Main sources of income for small charities (2024)

Overview

• In 2019/20, small charities’ total income was £9.9bn, equating to 17% of the overall income in the voluntary sector.
• Over a six-year period, small charities have experienced a year-on-year decline in the amount and proportion of their income as a share of the voluntary sectors’ overall income.
• The largest source of income is from the general public, which amounted to just over half (51%) of their total income in 2019/20.

• In 2019/20, small charities accounted for nearly one-fifth (17%) of the total income, and make up 96% of the overall number of charities in the sector.
• Charities with an income of between £10m – £100m account for nearly a third (32%) of the total income, despite comprising less than 1% of the number of charities.

• In 2019/20, small charities' total income was £9.9bn, which is 17% of the overall sectors' income (£58.7bn).
• The largest source of small charities' income is from the general public, which amounts to over half (£5bn, 51%) of their total income in 2019/20.
• Just over a fifth (£2bn, 21%) of small charities' income comes from government, which is the second largest source of income for small charities.

• In 2019/20, the general public was the largest income source for charities of all sizes.
• The largest (over £100m) and the smallest charities (under £100k) received the largest proportion of their total income from the public (58% and 57% respectively).
• Charities with an income of £100k-£1m received the largest proportion of income from government sources, 30% compared to only 12% for charities under £100k and 23% for charities between £100k-£1m.

• The overall size of the voluntary sector has continued to grow year-on-year since 2013/14.
• In this time, small charities’ total income has remained relatively stable. In 2019/20, small charities' total income was £9.9bn.
• By contrast, large charities have experienced an increase. Charities over £100m have grown from £12.2bn to £13.8bn from 2018/19 to 2019/20.

• Since 2013/14, small charities have experienced fluctuations in the share of income from different income sources.
• As a proportion of total income, income from the general public has slightly increased since 2013/14 (48%), although this dipped in 2019/20 (50%).
• Income from government, as a share of total income, has decreased by 4 percentage points since 2013/14.

• The voluntary sector gets its income in three ways: as earned income, voluntary income, or through investments.
• In 2019/20, earned income accounted for 41% of small charities’ income, compared to 49% of large charities’ income.