COVID-19 Impact on Charities. (December 2020)

This report details the findings from a survey with over 2,500 charities to help provide a snapshot of the impact of the pandemic on a large and representative cross section of Scottish charities. Carried out in November 2020, it builds on the comprehensive data gathered from OSCR’s first COVID-19 charity survey in May.

Overall impact:

In November 2020, 92% of Scottish charities reported some form of negative impact from COVID-19 and the connected restrictions. While still representing an overwhelming majority of charities, this figure is down slightly from 98% in May 2020.

The most common impact (90% of charities) was upon charities’ ability to deliver their services (92% in May 2020)

Cancelling or postponing planned work or events remained the single most common impact with 66% affected in this way (78% in May)

Forty-five per cent were prevented from working or delivering services due to the restrictions

A third (33%) reported disruption of services to beneficiaries (35% in May 2020)

Seventy-nine per cent had seen an impact on their finances (75% in May 2020)

Fifty-six per cent reported lost income from fundraising (51% in May 2020)

Three quarters (75%) saw a negative impact on staffing and administration (96% in May 2020)

8% of charities said they had seen no impact at all or did not know what impact there had been.

• 2020-12-10-oscr-covid-19-research-wave-2-summary-report-002 (952788Kb)