How do charity services shape local fundraising?

It’s my first month at THINK and as I settle into my new role as Director of Data, I’ve been reflecting on the many charity data projects I’ve worked on during my 24 years in the fundraising sector.

That reflection was also sparked by a Chartered Institute of Fundraising (CIOF) Insight 20:20 panel session in October — an event promoting the CIOF Insight Awards, taking place on 23rd April 2026. (If you have a great insight story to share, I’d encourage you to enter —  details are here.)

During this panel webinar, I found myself revisiting a project I worked on several years ago at Marie Curie — one that still feels strikingly relevant today. The project set out to answer this core question:

“How does the delivery of charity services on the ground affect local fundraising performance?”

It’s a simple question, but behind it lies many more questions and one that perhaps many charities rarely explore.  So how much of fundraising support comes from the people who directly experience the service a charity delivers? Can you clearly see the impact locally?

What we discovered in 2018-2019

The Marie Curie project referred to as ‘Big Shift’ at the time, combined research, predictive modelling and mapping. It led to insights that challenged how we thought about the relationship between care and giving:

• Service presence matters. Areas with strong service delivery — such as nursing services or hospices – often saw stronger local fundraising.
• Legacies had clear patterns. We could predict where legacies were more likely to come from geographically.
• Tipping points existed. Some regions reached a level of service activity that led to exceptional fundraising performance.
• Opportunities were visible. We identified underrepresented areas with strong demographics but little income or service delivery.
• Community fundraising was closely tied to care. When services changed, community giving could be impacted too.

It’s important to remember that the relationship between fundraising and service delivery is not always obvious.  As an aside, this reminds me to point out the very definition of ‘insight’, which is ‘A non-obvious understanding about your supporters, which if acted upon, has the potential to change their behaviour for mutual benefit’. More on that topic and what insight is another day!

Talking to my research colleague Vicky Harries at THINK, she described a market research case study at a health charity where event participants were motivated to take part because of the research into the medical condition; rather than what the charity was doing around service delivery. This finding highlighted the need for a mixed-method approach to understanding donor motivations and tailoring marketing efforts accordingly.

More business questions

After this first step of establishing the degree of relationship between fundraising and service delivery, such findings can lead to even bolder questions. In the case of a charity delivering palliative care such as Marie Curie, a question might be: what’s the fundraising value of a patient?  It may sound unusual and inappropriate to phrase it that way, but the question comes from genuine curiosity. If a charity cares for more people, does that lead to more supporters? When the number of patients changes, does that that affect future income? And what kind of service delivery has the strongest long-term impact on giving?

These questions open a new journey of exploration.  What else can the data reveal? By the end of 2019, some patterns became clearer at Marie Curie. Many first-time donors gave because they had a personal connection — e.g. someone close to them had been cared for by Marie Curie.  This starts to get us into the topic of golden questions — those few questions every charity should be asking their base to understand their connection to the cause and motivation for giving. In other words: what is the supporter’s story?

Their giving isn’t random. It is a response to care that had touched their lives. Such insight encourages us to look deeper:

• Do different service types such as hospice care, home visits, advice lines, etc have different ripple effects on fundraising?
• How long after receiving care does that connection translate into a donation?
• How can we measure those emotional and geographical connections?

Finding answers to such important questions is challenging but it all starts with what data is needed to fuel the insight.

Looking ahead

Fast-forward to today. Our charity data is richer than ever, with multiple years of records, better tracking of in-memory giving and stronger insight into local community fundraising.

This creates new opportunities:

• Build or rebuild predictive models to understand how and when service delivery drives giving.
• Link operational or service delivery data with supporter data to reveal patterns — moments of service or care that can lead to moments of generosity.
• Use these insights to plan services and fundraising together, understanding how compassion sustains income over time.

It’s a fascinating cycle; one that could reshape how charities think about the relationship between service delivery and fundraising.

Why this still matters

We think more charities should explore this link between service delivery and fundraising, and use analytics to uncover a fuller picture. How can data help us plan both fundraising and services side-by-side? And what future opportunities might appear when we connect these two worlds?

At THINK, we want to keep this conversation going and to continue to explore how data, geography and human connection shape fundraising success.  I have been privileged to work for two amazing causes in the last decade at Marie Curie and Alzheimer’s Society, and hopefully played my part in exploring how charity services shape local fundraising.

As we approach 2026 and I mark my 25th year in the sector, I’m looking forward to engaging with more charities to explore these important questions together.

Steven White, Director of Data
November 2025

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If you’re a non-profit looking for support, we can help – you can get in touch with us here. You can also find us on LinkedIn at THINK, where we share useful industry insights.