UK’s richest donate almost £8 billion to charitable causes - CAF calls onwealth advisers to discuss philanthropy with their clients

• If high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) donated 1% of their investable assets, it would mean an additional £12 billion for charities

  
  

• Education is most popular cause for wealthy, with 56% supporting, compared to 4% of UK public

The UK’s wealthiest 1% donate £7.96 billion to charitable causes, according to a new report from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF)1 . CAF’s High Value Giving report explores how the UK’s wealthy currently give and highlights the potential for donations from this demographic, a group for which current data is limited.

The UK’s high-net-worth individuals give the equivalent of 0.4% of their combined £2 trillion investable assets, according to the research. 2 These donors gave an estimated £7.96 billion in 2023. The wider UK public donated an estimated £13.9 billion to good causes in the same year, equating to 1.6% of their income, according to CAF’s separate UK Giving research.

CAF’s analysis finds that if each of the UK’s estimated 536,673 millionaires were to donate 1% of their investable assets, this could mean an extra £12 billion for the charity sector. The total donation from HNWIs would increase to an estimated £19.9 billion. When combined with giving from the general public, total giving from individuals would reach £33 billion.

Over the next 25 years, an estimated £5.5 trillion is expected to transfer from the post-World War II generation to younger generations in the UK, dubbed the Great Wealth Transfer. The next generation are predicted to be the most significant charitable donors in history.

Wealth advisers can contribute to unlocking philanthropic funds by increasing their knowledge of philanthropy and discussing it with their clients. Previous CAF research found that only 5% of advisers are very confident in discussing philanthropy with their clients. Yet nearly one in five wealthy people surveyed would choose a financial adviser who offered support on making charitable donations, rising to 57% of under 35s.3

According to CAF’s High Value Giving report, the donors who give the highest proportion of their wealth are, on average, 63 years old, and are more than twice as likely to have inherited their wealth. Women are over-represented in the group of the most generous donors, making up nearly three in ten (29%), compared to 19% of the high-net-worth population. The new report reveals that causes supported by the UK’s wealthiest are significantly different to those supported by the rest of the public. The most popular cause for wealthy donors is education, supported by six in ten high-net-worth individuals. However, only 4% of the rest of the population choose to donate to education, compared to 28% who donate to animal welfare, the UK’s most popular cause. Similarly, while a quarter (26%) of high-net-worth individuals donated to arts and culture, just 3% of the public choose to support this cause.

Common reasons CAF’s high-net-worth clients provide for donating to charities include a desire to support causes that align with their personal values or experiences, and a sense of responsibility they have given their level of wealth.

Edward Garrett, Head of Private Clients at the Charities Aid Foundation says: “The UK has a strong history of philanthropy, which has been behind some of our most important innovations and funds crucial charitable services throughout our country. But there is cynicism towards philanthropy in the UK, perhaps more so than other countries.

“There is considerable untapped potential for philanthropy to contribute towards tackling local, national and global challenges. The Government can take steps to renew Britain's culture of giving to strengthen civil society for the future.

“Wealth advisers also have a critical part to play. They don’t need to be philanthropy experts, but should understand the different approaches available to their clients and know where to turn for expertise. As well as helping to win new business, especially with the next generation, it’s also an enjoyable way to build a deeper relationship with clients.”

Commenting in the report, Julie Hutchison, Technical Director – Philanthropy and Charities at LGT Wealth Management said: “Philanthropy discussions benefit our business because clients have told us they welcome the information and guidance we can give them as they navigate what philanthropy might mean for them.”

1. High Value Giving is part of CAF’s Inside Giving, a series of reports examining the giving landscape worldwide, including UK Giving, Corporate Giving: the FTSE 100 and beyond, and the World Giving Index.

2. The Charities Aid Foundation commissioned Altrata, a company with significant expertise in wealth and the owners of Wealth-X, to produce estimates of the size of the UK’s wealthy population and philanthropic giving by these individuals. To complete the research, Altrata gathered publicly available information about the philanthropic activity of around 3,000 wealthy people in the UK, before applying its proprietary wealth modelling to project those findings to the whole UK wealthy population (in this case, people with investable assets of £1 million or more). The results have given us an estimate of the total philanthropic giving by this group in 2023.

3. Incisive Media survey of 215 advisers on behalf of the Charities Aid Foundation in October 2023. Previous HNW research is from a Savanta survey of people with £1m+ investable assets, on behalf of the Charities Aid Foundation, during Feb-March 2024 (N=256).