When fundraising gets hard, what do we pay attention to?

What the latest Charity Aid Foundation (CAF) research suggests about financial resilience, trust and supporter relationships.

CAF’s new World Giving Report 2026: Charity Insights draws on responses from 4,132 organisations across 33 countries. It offers a useful snapshot of how charities themselves assess the pressures they are facing and their preparedness for the years ahead.

Some of the headline findings are rather sobering, I think:

• 67% of charities worldwide have experienced increased demand during the past year.
• 61% of charities have identified financial sustainability as a top challenge.
• 39% of charities around the world have reported increasing competition for funding.
• Fewer than two in five charity leaders believe their charities are financially and operationally prepared for the next three years.
• Two-thirds of respondents said funders could support them better by creating opportunities for networking and shared learning.

If you are a Christian ministry leader or fundraiser, you should pay attention to these findings.

Let me tell you why…

You too might have concerns about financial sustainability; this is understandable. Because right now your ministry too might be struggling with higher costs, increased demand for your programmes, and fundraising in an environment that is harder than a few years ago.

But, as you agree with the broader points made above, stop and think for a moment about these findings too:

There is something worth examining here, I believe.

You see, when income is under pressure and fundraising becomes difficult, organisational attention understandably shifts towards generating revenue. So, you focus on the next appeal, the next grant application, the next major donor conversation, or the next activity that might produce a financial return. So, you end up investing increasing amounts of time and energy in fundraising activities while paying less attention to the quality of the relationships that sustain giving over time.

If you believe this statement to be true, then, in addition to making your fundraising activities more effective, you should also be wrestling with questions like:

• Do our ministry’s supporters understand what their generosity is making possible?
• Are we communicating impact clearly and credibly?
• Can supporters see evidence of impact in our communications? Where? How?
• Are we building relationships that can endure beyond the next ask, the next grant cycle or upcoming financial targets?
• Do our ministry’s communications help individuals, churches, grant making bodies to participate meaningfully in God’s work, or just inform them when money is needed?

For Christian ministries, these are also questions of stewardship of resources too.

Paul took considerable care over both the raising and the administration of gifts. In 2 Corinthians 8:20–21, he explains that the collection was being handled carefully because he wanted to do what was right “not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man.”

Accountability, trust and generosity belonged together and continue to do so.

I was also encouraged by another finding in the CAF report, the one which stated that two-thirds of charity leaders and fundraisers worldwide want more networking opportunities and shared learning.

This is what Ministry Fundraising Network (MFN) is doing because we believe there is considerable value in creating places where ministry leaders and fundraisers can come together to pray, to share what they are learning, to compare experience, and speak honestly about what has failed as well as what has worked.

I am encouraged by the idea that resilience may not come only from finding other sources of funding. It may also come from becoming more trustworthy, more transparent, more connected, and more willing to learn from one another.

Source: CAF, World Giving Report 2026: Charity Insights, published 21 September 2026. The research included responses from 4,132 organisations across 33 countries.
https://www.worldgivingreport.org/charity-insights-2026

Redina Kolaneci is a fundraising consultant and a Catalyst for Ministry Fundraising in the Lausanne Movement. She writes regularly about Christian fundraising, generosity, stewardship and the changing environment in which ministries are working. You can subscribe to Christian Fundraising Insights if you would like to receive these reflections.