Mellon charity donations fall 25%
Howard Lake | 5 September 2011 | News
An Irish charity which builds homes for poor people in South Africa has seen its charity donations fall 25% in 2010.
The fall in total income for Mellon Educate from €7.9 million to €4.2 million in 2010 is partially explained by a €1.9 million personal donation made by Niall Mellon in 2009. The sum accounted for 75 per cent of the Irish donations in 2009, boosting the figures for that year, according to accounts filed at the Companies Office and reported in the Irish Times.
Volunteer income fell from €5.3 million to €3 million, while total charitable expenditure at almost €3.1 million, down from almost €11.9 million the previous year.
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At the end of 2010 over 14,500 volunteers have worked on his projects and the charity has now built in excess of 17,500 houses and provided homes for almost 90,000 south Africans
The charity has a separate company in South Africa, where turnover in 2010 was €21.5 million, down 12 per cent on 2009.
Mr Mellon told the Irish Times that despite the recession, the charity had continued to get “strong support” from Irish people. More than 600 people have signed up to his annual one-week building blitz in South Africa in November.
The charity said it was “in good shape financially” as a result of decisions made after the collapse of the Irish banks in 2008. “We cut our costs quickly and that eased pressure off us.”
The organisation has a surplus of €1.2 million as of the end of 2010, compared to a deficit of almost €4 million in 2009.
The bulk of its money now comes from the South African government, which has increased the money available to build homes.
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.