UK’s biggest charities see cash levels rise by half a billion
Melanie May | 17 October 2018 | News
The top 5,000 UK charities in terms of income, expenditure or net assets, saw overall cash levels rise by half a billion in the last financial year, according to Charity Financial’s latest Charity Banking Spotlight report.
The report found that in 2017-18 cash levels exceeded £16.7 billion, up from the £16.2bn reported in the previous financial year. From 2010 to 2012, cash assets saw steep growth from £14.7bn to £16.7bn, but fell sharply in 2014 to £15.4bn. Since then, the value of charity cash assets has grown steadily with figures now returning to roughly the same high point recorded in 2012.
Charity Financials also records the top 25 charities in terms of the cash they hold, as well as the banks they use, in addition to the number of years their relationships have existed. Charities Aid Foundation has the highest cash values, followed by Church Commissioners for England and The British Council. Collectively, the top 25 have cash of £3.3bn, according to the report.
The report also shows which charities had the most bank loans, mortgages and overdrafts in the past financial year. It states that International Finance Facility for Immunisation Company has nearly £1.6bn in borrowings, followed by Charities Aid Foundation with £1.02bn.
Barclays, which sponsors the report, is the most popular bank used by the UK’s largest charities in 2017/18, closely followed by NatWest, with 20.4% and 19.98% market share respectively. Of the top 5,000 charities, 4,573 (91%) disclosed which banks they used, with Barclays now having 1,020 charity clients and NatWest 999 charity clients. Lloyds, HSBC and RBS make up the remainder of the top five banks used. 55% of charity-bank relationships have lasted a decade, and 14% have lasted more than 16 years.
To be included in the Charity Financials top 5,000 charities, an organisation must have either an annual income greater than £1.431m, annual expenditure greater than £1.479m, or total funds/net assets greater than £3.444m.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.