March 17, 2025
When someone donates to charity, they usually have one key thing in mind: making the biggest impact possible with their money. Whether they want to support organisations building schools, digging wells, or providing urgent disaster relief, the goal is always clear – to make the greatest difference they possibly can. The thing is, though, it’s often not easy to figure out the most impactful way to give. Some people believe in giving straight away – tackling urgent needs, solving immediate problems, and changing lives as soon as they possibly can. But others take a longer view: the way they see it, invested donations have a greater effect over time – turning a single act of generosity into a growing force for good. So, which approach ultimately is better? Well, the truth is, both are vital – and each method has its place. Let’s take a look.
Let’s face it: not every problem can wait. And in certain circumstances, delayed funding can mean the difference between life and death.
Disaster relief is a key example. When a 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Turkey and Syria in 2023, charities like the Disasters Emergency Committee (an umbrella group of UK charities) managed to raise over £150 million in a matter of weeks.
If donations had been held back for a long-term strategy, lives would have been lost: instead, the money that the DEC raised went straight to medical teams, food supplies, and shelter – helping to save innumerable people from danger to life and limb.
This doesn’t just apply to disasters, though. Lots of charities operate hand-to-mouth in the UK too, relying on daily contributions to keep their doors open. Food banks are a perfect example: in the UK alone, demand for food banks has shot up by 69% since 2019 – meaning that every pound given now translates directly into meals for people who need them.
And then there’s medical aid. The COVID-19 outbreak showed just how crucial funding can be when pandemics hit, especially when it comes to providing vaccines, protective equipment, and emergency care. With a serious disease spreading at an alarming rate, organizations working on the front lines needed money immediately, not in a few years’ or a decade’s time.
In these kinds of cases, if people don’t give now, then the chance to help passes – and that means there’s a strong argument for immediate giving.
At the same time, short-term giving isn’t enough, no matter how generous the public is. After all, most of the world’s biggest challenges – like poverty, climate change, and education – can’t be solved overnight: they need long-term planning and sustained funding.
Consider the Wellcome Trust, one of the world’s foremost medical charities. When the organisation was created back in 1936, it possessed a £2 million endowment – which was invested instead of being spent all at once. Fast forward to today, and that investment has grown to a staggering £38 billion – funding medical breakthroughs for nearly a century.
One of the Trust’s greatest achievements was co-funding the Human Genome Project – a gargantuan task whose completion prompted the UK Science Minister, Lord Sainsbury, to declare, “We now have the possibility of achieving all we ever hoped for from medicine.” If the Trust had simply spent the money back in 1936, that kind of impact would have been unimaginable.
The same principle holds true for other kinds of global challenges. Take the Lilly Endowment: founded in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons the Endowment has swelled its assets to $21 billion.
By investing wisely and maintaining a long-term financial strategy, the Endowment fuels ongoing, sustainable change in funding community development, education, and religious initiatives – in a dynamic, flexible way that can adapt to changing times.
And for individual donors, investing a donation can make it work harder too. Giving £100 today is great – but investing that £100 could turn it into £300, £500, or more, allowing your donation to have a much greater impact over time.
Of course, this doesn’t have to be an either-or decision. For charities to achieve their aims – and for societies to thrive – both immediate aid and long-term investment are essential. And that’s where EverGive can help.
Instead of relying on immediate donations that are spent once and gone, EverGive invests givers’ contributions – allowing them to grow while providing reliable monthly payouts to charities. It’s the best of both worlds: charities get money every month to go directly to their causes while having the long term financial support they truly need, and donors aren’t limited by what they can afford to give today.
Want your generosity to last forever? Partner with EverGive today.
