Recent research including nearly 250 charities conducted by Pro Bono Economics (PBE), the Charity Finance Group, and the Chartered Institute of Fundraising found that in the weeks leading up to Christmas charities lost out on more than £200m of fundraising income. Nearly 50% of charities polled raised less in November and December of 2020 than they did during the same period in 2019. The main reason behind this large decrease in income is due to fundraising events being cancelled and charity shops being forced to close for long periods during the lockdown.
Whilst the COVID-19 safety rules have caused many physical fundraising events to be cancelled, there are still fundraising activities that can be done in lockdown for charities to raise money. The research suggests that running and cycling fundraisers have proved particularly popular – provided they are done in isolation and as long as you stick to the government’s social distancing guidelines. For example, the virtual London Marathon managed to raise £16.1m for charities last year. Although this is well below the 2019 London Marathon total of £66.4m raised.
Other virtual fundraising events have included:
- Online classes
- Virtual raffles
- Online auctions
These are undoubtedly difficult times for everyone. Charities play such a vital role in society particularly during unprecedented scenarios like Covid-19 and it’s important they consider ways to innovate to ensure they can continue to provide much-needed support until hopefully some degree of normality returns later on in the year.
How can we help?
At Hawsons we have a dedicated team of charity accountants at our offices in Sheffield, Doncaster, and Northampton. Our dedicated team fully understands the complex, ever-changing regulatory requirements of the charity and not-for-profit sector. Irrespective of your size we wish to support you to maximise the benefits you could achieve through our specialist professional advice.
Free initial meeting
Simon Bladen
Partner
More similar articles
ESG Investing and Economic Uncertainty for Charities
Investec’s 2022 charities conference has delved into how current economic uncertainty has affected ESG investing. At the conference back in September, experts and charity representatives discussed environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing in an era of...
First set of Charities Act 2022 changes come into force
The first set of provisions from the Charities Act 2022 came into force on 31st October 2022. The first set of provisions can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/first-set-of-changes-from-charities-act-2022-come-into-force The Charities Act 2022 gained...
Charity Cyber Security
In 2021, one in eight charities (12.5%) were victims of a cyber-attack according to a survey of 2,330 charities across England and Wales conducted by IFF Research. The pandemic meant that charities were forced to gravitate towards online fundraising methods to enable...
One off charity donations drop as digital donations rise
Recent data has found that one-off charitable donations have dropped due to the cost-of-living crisis. However, perhaps unsurprisingly since the start of the pandemic charities have reported a significant rise in digital donations. One-off charity donations...
VAT for Charities
Charity employees and trustees often assume that they receive an automatic VAT exemption on all goods and services that they buy/receive. This is not the case and charities should understand the few concessions in the VAT legislation that can reduce their VAT bills....
Energy Bill Relief Scheme for charities
The government has published further details about its energy bill relief scheme to reduce energy costs for charities, businesses and public sector organisations. The details state that a discount will be automatically applied to charities’ energy bills from 1 October...
Charity Commission Opens Online System for Annual Returns
After a delay due to a technical issue the Charity Commission has now opened its online system for submitting annual returns. The system was originally scheduled to go live towards the end of April. But due to the delay it was not released until 5th of May. What is...
Charities Statement of Recommended Practice
A revised version of the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) is set to be updated from 1 January 2024. This is less than two years away. The charities SORP was first introduced in 2015 and updated in 2019 to clarify and reflect amendments and changes to...
Proposed rule changes on fundraising announced
From this Autumn rules are changing which should make it easier for charities to access money donated in a fundraising campaign that did not reach or exceed its planned target. The Charities Act 2022 received royal assent in February and a plan has now been...
Small Charity Mergers on the Rise
A recent report has found that the number of small charities merging is on the rise. The annual Good Merger Index published by Eastside Primetimers showed that between 1 May 2020 and 30 April 2021, 77 mergers took place which involved 166 charitable organisations....