The number of door-to-door fundraising sign-ups per month has risen sharply in 2022 to exceed pre-pandemic levels, according to figures from the Chartered Institute of Fundraising (CIoF).
From January to May, there were 139,052 door-to-door sign-ups, CIoF’s statistics show, compared to 78,024 in the same five-month period in 2019, which represents a 78% increase.
This suggests door-to-door fundraising in 2022 is set to outstrip sign-ups in recent years by a significant margin.
In 2019, donors signing up to a charity through a doorstep fundraiser hit 199,576 overall. This plummeted to 96,592 in 2020 due to three months in lockdown before recovering to 157,800 in 2021.
Door-to-door fundraising has been labelled controversial by some, with charities such as the RNLI and Age UK pledging to stop the practice altogether.
However, director of policy and communications at CIoF Daniel Fluskey argued that it is a “hugely valuable” form of fundraising.
Number of sign-ups per month has risen
Door-to-door fundraising sign-ups have exceeded 2019 levels in every month in 2022 so far, according to the figures which are based on reports by CIoF members who conduct the fundraising method.
Sign-ups spiked in March this year, with 34,874 recorded, more than double the amount in the same month in 2019 (14,038).
Figures almost doubled from 2019 levels in April to 28,411 (from 14,523), while they rose by 71% to 30,669 in May 2022 (from 17,933 in 2019), the latest data available.
Increase in income ‘is really needed’
Fluskey said: “A real-life conversation is meaningful, memorable, and deepens the connection between an individual and a cause. Door-to-door fundraising has for many years been a brilliant way to make these connections, reaching out to people in a respectful and engaging way which often result in long-term support that benefits us all.
“During lockdown, charities rightly paused door-to-door fundraising and only started again when it was safe to do so, with fundraisers putting real care into changing how they carried out their work so they could put people at ease.
“Since then, people's habits and ways of working have changed and we've seen door-to-door fundraising have some great successes bringing in new supporters and raising significant amounts of money, at a time where it is really needed.”
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