What is it?
Faith-based donations continue to be the biggest subsector of total giving. Specifically, religious organisations are raking in an average £1 out of every £5 donated in the UK. That’s a significant margin compared to the runner up (sports and recreation-based giving, which comes in at about half the amount of total revenue as faith-based). Religious charities rake in donations from the faithful and non-believers alike, because supporters trust their altruistic intentions at a time when trust in charities is notably low.
Yet its market share is dropping. We’re living in a time of growing secularism and growing distrust in public institutions (read more about who we trust now here), and faith-based charities are feeling the pinch as much as anyone else. They’re still deeply embedded in their target demographic of religious communities - but with these communities shrinking, what’s the way forward for faith-based organisations?
Technology
In the aftermath of the pandemic, congregation attendance is down. This, understandably, makes it much harder to connect with supporters across these communities. But technology has been paving the way for faith-based organisations to connect with virtual congregations or religious communities that now live online. For one, digital congregations are here to stay, and they can mean people join multiple communities and give or support to a wider variety of organisations. On top of that, social media, Google Grants, and even just email lists are the way forward for connection with religious communities. They’re also a great way to expand your mission beyond faith-based communities and connect with non-religious people looking to support your values and missions.
Collaboration
Collaboration is a noted strength of the faith-based charity group. There’s higher shared values and goals (both between charity organisers and supporters), and frequent overlap on best practice. The past years have already shown a trend of faith-based charities leveraging these strengths to double their impact - but as trust in faith-based organisations is shrinking, should we be considering more collaborations between faith-based and non-faith-based organisations? After all, the charitable values that underpin religious charities aren’t unique in the third sector. Expect to see more crossovers between religious and non-religious organisations (or even with corporates).
Community Outreach
Community outreach programmes are the booming subsector post-COVID. Throughout the theme Belonging & Inclusion, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about how the importance of community is on the rise - it’s no surprise that this craving translates into the missions we want to support. Luckily, community outreach programmes are something faith-based organisations are historically great at (and it’s one of the only programme types that is growing revenue within the religious charity subsector in recent years). Community is one of the things that people (both believers and non-believers alike) are going to be caring about the most in the coming year, especially as the recession hits fully. Think about the community outreach programmes you’re currently running and how to maximise their impact - there’s the potential to answer a real need for people throughout what will undoubtedly be a rough couple months up ahead, as well as expanding revenue streams.
Language
I’ll keep this one short but sweet - if you don’t want to be a victim of the (slowly but surely) shrinking market share of religious charities, avoid insider language! The values of faith-based organisations are often universal beyond the religion they’re drawing these from; there’s plenty of non-religious people who are waiting to find the right mission to throw their support behind that can be scared away by sector jargon.
Understand The New Religious Consumer
As the world is changing, religious demographics and consumers are also changing. How they’re changing looks different across different regions and religions, but it’s important to understand which direction your target demographic is shifting towards.
For example, young Muslims are either more observant or just as observant as their parents for the majority, whereas most young Christians are turning towards post-Christianity (which is to say, less observant).
For the new Muslim consumer, we expect to see the halal lifestyle become increasingly important (although what is considered halal is also changing), as well as a new push towards representation (Muslim consumers want the organisations they support to be more representative and inclusive), and increasing numbers of female Muslim breadwinners means we’ll see a push for female-championing brands. Wunderman Thompson recently released a deep-dive into the future Muslim consumer, which you can read here.
On the other hand, Christian consumers are reporting that they feel a disconnect from their community, and are likely to flock around organisations that can close this gap for them. They’re also craving a future of sustainability and moderation. Over the coming year, they’re likely to focus their support on organisations that champion communities and environmental awareness.
So What?
Whether you’re a faith-based organisation or not, there are lessons to be learned from these trends. With community outreach and sustainability the hot topic amongst religious consumers across the board, the message is essentially as follows:
If you are a faith-based organisation, an emphasis on community outreach programmes and sustainability will let you find common values amongst both believers and non-believers, and expand your supporter base across both groups.
If you are not a faith-based organisation, an emphasis on community outreach programmes and sustainability will let you connect with the new religious consumer, and grow your faith-based revenue.