Voluntary income falls for Concern in the UK
Howard Lake | 9 March 2018 | News
Concern Worldwide UK saw its voluntary income fall significantly in 2016 in what the charity called a ‘challenging year for public fundraising.’
Voluntary income in 2016 was £7.4 million, down from £10.3 million the year before. Grants from government were also down by nearly £2 million which meant total income was £26.5 million (£31.6 million in 2015).
Individual giving, which is the largest category of voluntary income, was the biggest faller in 2016 at £4.6 million, from £6.3 million. As well as regular giving, individual giving includes specific Concern campaigns throughout the year such as appeals for Ethiopia which was supported by 2,400 donors contributing £222,163, an appeal for Syria which raised £130,000 and the ‘Build Hope in the City’ appeal contributing £279,436.
The accounts comment on the problems with monthly direct debit donations in May 2016 which withdrew larger amounts than people agreed to.
“This was quickly corrected, although did result in the loss of individual supporters,” according to the accounts.
Legacy income, community fundraising and contributions from the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) fell to £439,000, £275,000 and £265,000 respectively.
Corporate, major donor and trust income was one of the areas of fundraising which grew in 2016, from £1.3 million to £1.8 million. Charitable foundations remain a growing source of support for Concern, with 102 foundations contributing a total of £664,858.
Concern’s accounts provide details of expenditure for each fundraising area and record that individual giving costs were £1.9 million, corporate costs were £387,000 and community fundraising £183,000. Overall, total fundraising costs were down from £2.9 million to £2.6 million.
Photo: Mariama Mahamado manages Concern’s nutrition programme in Niger (2016). Image: Concern Worldwide
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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.