Q&A: The most common fundraising mistakes (and how to avoid them)

Even the most mission-driven organisations can fall into familiar traps when it comes to fundraising. The biggest fundraising mistakes sector-wide include:

• Poor donor rentention

Average donor retention in the charity sector is low — often in the 30–35% range — meaning most supporters don’t give again without intentional engagement. This makes long-term income growth harder.

• Treating donors as transactions

Focusing only on one-off asks, instead of building relationships, makes it harder to grow long-term support and predict income.

• Inaccurate or siloed data

When donor records are scattered across spreadsheets and separate systems, charities struggle to understand their supporters - leading to missed opportunities and duplicated effort.

• Generic communications

Sending the same message to all supporters fails to resonate - especially when personalised outreach is proven to boost engagement.

• Lack of data-driven decisions

Without clear reporting and analytics, teams often guess rather than act with evidence - a classic fundraising mistake that undercuts strategy.

These aren’t just anecdotal. They show up again and again in sector analysis and fundraising evaluations.

Donor retention isn’t just a buzzword, it underpins long-term sustainability.

Most charities only retain around 30–35% of donors year-on-year, while first-time donor retention can be even lower. This means a majority of supporters don’t return without active stewardship and personalised engagement.

This means, your organisation’s biggest fundraising mistake isn’t a lack of donors, it’s losing the ones you already have.

Sector experts stress that building lasting relationships is far more cost-effective than constantly seeking new donors. This is why retention issues are often the root cause of income volatility.

Further reading: How to increase donor retention (without increasing your workload)

Behind many common fundraising mistakes is a lack of clean, actionable data. A charity CRM can help by:

• Capturing full donor histories in one place
• Segmenting audiences for tailored asks
• Tracking engagement patterns so you know who to contact and when
• Measuring campaign performance for smart future planning

Recent guidance on charity data use underscores that regular analysis and improved data hygiene help organisations make better fundraising decisions with less guesswork.

Without these capabilities, charities often repeat the same mistakes and miss chances to grow income and strengthen relationships.

• Unified donor records

No more scattered spreadsheets - all supporter info lives in one place, helping you spot patterns and personalise engagement.

• Enhanced segmentation and analytics

With accurate data, teams can tailor communications and appeals to specific supporter groups, improving relevance and response.

• Gift Aid automation

A CRM speeds up identifying eligible Gift Aid donors and claiming confidently - turning admin time into real income.

• Workflow automation

Automating tasks such as mass updates, reporting and reminders reduces errors and frees up time for strategy and stewardship.

• Structured reporting

Dashboards and reports help teams monitor retention, campaign performance and supporter engagement trends instead of guessing.

These features don’t just reduce mistakes, they enable fundraising that’s built on insight and relationships.

Framework Housing Association is a powerful case in point. After implementing Access Charity CRM:

•  They identified and reclaimed £23,000 extra in Gift Aid by running reports and updating historic donor records quickly — something that previously took months by hand.
• Team efficiency jumped thanks to automated workflows and cleaner data, freeing staff from repetitive admin.
• Analytics let them see donor behaviour patterns, improving segmentation and targeted communications.
• Better donor knowledge meant more strategic engagement, nurturing relationships rather than just processing donations.

"Analytics data we have been able to present has really wowed the team. And seeing the extra Gift Aid generated has been incredibly satisfying."

– Caroline Hannigan, Supporter Engagement, Income & Database Manager

Framework’s story shows how a CRM helps charities fix mistakes that cost both income and time, and build a stronger, more strategic fundraising engine.

Read their story