With the seemingly never-ending turmoil in the news and our day-to-day lives, how can we separate the signals (the changes we need to respond to) from the noise? Charity branding is evolving due to a shifting operating landscape and audience expectations. To help you keep pace, we’re exploring the key trends shaping the sector and your brands today.
Where are we right now?
The last year has seen some fundamental shifts coming to fruition as we’ll explore in this blog, adding on top of the difficult pandemic and post-pandemic changes in the last few years. The seemingly unsettling news from recent reports is that there’s still more changes to come.
Yet the big and ever-present point is the influence of income versus demand for services that dominates our sector. There are four million fewer donors and £1 billion less annually in government grants, and that’s not including the £6.2 billion cut in overseas aid that’ll really kick in this year.
Pressure to deliver our services is continuing to increase, with 89% of charities expecting demand to grow significantly this year (CAF). With income predicted to grow by only 5% this year, covering the rise in costs with a little to spare, most fundraising routes, from individual giving to corporate, will remain relatively flat.
Tougher, yes, but not all doom and gloom. Actually, it’s far from it.
People like and trust charities in the UK, we’re a staggering £100bn sector (to put it in perspective, that’s the same size as the media industry or life sciences or food and drink manufacturing). What we do is vital and important, especially to the individuals whose lives we change. And that’s our stock and trade.
The era of purpose isn’t over yet
The era of brand purpose began in 2010, when Paul Polman, then chief executive of Unilever, criticised the City of London’s short-term obsession with shareholder value. In the years that followed, brands began defining their purpose beyond profit: why they exist and the positive impact they create for people and the planet. Purpose was placed at the heart of organisational strategy and public engagement.
This movement swept across sectors from responsible businesses to the rise of B Corporations. Leading charities such as Macmillan Cancer Support, Mind and the RSPCA also embraced purpose-led thinking.
The business case for purpose has been well established, shown to drive growth and engagement while delivering tangible social benefit.
However, by 2023 the narrative began to shift. Unilever’s then chief executive, Hein Schumacher, described purpose as an “unwelcome distraction” from commercial performance. Since then, many businesses have scaled back social and environmental commitments, including equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives.
For the charity sector, this moment represents a significant opportunity. Purpose is not a bolt-on for charities — it is core to our DNA. As businesses step back, charities can step forward and lead, regardless of their size or cause.
For charities seeking partnerships with responsible businesses, frameworks such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Global Compact remain valuable tools for shaping credible, purpose-led collaborations and demonstrating our worth.
Theory of change: aligning strategy and brand
An increasing number of charities now have a theory of change — a roadmap that sets out how long-term goals will be achieved, from activities through to impact. This framework is often completed alongside a new organisational strategy.
From a branding perspective, some briefs are commissioned once a theory of change and organisational strategy are in place. The aim is to refresh the brand so it aligns with, and delivers against, strategic objectives.
Other organisations choose to develop their brand alongside their strategy and theory of change, ensuring everything is shaped together and speaks from the same foundation. While this approach requires more planning, it often results in a more coherent and effective brand and strategy overall.
To build brand awareness, understanding and support, having clarity as a brand is crucial. Audiences want to understand who we are and what we stand for – quickly and easily, as well as our plans for the future and the difference we will make. The better co-ordinated we are internally, the easier it’ll be for people to comprehend us externally.
Unifying propositions: one voice, greater impact
Once upon a time, charity branding was marked by fierce divisions between communications and fundraising teams. Each side competed for attention and priority, while audience needs were too often overlooked.
A fragmented, “spray and pray” approach to messaging is far less effective than a unified one. True impact comes when everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet — with brand and fundraising communications working together toward shared goals.
One proven way to achieve this is through a unifying proposition. A unifying proposition serves both brand and fundraising objectives. It is a concise statement that positions the charity clearly in people’s hearts and minds, while motivating them to act. A strong example is Samaritans’ proposition: Let’s prevent suicide today. Because tomorrow’s too late.
Sometimes a proposition operates behind the scenes, guiding all public engagement. In other cases, it becomes a visible strapline or consistent call to action. Either way, its power lies in clarity, focus and emotional resonance, turning awareness and understanding into action. In an age where audience choice and perceptions can have ramifications for a charity’s sustainability, a unifying proposition can make sure your brand’s core shines through every touchpoint.
Accessible design goes mainstream
Accessible design is no longer optional. It is an expectation. Yet there remains confusion and misinformation around what accessibility really means in practice.
At a minimum, charity brands should meet the most recent version of the WCAG AA accessibility standards. Key considerations include colour contrast for legibility and the choice of typefaces. Accessible typefaces typically feature larger apertures, clearly differentiated characters, generous x-heights and open spacing.
Accessibility and Inclusive Design Strategist Gareth Ford Williams reminds us that “accessibility is emotional as well as functional and technical, which is why technical guidelines only take you so far.”
Brands exist to move people to action emotionally and to express a clear positioning and personality. Accessibility should not come at the expense of emotion or character, but nor should accessibility be ignored for the sake of design. The two must work together. Brands such as Scope and the Mobility Scheme demonstrate that accessible design can be distinctive, confident and full of personality.
As Simon Manchipp, partner at SomeOne, notes of the Mobility Scheme rebrand: accessibility should not be defined by “crude parameters”. To be accessible does not mean to be forgettable.
Be clear about what accessible practice means for your charity and your audience.
AI as a creative partner and comms turbo-charger
There is no doubt that AI is rapidly transforming the creative industries, prompting understandable anxiety about the future of creative roles.
Across branding, AI is now used to generate insights, mining data, and helping to develop data-driven brand positioning strategies, messaging, names and straplines. In design, it is increasingly used to explore concepts, source imagery, support and scale content production.
But it’s important to remember that it’s a tool, and quite an amazing one when used well, but not the magic solution to everything. With the income and demand pressures in the sector, it’s a great way to maximise time, resources and impact, and to help smaller and medium-sized charities punch well above their weight.
There is a broad consensus among creative leaders that AI should be absorbed into creative practice rather than replace it. So don’t dive in and go ‘AI first’. As with everything, think ‘problem first, strategy next,’ then see how AI can fit in (it’s really fun to ask it how it can help and give it a really hard time on refining the answers!).
As James Greenfield, CEO of creative agency Koto, puts it: “AI can generate ideas and assets, but it does not replace the core skills that define creative work – judgement, taste, strategic thinking, and the ability to craft meaning and emotion”.
AI vs. authenticity
In a world saturated with synthetic content, authenticity is becoming more valuable, not less. Jonny Spindler of brand agency JKR argues, that real connections, real experiences and real craft will matter more than ever.
This shift is already visible in audience perception. In recent focus groups, participants criticised one brand concept for sounding “AI-generated”, while praising another for its empathy and human understanding – despite both having been written by a human, with AI used only to support the content generation. It highlights both how audiences are thinking, and how creative processes are evolving.
Having modelled AI’s impact, operationally, it can deliver 5–10% cost savings for a £5m charity by automating routine tasks, freeing staff for higher-value, more rewarding activity.
Its greatest impact lies in value creation: scaling marketing, personalised fundraising, improved grant applications, and evidence-driven reporting can potentially yield 6–15% income uplift.
Overall, AI allows charities to focus resources effectively, communicate more clearly, and engage more effectively.
Lived experience at the heart
Charity branding is distinct from other sectors. People feel deeply connected to charity brands and causes, but they can be sceptical about the value of branding or resistant to change by questioning its worth. This makes stakeholder engagement essential.
Involving people with lived experience in charity branding is not new, but it is now increasingly more formalised across the sector. Many medium and large charities have dedicated roles focused on participation and lived experience. These colleagues are invaluable partners in developing authentic, credible brands. While smaller charities are learning how to embed better practices into their existing processes.
The strongest charity brands are created with people, not for them. Meaningful stakeholder engagement builds trust, generates richer insight, and reduces conflict – ultimately increasing the relevance, acceptance and effectiveness of brand initiatives.
For further reading, see what Dan wrote for CharityComms on involving lived experience in charity branding.
Slave to the algorithm: from search to answer
This is a big structural shift with huge strategic consequences for brand. You’ve all noticed that search engines have become answer engines. Users now click between 34% and 75% less on the listed links compared to the top of page ‘solution’ link. Have your strategies changed to keep up?
Success now depends on being cited as the authoritative source rather than an SEO-driven high ranking. Strong, consistent brand messaging becomes essential to drive distinctive and trusted content that clearly communicates value, which means brand and digital professionals must further align on what it takes to rank.
Inspiring brand messages, particularly about your mission and impact, that filter through to the summary are key to engaging the searcher and help people distinguish between other sources cited. All this must be done in a way that AI engines can reference.
Structured, machine-readable content (think schemas and FAQs) paired with compelling storytelling and authentic brand voice builds your website’s authority while earning high-intent clicks, according to experts like Liam Phillips, Head of Seo and Data at Creative Blend.
Strong external brand mentions in press and research boost your AI visibility, while engaging, unique content ensures the charity’s voice stands out when cited.
Diversifying beyond search through social media, email, and partnerships becomes critical, as does tracking new metrics such as AI citations and brand mentions. Many small and medium charities will feel the sharp end of this as AI engines favour better known, well-referenced organisations. But opportunity might lie in the long-tail keywords or questions larger charities aren’t locked into.
In terms of advertising, this means fewer search clicks, increasing advertising costs while reducing volume.
Brand needs to be sharper and permeate absolutely everything to drive differentiation and engagement.
Conclusion
Audiences expect more from charities and want to align themselves with brands they can trust and believe in. This isn’t just about what we say, but how we live our values, embedding them into the DNA of our processes and communications.
We’re going to have to get ‘brand imaginative’ to inspire our audiences about our causes and work, and the transformative impact we have with their support. We need to master new tools and opportunities to overcome the myriad of challenges. No brand can get away with ‘business as usual’: if it’s not driving you forward, it’s not working.
