Your charity’s media agency contract is up for renewal. What should you check?

By Andrew Livingston, Founder of Mosaic Advisory · 28 August 2026

Happy with your agency? Make the case for renewal. For charity marketing leaders.

When your charity’s media agency contract comes up for renewal, the conversation can quickly settle on fees, notice periods and whether everyone is happy to carry on.

You may be happy with the agency and want to keep it. Procurement, finance or your executive team may still need a clearer explanation of why renewal represents the right decision for the charity.

That is a reasonable question. The fundraising environment, your team and your priorities may have changed since you signed the agreement. A good working relationship can continue while the scope and contract fall behind.

Renewal gives you an opportunity to establish what is working, what needs updating and what evidence supports carrying on. Where your procurement requirements allow, that can mean strengthening the existing arrangement without starting a search for another agency.

1. Revisit the assumptions behind the targets

CAF’s UK Giving Report 2026 estimates that the British public donated £14 billion in 2025, down from £15.4 billion in 2024. The proportion of people giving has fallen from 69% in 2016 to 55% in 2025.

Source: CAF

That creates a difficult conversation for a charity marketing leader. If income is below target, how much reflects the agency’s performance, and how much reflects the conditions in which it is working?

A sector-wide decline cannot answer that question for your charity. An emergency appeal, a regular-giving programme and a legacy campaign operate on different timescales and respond to different influences. Last year’s result may also have benefited from an exceptional moment of public attention.

Your agency may already have helped you adapt: revising a forecast, reconsidering an audience or identifying a problem in the donation journey. Bring that work into the renewal discussion alongside the results.

You do not need to reopen every planning decision. You do need a shared view of what the agency can reasonably influence, how it has responded and whether the expectations for the next contract period remain appropriate.

2. Look beyond the cost of acquiring a supporter

The 2025 M+R and Rally UK/Ireland study, drawing on 39 participating organisations, reported median growth of 8% in online regular-giving revenue during 2024, while cash-giving revenue fell by 6%. These are benchmarks from participating charities, not a universal sector result.

Source: M+R and Rally

For a charity seeking dependable income, that raises a useful question about how media success is measured.

Consider a campaign that recruits regular givers at the agreed cost, but whose new supporters stop giving sooner than expected. The acquisition target has been met. The longer-term financial case may not have been.

The explanation could involve the audience, the promise made in the advertisement, the welcome experience or the supporter’s circumstances. A media report alone may not reveal it.

Before renewal, check that your agreed measures connect the initial response with what follows: whether supporters make their first payment, continue giving and contribute enough over time to justify the cost of recruiting them. Be clear about which outcomes the agency influences and which depend on your own teams.

This does not mean judging every campaign by immediate donations. Awareness, campaigning, legacy consideration and access to services need measures appropriate to their purpose. The point is to agree those measures deliberately, rather than let whichever number is easiest to report become the definition of success.

3. Check whether the evidence reaches the people making decisions

In the Charity Digital Skills Report 2026, 51% of surveyed charities identified collecting, managing and analysing data as a priority. Among large charities, that rose to 65%.

Source: Charity Digital Skills Report

That is a broader organisational priority, but it raises a practical question for renewal: can the people approving the decision see the evidence they need?

The agency may see advertising responses, fundraising may hold donation records, and supporter care may understand why people cancel. Marketing may also value advice and support that never appears in a campaign report.

Bring those findings together into a concise case for renewal: what the agency has contributed, what the results show, where the evidence is incomplete and what needs attention. Procurement, finance and executive colleagues should be able to understand the recommendation without reconstructing a year of meetings.

The charity has responsibilities here too. An agency cannot assess donor retention using information it never receives. Agree what each side provides and who turns it into a useful assessment. The answer may be better use of existing evidence, rather than another reporting requirement.

4. Make sure the scope reflects the job you now expect

Perhaps your charity now needs more strategic support, closer coordination between fundraising and brand activity, or a stronger testing programme. Perhaps changes in your internal team have left the agency filling gaps that were never part of the original agreement.

Compare those expectations with the work you actually commission. If the agency already provides valuable support beyond the written scope, renewal is a chance to recognise it and agree how it will continue.

If you expect senior advice, agree where it enters the process and which decisions it should improve. If testing matters, identify the budget, capacity and decisions needed to make it happen. If several agencies contribute, establish who connects the work.

The same discipline applies to cost. Can you distinguish the agency’s fee, technology and data charges, and the money used to place advertising? Are additional services clear enough that both sides know what is included?

The evidence explains why the relationship is worth continuing. The scope defines the work, and the contract records the commitments and commercial terms. They should tell a consistent story.

Expecting more while leaving the scope, resources and responsibilities unchanged is likely to disappoint both sides.

5. Agree what you are renewing and what needs to change

Renewal discussions need to go further than “better reporting”, “more proactive thinking” or “closer collaboration”. Those intentions are difficult to manage until everyone agrees what they mean.

Before signing, align the relevant marketing, fundraising, finance and procurement colleagues on the renewal decision, and agree the next period’s commitments with the agency:

What is working well and should continue?
What has changed, and what does the evidence tell us about the agency’s ability to meet our needs?
What, if anything, must change in the agreement, with an owner and a date?

Start before the notice deadline limits your options, and establish your organisation’s procurement requirements early. Where a tender is required, this work helps you define it. Where you have discretion, distinguish changes you can agree with the current agency from gaps that require another partner.

A good agency may need an updated agreement. It may also be doing the right work under terms that remain appropriate. Renewal should leave you able to explain why continuing makes sense, and what both sides have committed to.

There is enough uncertainty in the charity market. A well-defined agency relationship should give you clearer decisions and fewer unresolved questions to carry into the next year.