Average income of charities rises by 2.2 percent

The incomes of charities in England and Wales rose by an average of 2.2 percent last year, a report from the data provider Charity Financials shows.

The survey shows that between March and September 2014 the most recently reported incomes of registered charities in England and Wales rose by 2.2 percent, or 1.3 percent when adjusted for inflation.

Because charities have 10 months from their financial year-end to file their accounts, this will relate mostly to 2013 financial year-ends.

The report states that, over this period, the average reported rise for charities with annual incomes of less than £5 million had been below the rate of inflation, whereas larger charities had seen real-terms rises in their income.

The report, based on data on the Charity Commission’s online register of charities, breaks down charities’ spending and income into categories.

It shows that charities with incomes of between £500,000 and £1 million spent an average of 2.7 percent of their income on governance, compared with 1.8 percent for charities in the £1 million to £5 million annual incomes bracket, 1.1 percent for those with incomes of between £5 million and £10 million, and less than 1 percent for the largest charities.

Charities with incomes of more than £50 million spent an average of 8.7 percent of income across the two categories of trading to raise funds and generating voluntary income, a figure that reduced to 6.8 percent for charities with incomes of between £50 million and £10 million, and 8.6 percent for charities in the £5 million to £10 million category. Charities with incomes of between £1 million and £5 million used 7 percent of their money on income generation, a figure that dropped to 6.1 percent for charities with incomes between £500,000 and £1 million.

Charitable expenditure ranged from 86.8 percent of income at the smallest charities, to 89.2 percent at charities with incomes of between £10 million and £50 million.

Charities in that smallest category brought in 43.8 percent of their money through charitable activities, and 36.1 percent did so through voluntary income. These are the only charities where less than half of their income came from charitable activities. The charities least reliant on voluntary income were those in the £10 million to £50 million bracket, where charitable activities made up 63.8 percent of income, and voluntary income accounted for 22.7 percent.