# Barnardos Ireland closes for a week due to fall in voluntary income

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/08/15/barnardos-ireland-closes-week-due-fall-voluntary-income/
- Published: 2012-08-15T22:04:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Barnardos Ireland has announced that it has taken the unprecedented step of closing
its offices for a week due to financial pressures.**

“In order to save costs and protect Barnardos services to children and families,
all Barnardos offices and centres are closed for one week starting today, 13th August
2012,” the charity said.

[Barnardos](http://www.barnardos.ie) chief executive, Fergus Finlay, speaking on
radio, said they had been forced to close because voluntary income had fallen in
recent times. He said that despite reducing costs, including salaries, they had 
been forced into closing for a week to save money.

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Barnardos fundraising target for this year is €7 million and Mr Finlay indicated
that this figure would be difficult to meet. He cited the poor state of the Irish
economy as a key factor in the fall in income.
Figures just released for 2011 show
that the charity had a similar income (€24 million) to that in 2010 but costs increased
to €25.5 million. Barnardos reserves stood at €7 million in 2011, down from nearly
€9 million in 2010.

Some of the increase in costs was down to increased fundraising costs which were
€3.3 million in 2011, against €2.1 million in 2010. Shops income was up and enabled
the charity to post a profit of €120,000 in its charitable trading. Barnardos shops
showed a loss in 2010.

Total fundraising income in 2011 was €6.7 million, a drop of €0.6 million from 2010.
Apart from fundraising activities, which increased from €4.8 million to €5.2 million,
most areas of fundraising showed a drop in income.