats. Furthermore, providing ongoing updates that acknowledge both successes and challenges, rather than only asking for donations, builds credibility and directly addresses the 35% of donors who require demonstrated impact to give more.

Decolonised communications: Strict guidelines must be enforced against using disempowering language or “poverty porn” imagery. Communications must showcase local leadership and capacity, aligning the brand with the “solidarity” principle of the localisation movement to mitigate brand risk and build genuine connection.

Optimising the digital acquisition and conversion funnel

The combination of social media discovery and website trust necessitates a seamless, highly optimised digital funnel. So here are a few ways you can optimise the acquisition and conversion funnel.

Maximise social media discovery: As the top discovery channel for donors (14% globally), social media must receive consistent investment. Content strategies should focus on visual content (which receives 650% more engagement) and consistent posting frequency (3–4 times per week). Utilising interactive elements like live streaming and polls can deepen audience engagement and could be considered as a more innovative way to engage with existing and potential donors.

Exploring the role of different social media platforms will also help to unlock growth across the different generations of donors. While social media is widely used across all age demographics, the younger generation is more inclined to spend time on the likes of TikTok, Reddit or gaming platforms such as Twitch. Tapping into these spaces can be an authentic and engaging way to reach young donors and start building relationships earlier. 

Harness Google Ads grants: Eligible charities should utilise the $10,000 per month Google Ad Grants available for free advertising. This is a high-leverage tactic for increasing awareness (a challenge for 24% of charities) and efficiently driving traffic to the trusted website. You can check your eligibility for a Google Grant account if you are unsure. 

Website UX audit and optimisation: Organisations must conduct regular audits to ensure their website is highly accessible and mobile-optimised, catering to all user needs. Crucially, the donation pathway must be frictionless: placement of prominent Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons, minimisation of required fields, and offering preset gift amounts and recurring donation options are non-negotiable best practices for conversion.

Advanced donor cultivation and loyalty strategies

Effective marketing must pivot from broad appeals to targeted cultivation to foster loyalty and secure sustainable funding streams.

But improving donor retention requires meticulous attention to the supporter journey. Mapping the donor journey from Awareness and Consideration through Decision, Retention, and Loyalty/Advocacy allows organisations to identify all critical touchpoints and potential friction points.

Here are a few ways charities can work on their donor cultivation and loyalty strategies: 

AI-driven personalisation in email marketing: Email remains a steady and effective communication channel, with 33% of donors stating that email communication is most likely to inspire them to give. 

AI should be leveraged to segment audiences and automate personalised journeys, such as sending tailored anniversary messages, personalised appeals based on giving history, and automated re-engagement messages for lapsed donors. Personalisation dramatically boosts engagement, with personalised emails achieving click-through rates around 14% and transaction rates that are six times higher than non-personalised emails.

Major donor cultivation: Given the immense potential of high-net-worth individuals, dedicated cultivation programs are required. This involves using research tools to identify prospects, engaging them personally through tours and conversations, and providing customised impact reports that directly align with their philanthropic interests.

Empower Peer-to-Peer (P2P) fundraising: P2P fundraising expands organisational reach by empowering supporters to raise funds from their own social networks. Implementing seamless P2P tools allows charities to tap into organic growth and foster a sense of advocacy among their supporter base.

Maturing the measurement approach

In today’s highly fragmented media landscape, a decade-old measurement framework simply won’t cut it. 

The biggest challenge charities face isn’t just generating awareness; it’s proving that your media spend, from social ads to direct mail, is genuinely driving incremental donations, not just capturing gifts that would have arrived anyway. 

Over-reliance on last-click attribution models gives a falsely optimistic view of digital performance while completely blinding you to the crucial, long-term impact of offline channels like TV, radio, or print. To break free from this short-sighted loop, charities must evolve their measurement approach beyond basic analytics. 

The solution lies in embracing sophisticated measurement tools like Incrementality Testing and Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM), which are the gold standards for understanding true effectiveness and optimising budgets for maximum mission impact.

Implementing this requires a strategic shift. You must commit to running rigorous A/B tests and geo-experiments (incrementality testing) to definitively prove that a channel’s activity directly caused a lift in donations. Simultaneously, you should invest in an MMM solution, which uses statistical analysis to quantify the contribution of all marketing variables (including external factors like seasonality, economic trends, and competitor activity) to overall fundraising success. 

Key considerations for implementation include ensuring robust data hygiene across all channels, securing buy-in from leadership who need to understand the initial investment of time and resources, and, most importantly, treating these models not as a report card, but as a dynamic engine for smarter, future-focused budget allocation. This move from descriptive reporting to predictive, evidence-based strategy is non-negotiable for charities serious about growth and accountability.

Check out our guide to Media Effectiveness Measurement in 2025 if this sounds like a familiar challenge for you and your organisation. 

Case Studies in effective charitable marketing

Several organisations serve as powerful examples of how to execute cutting-edge marketing strategies that align with current trends in transparency, digital content, and ethical engagement. 

Here are a few noteworthy case studies:

Transparency and trust (WWF)

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is often cited for its excellence in transparency. Its campaigns clearly delineate how donated funds will be deployed, which significantly bolsters credibility and fosters donor trust in the organisation.

Decolonised storytelling (Comic Relief)

Recognising the need to shift power and challenge old structures, the British anti-poverty charity Comic Relief announced it would stop raising funds by sending celebrities to African countries. This decision was based on the premise that African people should tell their own stories, moving away from “poverty porn” and signalling a shift toward ethical, localised communication.

Content and brand identity (Charity: Water & Ed Sheeran Foundation)

Charity: Water is frequently highlighted for its exemplary use of content marketing. By focusing on providing detailed, compelling stories about the impact of their work, they create a strong emotional connection that drives sustained support.

The Ed Sheeran Foundation established a strong visual brand identity, utilising a vibrant colour palette, creative typography, and painterly textures. This striking visual consistency is carried across their website, social templates, and email newsletters, creating a strong, unique visual point of difference in the philanthropic space.

AI for loyalty (Golden & Greenpeace)

Golden developed an AI coaching companion called “Goldie” that interacts with volunteers and donors. The AI uses personalised data and behavioural insights to provide recommendations on when and how a user should next engage in volunteering or donation activity, thereby enriching relationships and addressing first-time donor retention issues.

Greenpeace launched an automated phone campaign to personally thank regular donors for their support. This relationship-strengthening tactic resulted in regular donors being 2.5 times less likely to stop donating compared to those who were not contacted.

Continue your journey with Impression

The future of charitable giving demands rigorous accountability, and that starts with smarter marketing. If your organisation is ready to partner with experts who can transform your entire approach, from strategic planning to high-performance media execution and definitive measurement, get in touch today.