Income has fallen at 66% of charities

Revenue: Two-thirds of charities have seen their incomes fall in recent years, according to a survey by The Irish Times.

Revenue:Two-thirds of charities have seen their incomes fall in recent years, according to a survey by The Irish Times.

Questions posed to 40 charities earlier this year resulted in 32 responses. Of those which responded, two thirds said they had seen a drop of income on 2010 figures, with over a third reporting decreases of more than 15 per cent.

More than half of the charities which replied said staff numbers had been reduced in the last number of years.

In relation to income, the findings of the Irish Times survey broadly reflects the findings of a recent survey of over 500 independent non-profit organisations conducted by The Wheel, a national organisation representing charities. It showed that 57 per cent of Irish non-profits experienced a decrease in income in the past three years.

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However, just 30 per cent of charities which replied to the Irish Times survey said they had seen staff numbers increase or remain the same while the Wheel’s survey found that staff numbers had increased in 70 per cent of the 500 charities it surveyed.

Separately, a global report released yesterday revealed that Irish people were more likely to donate money to charity in 2011 than people in any other nation.

Almost eight in 10 Irish people had donated money to charity in the previous month according to the World Giving Index .