Smaller charities under threat as donations fall

The wealth gap between Britain's largest charities and their smaller counterparts is so wide that it could threaten the survival of those at the bottom of the sector, fund-raisers have warned.

The Charity Trends 2006 report showed that "big name" causes at the top of a list of 1,000 groups were thriving from public donations in comparison to small to medium-sized charities, which were struggling to maintain their position.

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Cancer and heart charities fared well, while groups dealing with disabilities and mental illnesses were absent from the top end of a table listing the income of charities gained from public donations in 2004 and 2005.

Income from voluntary donations for the largest 500 charities grew by 5 per cent, the survey found, but there was a sharp decline after that, with charities placed in the bottom 100 of the table showing the greatest loss of income at minus 12 per cent.

The stark disparity was highlighted in the total income figure for the top 500, which amounted to £5.3bn compared with the bottom 500, which totalled £700,000 to £1m. Cathy Pharoah, the co-author of the report and director of research for CAF, a non-profit organisation which commissioned the report, said the "huge skew" could threaten the life of smaller, niche charities.

"While the overall voluntary donated income for the sector has gone up, we are seeing an increasing polarisation in support. The big charities are getting bigger while small to medium-sized organisations are struggling to maintain their position," she said.

"While there is a perception that the public hold local and specialist charities in high esteem, this is not translated into financial support. There is a real risk that we could lose the diversity of the sector unless smaller charities rise to the challenge. I don't see how we can have a flourishing voluntary sector unless we have growth across the board."

She said small to medium-sized charities would have to think about collaboration if they were going to compete with the "big brand" name charities such as Cancer Research UK, which was in first place, followed by Oxfam and the National Trust.

Roy Brazier, the business manager for the Tunbridge Wells-based charity Pepenbury, which provides a care service for adults with learning disabilities and is in the bottom income bracket, said that getting people to give was "becoming more and more difficult".

"Adults with learning disability are not always high priority when it comes to giving. We simply don't have the money or expertise that the big brand charities have to motivate people into donating to us through expensive direct mail campaigns, sophisticated marketing or PR," he said.

Ms Pharoah said that cancer charities may have benefited from emotive news stories, including the pop star Kylie Minogue's battle with breast cancer.

Overall, the public has been gradually giving less each year for the past decade, donating 0.9 percent of the GDP last year compared to 1 per cent in 1995.Richer people continued to donate just 1 per cent of their annual income compared to 3 per cent donated by the poorer sections of society.

Donations to religion-based charities for international causes rose by 49 per cent, believed to be due to appeals for disasters including the Asian tsunami.

Who receives what

TOP TEN CHARITIES

1. Cancer Research UK £344m (£306m in 2004)

2. Oxfam £177m (£134m)

3. National Trust £156m (£143m)

4. British Heart Foundation £130m (£119m)

5. Royal National Lifeboat Institution £108m (£91m)

6. NSPCC £93m (£82m)

7. Salvation Army £92m (£91m)

8. Macmillan Cancer Relief £90m (£84m)

9. RSPCA £80m (£76m)

10. Save the Children £79m (£70m).

BOTTOM TEN

Benevolent Funds of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society £2.2m; Almeida Theatre Company £2.195m (£3.2m); North of England Zoological Society £2.189m; St Mary's Hospice £2.183m; St Wilfrid's Hospice (South Coast) £2.176m; Bristol Cancer Help Centre £2.165m (£2.3m); YouthNet UK £2,154 (£2.1m); Earl Haig Fund Scotland £2.152m (£2.3m); Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre £2.142m (£2.4m); Oxfordshire Community Churches £2.136m.