Bridging the Giving Gap: Key insights from the Generosity Report 2025

Stewardship’s second annual Generosity Report exploring Christian giving in the UK has been published. With the results from 6,000 individual surveys and 50 individual interviews, this builds upon the first survey issued in 2024 and goes deeper into motivations and outcomes.

The background to the report is that, at Stewardship, we believe there is a ‘giving gap’; a gap between what is currently being given by Christians in the UK and what is expected if Christians were to live with ‘freedom’ and ‘generosity’.

The question for us as church and charity leaders is ‘what should I know and what should I do?’ as a result of the findings.

Summary of key findings of the report

There are 7 key findings:

• Deeper Christian practice leads to greater generosity
• Committed Christians experience the most joy from their generosity
• Donors’ research is limited and changes with the depth of Christian practice
• Most Christians regularly support two causes, but use their income generously in a wide variety of other ways
• A charity’s faith affiliation is not the deciding factor for most Christians
• Generosity varies across denominations, but depth of Christian practice and conversations on generosity have the greatest influence on giving
• Christians are more likely to give to their church than to any other cause

In this blog I want to draw out a number of aspects that I think can make a real difference as we learn and lead people in this difficult area of money and generosity.

Heart, mind and wallet are connected

The report shows the greater the impact of Jesus, the bible and teaching the greater is the likelihood of generosity.

The results are broken down by the extent to which people are engaged with biblical teaching and the church. The survey showed Christians in the UK give an average of £124 a month (5.3% of their income) whilst ‘Committed Christians’ (see report page 5) give an average of £314 a month (11.2% of their income).

There was also interesting information on the positive emotional impact of giving; with a high correlation of those ‘committed Christians’ responding feeling ‘joy’, ‘gratitude’ and/or ‘excitement’ in their decisions alongside of ‘responsibility’.

These survey results reflect the Apostle Paul’s 2nd Corinthian letter, where he opens the whole subject of money and generosity talking about the Macedonian churches “in the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and the extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity” and “..they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing…” (chap 8:2, 4)

As always it seems, the core issue is ‘the heart’ --- the money itself may be an issue, but probably not the big one. It is the place that the money plays in our lives; and it is part of our role as leaders of churches and ministries to focus on how we go about making the change in this aspect of the culture and thinking of the people we influence. That is more the issue than simply  talking a lot about money. Interestingly, page 27 of the report suggests the importance of people being willing to have conversations with others about money and giving; so it is not just ‘a private thing’.

For church leaders, page 46, outlines a number of thoughts as you look to lead in this aspect.

Don’t need to be high earners to be generous in heart

The demographic data is interesting. If as a leader you think that there’s only a point of talking about money when you have wealthy listeners you would be mistaken. The survey data showed the younger age group (18-24 year olds) were the most generous as a % of their income with that % declining with age.

The data and denomination (report page 27) and ethnic background (page 36) makes interesting reading. However this is also linked to the extent to which different types of churches have money and generosity as ‘open topics’.

The indications are that ‘affordability’ does remain a genuine factor in limiting the ability to give. I would suggest as leaders we are always mindful, when talking/asking for money, about individuals’ situations and how money impacts us differently at different stages of life.  It’s important to remember Jesus’s own perspective from the story of ‘The widows mite’; in His eyes, the heart motivation not the amount is paramount.

Trust is a big deal

It is interesting that ‘research’ was not, of itself, the major part of where the giving was directed but ‘trust’ was. Generosity is easier when the recipient is trusted (whether as an individual, church or charity). Research did, however, become more important when charities they had supported had been involved in scandal. Subsequently evaluation of transparency and effectiveness was an issue for many. (I address these points further on).

The church is reported as the most frequent beneficiary as this is where trust and relationship is highest. (But it can be damaged if it appears that the talking about money, referred to earlier, is seen as only done when needed by the preacher!- see page 46 for some comments on this-  It also links to the wisdom of St Paul in 2 Cor 8:13.)

This links into the next question …….

Think about your own organisation: is it good to give to?

The survey results, especially the interviews, suggest that the way people view our organisation will very much affect how they give to it. How much time do we spend asking ourselves the question as to what would build trust in it and make it better to give to?

At Stewardship we have called this “AAA rating”; does an organisation, in its handling of money, reflect three aspects that build trust and confidence – which all start with ‘A’:

• Do we demonstrate good ‘Attitude’?
• Do we demonstrate good ‘Accountability’?
• Do we have good ‘Administration’?

For charity leaders page 45 of the report highlights specific areas of action.

So what should we do as leaders?

One of the calls on us as Christians is to reflect God’s generosity in this world. One of the calls on Christian leaders is to do what we can in our own organisations to make this true. This will include making sure we ourselves are fulfilling this call in our own lives and part is about us playing our roles in our organisations.

For ministry leaders this will involve making sure our organisations are ‘good to give to’ and ensuring a culture which attracts good quality givers.

For church leaders, we have the double responsibility of not only that, but also of training and discipling those in our church groups so they are learning and living the culture of money and generosity that Jesus and the apostles talked about.

As we do those things, the goal of Christians living in ‘freedom’ and ‘generosity’ is brought into being and, at Stewardship, we look forward to reporting more on this in the years to come!

Download the Generosity Report