Evidence library

A 10-page summary of the latest headline figures and financial trends.

Key trends

• Funding from government has stayed relatively stable, while income from the public has to a large extent recovered after being hit hard by Covid.
• Unfortunately, for many voluntary organisations inflation and expenditure rises have matched and outpaced these hard-won gains.
• While majority of organisations have managed to stay in the black, margins have been wafer-thin and there has been a steady rise in the numbers of organisations ending the year with a deficit - in 2023, 45% of charities spent more than they managed to generate.
• These narrow margins and rising deficits have seen charities continue to draw on their reserves unsustainably.
• The value of the Funds looked after by the sector fell by £1bn between 2021 and 2023.
• The average value of funds held by large charities fell by £5m, from £17m in 2021 to £12m in 2023.
• Half of medium and large charities have less than 6 months expenditure in reserves and nearly 1 in 3 large charities has less than 3 months of expenditure in reserves.

Downloads

• SectorStats2024_KeyTrends_Jan2025.pdf