The cost of everything is going up... but Mancs are still the most generous people in the UK

It's been a hard year. Energy bills are still expensive. Inflation has come down, but is still eating into families' food budgets. Essentials like car insurance are also on the rise.

But despite the hardship - and prospect of more tough days ahead - Mancs have outdone themselves with their generosity this year. Amid financial woe and worry, the city has retained its title as the most generous place in the UK, according to GoFundMe’s annual Giving Report.

More than 43,000 donations were made by Mancs this year, a year which saw one donation made every second to GoFundMe alone. Making our achievement all the more impressive is that the UK is the third-most-charitable country on planet earth.

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The UK was ranked as the third most generous country in the world per capita, with more than four million donations made this year, while Ireland topped that list for the fifth year running with some 650,000 donations to a population of around five million people. This year saw British donors provide funds to people affected by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, those displaced by the earthquakes in Syria, Turkey and Morocco, and to help those impacted by the various storms that battered the country.

The chief executive of GoFundMe, Tim Cadogan, said the organisation has celebrated its “billion pound milestone” of donations raised from the UK since its inception in 2017, and he estimates a quarter of a billion pounds was raised on the platform in 2023 alone – which he said were “incredible numbers”.

Mr Cadogan, who has worked at GoFundMe for three and a half