The Catholic Generosity Report has reached Rome, where it was presented to Pope Leo XIV. It is the first detailed study of how Catholics in the UK give and the charities they support.
The findings point to a substantial contribution. We estimate that UK Catholics give around £2.9bn a year through parishes, dioceses, schools, hospices, missions and hundreds of smaller charities.
The journey to Rome began with a question much closer to home. Catholics in Fundraising (CiF) wanted to understand how Catholic fundraising compared with the wider charity sector. This series follows the report from that initial question to its presentation at the Vatican.
In this first article, we explain why the research was commissioned and share five findings that stood out. Part 2 explores Catholic giving in more detail, including who gives and what shapes their choices. Part 3 tells the story of the trip to Rome.
Why the report was commissioned
CiF is a volunteer-led charity and a network of more than 500 Catholics who fundraise for Church and secular charities, mostly in the UK. Its members work for nearly 100 organisations, including dioceses, Church charities and schools, which together raise around £150m a year.
Despite the scale of this activity, nobody had measured the Catholic charity sector as a whole. There was no combined figure for its income, assets or fundraising performance, and no estimate of how much the UK's Catholic community gives to charity.
CiF asked AAW Group (AAW) to address that gap.
We analysed regulator data for around 840 Catholic charities and ran a benchmarking survey completed by 28 organisations. We also drew on published research into the UK's Catholic population and interviewed wealthy Catholic donors about how they give and invest.
The result is the fullest picture of Catholic generosity in the UK available today, bringing together evidence on charitable giving, the organisations receiving it and the fundraising approaches they use.
Five findings from the Catholic Generosity Report
1. UK Catholics give an estimated £2.9bn a year to charity
Around 5.3 million people in the UK identify as Catholic, representing about 9% of adults. We estimate that they give around £2.9bn a year, equivalent to roughly 10% of all UK charitable giving.
Most of this giving comes from people who attend Mass at least monthly. Catholics in a recent national survey of Christian giving reported average donations of £136 a month, just over 5% of their income.
The findings point to the scale of Catholic generosity and the link between regular participation in religious life and charitable giving.
2. Catholic charities have a substantial collective financial footprint
Catholic charities with an income above £100,000 had a combined income of £1.89bn in 2024 and held £6.85bn in funds.
Their voluntary income from donations and legacies totalled £565m. If these charities were a single organisation, their voluntary income would be greater than Cancer Research UK's.
This gives a sense of the collective scale of Catholic charities, which span a wide range of organisations and causes but have never previously been assessed together in this way.
3. Catholic charities raise money efficiently
Catholic charities spend around 20% of their voluntary income on fundraising, compared with 25% among the UK's largest charities.
Dioceses, missionary organisations and international charities raise around £9 for every £1 they spend on fundraising.
These figures offer a useful starting point for charities looking to understand their own performance and compare it with others. They also show why sector-specific benchmarking matters: fundraising results can vary considerably between types of organisation.
4. Gifts in wills offer a clear opportunity for growth
Legacies account for around 12% of Catholic charities' voluntary income, compared with 32% among the UK's top 100 charities.
Where Catholic charities invest in legacy fundraising, it returns around £36 for every £1 spent, double the £18 achieved by the comparison group. Yet only 12 of the 19 charities in our survey that receive legacy income spend anything on promoting it.
The findings suggest there is room for more Catholic charities to explore legacy fundraising and build on the relationships they already have with supporters.
5. The practising Catholic community is growing and younger than many assume
Weekly Mass attendance in England and Wales reached 575,453 in 2024, increasing every year since the pandemic low in 2021. Attendance remains around 18% below 2019 levels, but the recovery has been steady.
The age profile also challenges some assumptions about the community. Around 44% of Catholics are aged 18 to 44, a younger profile than Christians overall.
Catholic schools in England also reflect the diversity of the wider population. Some 45.5% of pupils are from ethnic minority backgrounds, compared with a national average of 37.4%.
Together, these findings provide important context for charities considering how Catholic communities may engage with giving and fundraising in the years ahead.
Next in the series
The Catholic Generosity Report brings together evidence that has not previously been available in one place. It gives Catholic charities a clearer view of the scale of giving, how their fundraising compares and where there may be opportunities to develop their work.
In Part 2, we will look more closely at what the research reveals about Catholic giving: who gives, what motivates them and how those choices shape their support for charities.
Part 3 follows the report to Rome and its presentation to Pope Leo XIV.