In this Spotlight on Gold blog, VONNE's Gold Membership+ members, Community Foundation North East share their latest insights on charitable giving from Third Sector Trends.
Support from businesses is important for many charities and community groups. It can provide funding, and offer or broker access to space, resources, knowledge and expertise.
But latest figures show that across the country this has been declining since before the Pandemic. However, there is good news in the North East, which is bucking the national trend on corporate giving, a testament to the value of the business community in the region.
The data comes from the latest edition of Third Sector Trends, released in October of this year. Produced by St Chad’s College Durham in partnership with Community Foundation North East, the research analysed survey responses from over 8,600 charities and community groups across England and Wales and compared the findings to responses to the same survey carried out every three years since 2013.
The national data for 2025 shows that direct financial support from business to VCSE organisations has only partially recovered, and all other forms of support have continued to fall.
Figure 3.5 Changing patterns of business support: 2013-2025 (Percentage stating of ‘great’ or ‘some’ importance, Third Sector Trends in England and Wales 2013-2025)
In 2025, 37.7% of voluntary organisations in the North East reported receiving financial support from business, up from 34.1% in 2022, and the joint highest of any region in England and Wales.
The national figures suggest that where businesses are providing support to charities, they predominantly do so by supporting organisations working in the most deprived areas. But it also shows that support is heavily skewed towards the largest charities, suggesting smaller organisations may be missing out.
Figure 3.2 Business support received by voluntary organisation size (Percentage stating of ‘great’ or ‘some’ importance, Third Sector Trends in England and Wales 2025, n=8,545)
One reason for this may be that larger charities offer more ‘quid pro quo’ for business in terms of publicity and connections.
But smaller charitable organisations often don't know what support from business could look like, especially knowledge and expertise, or have the capacity to focus on themes like business planning or leadership development when the day-to-day demand for services is high. Without pre-existing business relationships, support can be tricky and time-consuming to identify.
The findings from Third Sector Trends create a renewed impetus to ensure smaller organisations know how to access funding and other forms of support from the business community and do so.
This is a critical part of the work of Community Foundation North East. We work with many major companies based in the region including Newcastle Building Society and Port of Tyne to enable them to give smaller grants to brilliant charities doing vital work in communities.
And our Sector Support initiatives provide connections to expert guidance, alongside support for businesses to build relationships with charities. As a trusted and well-networked facilitator, Community Foundation provides this missing link and nurtures greater understanding between sectors.
Case Study: Skills Match
Via Skills Match, Insiyah Khushnood, Development Director at Igloo Regeneration provides pro bono expertise on a wide range of property queries and understands that this support relieves time, money and stress. Insiyah also highlights the personal value of applying her knowledge in new and impactful settings. She encourages other professionals to support charitable organisations in fresh and meaningful ways.
“Through conversations with different organisations, I am part of a bigger change in a community’s ecosystem,” Insiyah shared. “But all you’re really doing is having a conversation like you would with a family member, giving honest advice and feedback and signposting where you can.”
The Third Sector Trends 2025 report on Relationships, influencing and collaborative working can be accessed here: Relationships-influencing-and-collaborative-working-Third-Sector-Trends-in-England-and-Wales-2025-October-2025-1.pdf
Contact Colette Harrison if you are interested in learning more about Sector Support by email: ch@communityfoundation.org.uk