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March 2022 - Voluntary

Typical charity experienced a 15 percent real-terms reduction in income in first months of pandemic: Research looking into how UK charities have been impacted by the global pandemic has found that the median, typical charity saw its income fall by 15% in the first part of the pandemic which began in early 2020.

The research used financial data from almost 50,000 charities in England and Wales from the first months of the pandemic. It found that during this time, most charities suffered a more devastating impact financially than in the 2008-09 global recession.

It also found that the most financially vulnerable charities (those in the 25th percentile of the annual growth rate distributions), experienced a 43% fall in income during the first weeks and months of Covid-19.

During the last recession (between 2009 - 2014), the fall in income for these charities was between 16% and 22%, for comparison.

According to the patterns of financial vulnerability in English and Welsh charities after the onset of Covid report, the smallest charities have been the organisations impacted most significantly (those with an income of less than 10k per annum), with Parent Teacher Associations affected particularly badly, alongside arts and leisure charities. This is likely to do with the impact on schools and arts organisations, who were deeply affected by various lockdowns.

The research also found that throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, a little more than one in three charities with incomes of less than £10,000 saw their organisation's expenditure exceed income by more than a quarter. Before the pandemic, this was around 20-25%.

One of the key findings illustrated in the conclusion of the report stated: “Headline figures from various surveys present a broadly consistent picture in which they anticipate Covid-19 to have a clear negative impact on delivering their objectives.”

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