In the Regency, supporting charitable causes was a social obligation. For a start, it was a religious obligation, and parishes were one of the mechanisms through which people supported those in need. Owners of land and buildings were subject to a poor rate tax, collected and administered by the parishes. This funded the workhouses and other support to the poor of the parish. Your local minister would also present causes from the pulpit, or during visits to parishioners, and ask for support.
The involvement of the church was a legacy of medieval times, when institutionalised giving meant giving to the church, since the church ran the orphanages, hospitals, homes or other support for elderly pensioners, the medieval equivalent of soup kitchens, and so on and so on.
The dissolution of the monasteries removed the vast array of religious orders through which these many services to the poor were delivered. Nonetheless, the new Church of England did its best to pick up the strands, and certainly continued to collect tithes, donations and bequests.
Whereas Catholic doctrine had focused on the act of giving itself and the role it played in securing the donor’s immortal soul, Protestant teaching focussed far more on what was actually achieved with donations. This meant a new focus on understanding the actual issues of the day and trying to address their underlying causes. [Rhodri Davies, https://www.cafonline.org/about-us/blog-home/giving-thought/the-role-of-giving/the-history-of-civic-philanthropy-in-the-uk-what-can-we-learn ]
From the Middle Ages to the middle of the eighteenth century, church and state struggled ‘for control of the substantial financial resources involved in the act of giving’ [Sherwin, David, ‘The Great Charity Debate in Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa’, Journal of Church and State, 2000]
Slowly, the emphasis moved from supporting the church’s charitable ventures to supporting philanthropic ventures set up by a non-church organisation such as a guild, or by a group of interested people. And, while men fronted many of the organisation, an army of women made them work.
By the Regency era, the role of private philanthropic associations was firmly established. The characters in my books and those of the Bluestocking Belles who are actively involved in fund raising for good causes are firmly rooted in history. And The Ladies’ Society for the Care of the Widows and Orphans of Fallen Heroes and the Children of Wounded Veterans, which we invented for the Bluestocking Belles collection Frost Fair (and which some of our characters mock as The Society for Brats) would not be out of the ordinary in an age that gave us The Female Friendly Society for the Relief of Poor, Infirm, Aged Widows and Single Women of Good Character Who Have Seen Better Days.