A study has warned charities against overwhelming their supporters through “over messaging”.

More than three in five of the 2,000 supporters surveyed for the study said they disengaged from charities that “ask too often or too forcefully”.

Two in five complained of a high volume of communications with “too many messages and emails”.

The findings have emerged in a report from digital agency Manifesto called Mind The Engagement Gap: How to Deliver Experiences that Deepen the Charity-Supporter Relationship.

Its research also included responses about communication from 300 charity professionals.

Researchers found that non-profits sent an average of 62 email messages to each supporter during 2024, a 9% increase on the previous year.

Another concern raised by supporters is a “lack of impact visibility”. Three in ten said they disengage from a charity “if they do not know how their donation is used”.

Manifesto says this is a particular concern for charities targeting older people, with almost three in four of those aged over 65 rating “trust and confidence in the effective use of donations as their top priority”.

The research also found that half of supporters would stop engaging with a charity if they lost trust in its reputation and more than one in three would disengage if they felt the charity’s values “no longer aligned with their own”.

Researchers warn that while almost all charity leaders surveyed recognised the need to improve their engagement less than half feel “very ready” with the necessary resources and strategy to implement improvements.

The research also found that just under half of supporters do not typically engage with charities after their first donation.

“This is the engagement gap: supporters are quietly disengaging because their needs aren’t being met by the experiences that charities deliver,” said Manifesto.

It urges charities to tackle barriers to improving supporter engagement. These include “disconnected systems and fragmented data”, decision making “driven by organisational needs rather than supporter needs”, and a skills gap, caused by “siloed teams and competing organisational priorities”.

'Engagement is fragile'

"Engagement is fragile; hard to build and easy to break,” warns manifesto’s chief client and transformation officer Louise Lai.

“But closing the gap between what supporters need and the experiences we deliver is a truly impactful opportunity for the sector to overcome today's turbulent challenges.

“We do this by first closing the internal gaps within our organisations, which allows us to build meaningful, authentic connections with supporters.”

World Wildlife Fund digital and content director Ruth Doyle added: “Closing the engagement gap isn’t just about sending fewer emails, it’s about fundamentally shifting how we think about the supporter experience: people don’t just want to give money for you to make change, they want to feel part of that change and they need to see and feel what their money achieves.

“Charities must confront the cultural roadblock of risk aversion - we must do better at being comfortable with technology projects, understanding and being able to respond dynamically to opportunities."

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