Fundraising and Finance Directors often tell me a version of the same story: “We’re spending millions on fundraising… but I can’t quickly show the return—or how confident we are in it.” That’s a problem. The UK’s top 100 charities alone spent £1.5bn on fundraising in 2024; not being able to evidence current or future returns puts budgets, strategy and trustee confidence at risk.

We live in a sector awash with dashboards, reports, and metrics, so much so that it’s easy to assume everything is working as it should. But scratch the surface and you’ll often find something much less reassuring: fundraising programmes built on sand, behind smoke and mirrors.