Written by Nikki Bell, co-founder and CEO of Fundraising Everywhere
This might be controversial but I’m going to say it – your organisation is potentially spending lots of money on training that isn’t working.
Not because your team doesn’t want to learn- but because the way most training is structured in our sector sets people up to tick a box rather than actually grow.
And the cost is high.
According to Civil Society £28m alone is wasted on inefficient training – and our own Impact of L&D on charity staff research shows millions more could be lost from potential income.
How is this happening at a time when skills, confidence, and progress should be top priority?
What the Research Tells Us
A few weeks ago, Skillcast published their Lost Hours Report, a sector-by-sector breakdown of training efficiency across the UK.
Our sector came out with one of the highest “workforce development gaps” of any industry – but nearly half of all training effort in our sector is absorbed by basic or mandatory sessions. Refreshers that are perhaps required for regulatory needs, changes nothing when people get back to their desks; leaving only 40% of development time focused on the advanced, role-specific learning that actually moves people forward.
The result? An estimated £28 million lost annually in unrealised training spend, and the equivalent of 764 full-time roles worth of wasted capacity.
What We Found When We Looked at Our Own Community
In 2025, we shared the results of our own research into the impact of learning and development on charity staff. We found that fundraisers who have access to good quality, relevant learning and development are more likely to hit their targets, have higher job satisfaction, and stay in their roles longer.
The organisations that were thriving financially scored significantly higher across every single L&D measure: they were more likely to have reviewed training and personal development plans, more likely to have adequate budgets, and much more likely to find it easy to apply what they’ve learned back at work.
We also looked at what fundraisers said when they hadn’t been able to access any training and the words they used were ‘disappointed’, ‘frustrated’, ‘stuck’, and ‘disheartened’
That’s not a small thing. That’s a staff retention and wellbeing crisis hiding inside this training budget conversation.
What Good Training Actually Looks Like
The Skillcast research makes an important distinction that’s important to highlight.
High digital adoption doesn’t automatically mean effective training – sectors with the lowest skill gaps aren’t the ones spending the most on training technology- they’re the ones spending the most time on relevant, targeted learning and the least time on repeated basics.
Good training does a few specific things:
- It meets people where they are, rather than starting from scratch every time regardless of experience
- It’s focused on the skills people actually need to do their jobs better right now, not a broad sweep of compliance or generic best practice.
- And crucially, it’s delivered in a format that fits into a working week rather than disrupting it.
That last point is why we built Fundraising Everywhere the way we did. All of our live sessions are 30 minutes or less, because we know that’s what actually fits into a fundraiser’s day. We also offer longer, more relaxed sessions for people who want to go deeper, ask questions, and learn at their own pace. Our on-demand content works the same way: every module is designed to be genuinely useful in a short window of time, not padded out to fill a half-day course. And if you’re someone who prefers more guided or curated learning you can use our ‘my library’ function to create a playlist of sessions you’d like to save to watch to up-skill.
This isn’t a marketing point. It’s a direct response to what fundraisers have told us, consistently, for years. Time is the number one barrier. So we removed it.
How to Choose Training That Actually Works
If you’re a fundraising leader looking at your L&D budget right now, here’s what I’d suggest thinking about.
1: Start with a plan, even a simple one. Our research showed that fundraisers with a reviewed L&D plan were dramatically more likely to feel their needs were being met, to apply their learnings, and to feel content in their roles. You don’t need a complex learning management system. You need a conversation with each person about where they want to grow and what would help them do their job better.
2: Make sure training is role-specific and timely. The Skillcast report is clear that the training gap isn’t about volume, it’s about relevance. If your team is struggling with digital fundraising, book them onto something about digital fundraising. Not a general skills refresher. Not a mandatory module. The thing that closes the actual gap.
3: Support your team to apply what they learn. This is the step that gets skipped most often. The majority of people in our research said implementing learnings was easy once they had access, but the barrier was organisational. Think about how you’ll create space for someone to try something new when they’re back at their desk. A ten-minute debrief after a session. A team meeting agenda point. Permission to experiment.
And don’t confuse attendance with impact.
Heading along to a conference isn’t the same as developing a skill. The Skillcast research is blunt about this: one in three people who complete training still don’t reach full proficiency, not because the training was bad, but because it wasn’t matched to what they actually needed.
Why This Matters Right Now
Our Fundraising Insights for 2026 research surfaced something that should concern every leader in the sector. The channels with the biggest growth potential in 2026, digital fundraising, major donors, legacies, stewardship, are precisely the areas where fundraisers feel least equipped and least confident. Leaders are investing in strategy and channel ambition without first investing in the people who have to deliver it.
The organisations that succeed in 2026 will not simply be the ones that pick the right channels. They’ll be the ones that invest in the skills and confidence of their teams first.
At Fundraising Everywhere, individual membership costs £25 per month and gives you access to everything we offer: live conferences, on-demand content, member workshops, peer support, coaching, and more. Want your whole team included? That starts from just £900 a year. If you’re not ready for membership yet, individual conference tickets start at £75.
We’re not the expensive option – but we’re the one that works.
Inspired people inspire people. That’s always been our belief. And the research now tells us, clearly and repeatedly, that investing in your team’s learning isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s what separates the charities that are thriving from the ones that are struggling.
The good news? It doesn’t have to be complicated. It just has to be intentional.