I am part of a group chat for our street, and although I’m not there often at the moment, I still get notifications. One of the most common is “Watch out! Chugger alert!”. I tend to keep out of the discussions that follow given my professional role as editor of Fundraising Magazine, but they can be enlightening about what the average citizen (ie non-charity bods) thinks about fundraising.
Face-to-face (F2F) fundraising generates the most public complaints and is often cited as the least popular fundraising channel. And the fact that “chugger” is still used to describe F2F is both indicative and depressing.
However, often the ensuing text exchanges in my group chat follow a more positive line. After the “I hide in the kitchen and pretend we are out” type responses, there are others that highlight why F2F is still a valid and productive activity. “Actually, they already came to our door. They were really nice and very cheerful, although the singing between houses was a bit much!”; “We can’t afford to give right now, but it seemed like a worthy cause”; and even, “I signed up for a monthly direct debit. It’s a great cause and they were so passionate and knowledgeable about it”.
As professional fundraisers you probably know the statistics around F2F – it generates an estimated £50m a year, one of the highest return-on-investment ratios in fundraising, bringing in roughly £4.50 to every £1 spent; and it remains the top channel for donor acquisition and regular giving sign-ups for many charities.
F2F endures and continues to be a valuable weapon in the fundraising arsenal because of two fundamental truths: first, most people (approximately 80% according to some polls) don’t give unless they are asked; and second, people need people.
A lot of discussion around growth currently centres on AI. But until the tech bros create a biomimetic (I looked it up) humanoid robot that genuinely cares about a cause and can communicate that with passion, patience and sensitivity, then the human connection will remain the driving force behind giving. And that is what fundraising, when done right, is all about.
One theme that runs through many of the articles in the September 2026 issue is the need to meet people in-person, to build communities and invest in relationships. Counterintuitively perhaps, this is particularly true when it comes to the younger, digitally native generations who are looking for heightened personal engagement, maybe partly because so much of the rest of their lives is online.
So yes, the fundraising landscape is tough right now, but keep asking, keep meeting people face to face, and keep caring... just maybe with a little less singing.
Stephen Cotterill is editor of Fundraising Magazine.
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