The number of people in the UK regularly giving to charity has dropped for the third year in a row.
The Charities Aid Foundation said it was a sign the public’s trust in charities is falling.
The foundation’s “UK Giving” report today found the proportion of people either donating money to charity directly or sponsoring a friend or family member dropped to 65 per cent in 2018. This was down from 69 per cent in 2016.
And just 48 per cent of those surveyed said they believed charities were trustworthy.
Susan Pinkney, the Charities Aid Foundation’s head of research, said: “With three years’ worth of data, we can now see a clear trend in people’s charitable giving and it is headed in a worrying direction.
“If people lack trust, that means they worry that their hard-earned money is not being well spent when donated to charities.
“This is a challenge that the entire charity sector needs to tackle head on, and find ways to inspire people to give and demonstrate to them that their money is making a difference.”
However, the report also made clear the UK remains one of the most generous countries in the world, consistently ranked in the top 10 of the foundation’s annual “World Giving Index”.
