Fundratios reports continued rise in committed giving

Howard Lake | 28 March 2005 | News

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The latest results from the annual Fundratios survey reveal that while voluntary income is growing by an average 3.4%, committed giving has grown by 14.7% over the past year.

The latest Fundatios research was completed at the end of 2004, and analysed the fundraising results of 41 charities with a combined voluntary income of £1.4 billion.

Committed giving had not only grown significantly over the previous year, but it had also enjoyed sustained growth, with an average growth of 17% per annum over the last five years.

This increase is due to face-to-face recruitment, which accounted for 10% of new donors, and door drops which provided 20%, as well as direct mail, telemarketing and door-to-door.

Andrew Watt, Deputy Chief Executive and Head of Policy and Standards at the Institute of Fundraising, says: “Income may have soared, but so too have the costs, reflecting the level of initial investment needed to secure new long-term, committed donors. Long-term investment in securing committed income underpinning organisations’ viability is the trend that emerges from this year’s Fundratios study.”

Corporate giving has also experienced strong growth of 8% over the year reflecting the improvement in corporate performance during that time. Growth in legacy income has, however, slowed, coinciding with increased investment in promoting legacies as a means of giving; as a result, income has fallen in relation to investment. Indeed, legacy income growth in three of the past five years has been below 2%.

Trust income has declined too, with more than half of all charities reporting lower income from this source.

Fundratios is the charity fundraising benchmarking project co-ordinated by the Centre for Interfirm Comparison (CIFC) in partnership with the Institute of Fundraising.

Part of this year’s Fundratios survey included a pilot study with Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) of 13 Scotland-based charities, with a total voluntary income of £31 million. This study shows a particularly strong area of growth (16.8%) amongst charities in Scotland, contributing 10.8% of total UK voluntary income.

Although the national study indicated a fall in local fundraising income, Scottish charities succeeded in bucking this trend, with local fundraising yielding an average of 15.6% of all voluntary income.

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.