If 2025 was about resilience, our prediction for 2026 is clarity and progress.
Not because things are suddenly easier.
But because they’re not.
For supporters, the year ahead looks financially tight, emotionally noisy, and full of competing demands on their time, money and attention. For charities, it’s another year of rising need, pressure on income, and hard trade-offs between short-term survival and long-term health.
In that context, generosity hasn’t disappeared – but expectations have shifted. And the space for muddled, disconnected experiences has shrunk.
What the data is really telling us
Recent research from Manifesto puts numbers on something many teams already feel day to day.
Nearly half of first-time donors don’t go on to make a second gift. Millions fewer people are giving than a few years ago. And when supporters disengage, it’s rarely sudden – they drift away quietly.
The reasons are familiar:
being asked too often or too forcefully
not clearly seeing the impact of their support
losing trust, or feeling values slip out of alignment
None of that will surprise charity leaders.
What’s more interesting is the gap the research exposes underneath it all.
Almost all leaders say they want to improve engagement. Fewer than half feel properly equipped to do so.
That difference matters – especially in a year like this.
This isn’t about blame. It’s about pace.
It would be out of touch to pretend this is all down to charity communications.
Cost-of-living pressures are real. So is fatigue. So is the fact that people are expressing generosity in broader ways than just giving money.
But what the research makes clear is this: when people do choose to give, what happens next now carries more weight than it used to.
Supporter expectations haven’t stood still – and in many organisations, ways of working haven’t caught up.
Messages still arrive as one-offs rather than part of a bigger picture. Impact is promised at the point of donation but rarely closed in a way that feels personal or tangible. Different teams contact the same people with little sense of the full load landing in someone’s inbox or letterbox.
In a looser, more forgiving environment, some of that used to slide. In 2026, it doesn’t.
Why clarity matters more under pressure
When times are tough, people don’t stop caring. They become more selective.
They want to understand:
why they’re being contacted
what difference their support is making
whether the organisation still stands for something they recognise
Clarity isn’t about sending fewer messages for the sake of it.
It’s about making sure each interaction makes sense in the context of everything else.
And progress isn’t about constant innovation.
It’s about building trust that compounds, rather than resets, over time.
That’s why internal alignment matters so much. When teams aren’t pulling in the same direction, supporters feel it – even if they can’t quite name it
What 2026 asks of charities (in real terms)
The research talks about closing internal gaps – in data, decisions and ways of working. Translated into plain English, that means a few uncomfortable but practical shifts:
Stop treating each message as a fresh ask, and start thinking about what someone has already experienced.
Be clearer about when you’re asking, when you’re updating, and when you’re simply saying thank you – and why.
Give people a genuine say in how often they hear from you, and respect it when they use it.
Spend less time asking whether something “performed” and more time asking whether it felt coherent to receive.
None of this requires perfect systems or big transformation programmes overnight.
It requires sharper choices, better coordination, and the confidence to protect relationships even when income pressure is real.
A shared reality
2026 will be challenging for donors and charities alike.
People will continue to make careful decisions about where their money goes. Charities will continue to balance immediate need with long-term sustainability.
In that reality, clarity becomes a form of respect.
The organisations that come through strongest won’t be the loudest or the busiest. They’ll be the ones that make supporters feel remembered, understood, and part of something that adds up over time.
Clarity isn’t a nice-to-have this year.
It’s how progress actually happens.
This article is informed by Mind the Engagement Gap: How to deliver experiences that deepen the charity–supporter relationship (Manifesto, 2025).
