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How small strategies can add up for charities in 2025 

Sayer Vincent

It’s often easy to focus on negative headlines, and sometimes, it feels like there are more of these than there are positive ones. So, when I read the recent Charity Pulse Report, it was great to see that over three quarters of charity leaders reported having maintained or increased fundraised income in 2024, and that 60% felt positive about fundraising in 2025.  

This is absolutely something to celebrate! However, though these headlines are encouraging, it’s important to not let them create a false sense of security. The term ‘charity’ doesn’t describe a single type of entity. Charities take a multitude of forms, and not all are focused on a fundraising model. The reality is that for some charitable organisations, the outlook is not so optimistic. 

The unfortunate truth is that in today’s economy, regardless of what type of organisation you are, costs are going up.   

So, in this article, I want to focus your attention to the other side of the income and expenditure equation and ask yourself, “if we’re going to need to cover these additional costs, then how can we work to fund them?” 

In the corporate world, phrases such as ‘sweat your assets’ are a commonplace motto. This is simply a case of getting your organisation to take a closer look at what you’ve already got and forensically considering whether there might be an opportunity to raise funds (or more funds).  

Of course, it’s not always easy to do this effectively without taking a bit of a step back to look at your organisation with a fresh perspective. To help you do this I’ve worked up some questions for you to consider: 

  1. Is your organisation based in a building where there’s still several years left on the lease? And do you utilise all that space effectively, especially considering the now popular hybrid working model? Might there be an opportunity to sub-let the space you’re not using to create some additional income? 
  1. Are you maximising on the expertise and knowledge within your own team? Could that be packaged and sold as specialist consultancy offer within the charitable space in which you’re operating? 
  1. Are you making sure that all your funds, even just a small amount of surplus cash, are working as hard for you as they could be and delivering the best returns? You might want to consider opening an account within a savings marketplace whereby any cash that you deposit can benefit from the best savings rates on any given day from across a range of banks. 
  1. We’ve all heard the phrase, “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” yet as the Charity Finance Group has demonstrated, many charities are continuing to miss out on valuable Gift Aid claims each year. The published research last year estimated that charities miss out on a staggering £560 million in Gift Aid annually. Consider, when you’re next organising a fundraising event, whether anything could be tweaked to the benefit of the Gift Aid income. Read more about how you can make use of Gift Aid in our made simple guide: Gift Aid made simple – Sayer Vincent 
  1. Have you checked that you’re not only compliant in areas of tax such as VAT, but that you’re in the very best position that you can be, both from an income and expenditure perspective? My colleague Ross, Sayer Vincent’s senior Tax Manager, often examines this topic, and I’d encourage you to seek out some of his blogs, or email us for one of his topical webinar recordings: Tax advisory and compliance – Sayer Vincent 
  1. Finally, if you are a fundraising charity, ask yourself whether you’re doing all you can to build on the strength of that fundraising effort. Here at Sayer Vincent, we often talk about impact, especially the impact that a charity and its fundraising efforts can have. When the external environment is becoming as increasingly challenging as it is now, this is ever-more significant. This is not a case of reporting on ‘how’ funds are physically spent but rather demonstrating the measurable differences that those funds can facilitate. Doing this successfully will support ongoing loyalty amongst your donor community. 

On their own, these areas of consideration may only contribute a relatively small amount of extra income. Added together, however, they have the real potential to really add up to something more significant.  

What’s important to emphasise as well, is that in most cases these steps can all be effectively managed within the existing structure of your charity, thereby avoiding any additional compliance related costs. 

As your organisation approaches financial planning for the year ahead, I’d urge you to take a good look at the assets that you have and ask yourself whether they’re delivering the best income that they can.  

We at Sayer Vincent work hard to develop free resources and webinars that are catered to helping charities and social purpose organisations through difficult circumstances. Here are some useful links!