State of the Sector 2024: key Scottish voluntary sector figures and trends
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.
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Last modified on 24 February 2025