We're Just £1,301 Away - Britain's Generosity Has Never Mattered More!
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
This morning, The Guardian reported that six million fewer Britons gave to charity last year than a decade ago. generosity
At Mildmay, we feel the weight of that trend every day. Our Winter Appeal closes on 1 April, and we are tantalisingly close to our target. Please help us get there. generosity
A fragile culture of giving
A new report from the Charities Aid Foundation, covered in this morning's Guardian, paints a sobering picture of charitable giving in Britain. In 2025, 55% of the UK population gave to charity - down from 69% a decade ago - six million fewer donors.
For years, charities weathered falling participation because those who continued to give tended to give more. But now, for the first time in five years, the total amount given has fallen too.
Mark Greer of the CAF describes Britain's giving culture as "increasingly fragile". If the trend continues, he warns, giving could become less normalised, and that means charities will face harder choices about what they can and cannot do.
We are one of those charities. And this is what that means in practice.
What your donation funds at Mildmay
Mildmay Hospital is a specialist NHS rehabilitation centre in East London. We care for people living with complex HIV and HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder (HAND), people recovering from homelessness and serious illness, and those stabilising after detox. These are patients whose needs are exceptional, whose circumstances are often desperate, and who have nowhere else to turn.
Charitable donations to Mildmay fund things the NHS cannot always provide, from our art therapy programme, which gives patients a non-clinical space to process what they are going through, to the small but meaningful extras that make a hospital feel less like an institution and more like a place of care.
The people who benefit from that generosity are, in most cases, the very people the CAF report highlights as falling through the cracks of a shrinking giving culture. People who are overlooked. People whose conditions carry stigma. People for whom the difference between adequate care and genuinely good care can be life-changing.
"Ultimately, this matters for the fabric of British society. Civil society thriving makes the country a better place to live, to work, and to enjoy our culture."
- Mark Greer
Managing Director, Charities Aid Foundation
We are so close
Our Winter Appeal has been running since December, and the response from our supporters has been brilliant. As of today, we have raised £28,699 - 95.7% of our £30,000 target. Just £1,301 stands between us and the finish line.
That is not a large sum. It is the equivalent of 13 people giving £100, or 26 people giving £50, or 130 people giving £10. If everyone who reads this article gives something - anything - we will get there before the appeal closes on 1 April.
Winter Appeal target: £30,000
£28,699 raised so far
Just £1,301 to go — appeal closes 1 April
Why now, more than ever
The CAF report notes that people are most likely to give when they are asked by a friend doing a sponsored event, by a cause that touches them personally, by a moment that makes the abstract feel real. This is that moment for Mildmay.
We are not asking you to solve the systemic decline in charitable giving. We are simply asking you to be one of the people who didn't step back, who looked at a gap of £1,301 and decided to help close it.
If you have been thinking about donating to Mildmay this year, please don't wait. The appeal closes on 1 April, and every pound you give now takes us one step closer to the people who need us most.
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