The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) has published its Annual UK Giving report, which identified a number of important individual giving trends in 2016:

• Donating money remains the main way in which people engage with charity, 61% having done so in the last year
• Donating money peaked in November when 41% said they had done so in the last four weeks, coinciding with lots of high-profile campaigns prior to and during interviewing such as Children in Need, the Poppy Appeal, and Movember
• Medical research is the cause people are most likely to have donated to (26%)
• A total amount of £9.7 billion was donated by generous Brits in 2016 – on a par with 2015
• Younger people are less likely to donate money than older people but are more likely to volunteer, sign a petition and take part in a public demonstration or protest
• Students are the group most likely to have volunteered in the last year (23%)
• 2016 saw a significant increase in numbers of people saying they had taken part in a protest or signed a petition. Numbers who had signed a petition in the past four weeks peaked at 35% in July, following the EU referendum
• Our new questions show that 50% of Brits thought charities were trustworthy in 2016 – with women and young people most likely to trust them
• Analysis in the short term shows that the result of the EU referendum has had no impact on charitable donations so far, but appears to have led to an increase in some forms of civic engagement
• People who voted in the EU referendum are more likely to have participated in a charitable activity than those who did not vote

The report also found that (based on the sample) of those who donated money to charity, over half (52%) said they used Gift Aid on their donation, a higher level than 2015 (47%) with those aged 25-44 (60%) being the far most likely age group to have done so. This age group consistently comes out as the most likely to utilise Gift Aid, likely due to their levels of employment and taxable income, which makes them eligible for Gift Aid.