St Vincent de Paul Society launches Christmas appeal
Howard Lake | 16 November 2018 | News
St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP), Ireland’s largest social welfare charity, has launched its Christmas appeal using TV, radio, press, outdoor, and social media over the next six weeks.
Last year SVP raised over €15 million in donations, with the Christmas period playing a key part in their general donation campaign.
Nichola Mullen, head of fundraising at SVP, said their advertising will feature two stories based on real experiences where children would have lost out were it not for the generosity of the public allowing SVP to step in.
SVP has revealed it is receiving 1,000 calls a day, with some 780,000 people still living below the poverty line.
Total income last year was €82 million, up from €79 million the year before. SVP’s large network of charity shops is the largest income source at €28 million but is also one of the organisation’s largest expenses at €20 million.
SVP has always had a strong income base from legacies and last year that category of income jumped from €5 million to €9 million. Collections outside Catholic churches are also a regular if declining income source which brought in €9.6 million in 2017 from over €10 million in 2016.
SVP received around €16 million from government for certain services last year. Total organisation expenditure was €76 million in 2017.
RTÉ’s Ryan Tubridy launched the Christmas appeal, along with pupils from St Margaret’s National School, Dublin, St Joseph’s Primary School, Tipperary, and group of Young SVP students from Tulla, Co Clare.
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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.