UK LGBTQ+ charities are in ‘hostile environment’ amid falling donations, experts warn

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LGBTQ+ charities in the UK are operating in a newly “hostile environment”, experts have warned, as the ripple effect of Donald Trump’s attacks on equalities programmes sharpens financial pressures.The concerns come as yearly accounts submitted by Stonewall, the UK’s biggest LGBTQ+ charity, revealed corporate donations had more than halved in the last financial year, falling from £348,636 in 2024 to £143,149 in 2025.“This is an incredibly tough environment for LGBTQ+ charities,” said Heather Paterson, the head of partnerships and development for LGBT+ Consortium, an umbrella support group.Paterson pointed to research published last March by the consortium that estimated LGBTQ+ organisations receive just 10p in every £100 given to voluntary and community organisations in the UK every year.The US president’s executive orders scrapping DEI at US government level and his freeze on foreign aid for LGBTQ+ programmes have undoubtedly affected fundraising efforts in the UK, said Paterson.

“This is against a backdrop of increasing running costs, a huge growth in support needs and increasing threats of legal challenges,” she added.While last April’s UK supreme court ruling on biological sex and its implications for single-sex spaces has no direct impact on funding, it has seen charities such as Girlguiding UK threatened with legal action over their transgender-inclusive stance.“The majority of the sector are small, grassroots organisations, which are especially vulnerable to threats of costly legal action,” Paterson said.Paterson said some corporate firms have become more nervous about funding choices in a political environment where showing support for trans causes in particular is viewed by some as controversial.She added: “We also work with funders who report they are subject to increasing negative feedback when donating to LGBTQ+ causes in recent years.

”Last month, the Guardian revealed how the UK’s biggest businesses were rolling back their public support for Pride celebrations with fewer posts on social media, mirroring a trend seen in large American firms,Responding to questions about their latest accounts, a spokesperson for Stonewall said that “the context we are operating in has shifted dramatically in recent years”,They added: “Globally, the LGBTQ+ movement is experiencing a period of significant turbulence including a pushback on rights and freedoms,There are significant reductions in funding for the movement,”Stonewall’s income fell from £6.

9m in 2024 to £4.7m in the last financial year, with less than £92,000 left in its cash reserves – compared with £998,000 for 12 months before that.The charity ascribes this to a combination of factors: a decline in donations to all charities because of cost of living and wider economic pressures; a global pushback on DEI; and a shift in Stonewall’s own strategy – the charity says recent restructuring and cost-cutting is “now reflected in positive financial results in the first half of the financial year 2025–26”.While much analysis of Stonewall’s travails is framed as evidence of a loss of confidence in the charity’s vociferous support for trans inclusion, experts in the sector suggest this misses the wider context.“LGBTQ+ charities across the UK are struggling”, said one source, who has held a number of trustee roles.

“This story is much bigger than Stonewall.Since Trump’s attacks on DEI in the US, firms in the UK are getting rid of their DEI training budgets too and sponsors are pulling out.“There’s a bigger picture here – it’s not just because of Stonewall, anyone working within trans rights and other LGBTQ+ charities are struggling and having to make changes, taking on a lot more voluntary work for example.”The pull-back of corporate funders is the inevitable result of the “devastating” loss of international funding prompted by the second Trump presidency, said Alex Farrow, the head of the Kaleidoscope Trust, which works across the global LGBTQ+ sector from the UK.Farrow said: “I saw less money coming from corporates in the UK last year than I have in previous years, in particular from global businesses, who want to maintain commercial relationships with the US.

“At the same time, we see a very emboldened, anti-rights movement, including evangelical Christian conservatives in the US, who have an almost unlimited amount of money.“As a LGBTQ+ charity leader, it’s a huge concern because we are operating in a hostile environment that is significantly worse than even five years ago.”In his previous role at NCVO, the UK’s umbrella organisation for voluntary organisations, Farrow said: “I witnessed first-hand how charities weren’t just facing opposition on the substantive points but a concerted effort to delegitimise their right to speak up for marginalised groups across the country, whether that was trans people, or refugees and asylum seekers.”

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