Barnardos Ireland's fundraising "down 20%"
Howard Lake | 20 October 2009 | News
As it launched a major fundraising campaign Barnardos Ireland admitted that it is facing a funding shortfall which could jeopardise some of its projects around the country, the charity has told the Irish Examiner.
The children’s charity said it expected a 20% shortfall in funding this year with another budget deficit next year.
The organisation deals with 5,500 children and runs 42 projects around the country, but faces a funding crisis which it attributed to the effects of the recession.
Advertisement
The charity has a funding shortfall of €1,180,000 for this year and is well short of the €5.9 million it needs to keep services going.
Barnardos last week launched a public appeal fronted by the charity’s chief executive using radio and newspaper inserts.
Director of marketing and fundraising Ruth Guy said if the budget deficit continued into next year it would then have to look at curtailing or cutting projects as “a worst case scenario”.
A 3% reduction in HSE funding has already been agreed, meaning a drop in the 67% of statutory funding already provided to Barnardos. A pay freeze is already in place for the charity’s 360 full-time staff. As for the possible closure of projects, she said: “It is going to be largely dependent on the funding that we are getting in.”
Last year Barnardos had an income of €24.386 million, compared to €21.589 million in 2007. Voluntary income in 2008 was €7.415 million with a figure of €6.447 million in 2007. Net assets, however, declined from €7.279 million in 2007 to €4.402 million in 2008 due a pension scheme liability.
www.barnardos.ie
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.