Continued legacy growth helps Dutch donations rise 6%

Public giving to Dutch charities rose by 6% in 2024 to €1.4 billion, shows the latest annual Feiten & Cijfers (Facts & Figures) report by EFA member Goede Doelen Nederland (GDN).

Nearly a third (31%) of this fundraising income came from legacies, a category which has grown by 32% in the past four years.

Nearly 8.8m people in the Netherlands supported charities during the year, and 255,000 volunteered for them, says the report. It is based on figures from 235 of GDN’s members, who together make up the vast majority of the total sector income.

Total income for these charities – including other sources such as grants, public funding and trading revenues – rose by 7% to €4.6bn.

Even fundraising growth

The Netherlands’ largest charities had the fastest overall growth rates.

Organisations with annual income above €20m increased their total income by 8% (or a total €283 million), while small (less than €5m income) and medium-sized charities both grew at half that rate (4%).

However, fundraising income growth was more evenly distributed, with large charities growing 6%, medium-sized charities 8%, and smaller charities 6%.

Education charities: legacy boost

Looking at individual sectors, education saw by far the largest overall fundraising income increase at 38%, or an extra €2m.

The much larger health and social welfare sectors were the next fastest growing, adding 11% – or €41m and €21m respectively.

A significant factor in education charities’ increased fundraising was a 500% rise in legacy income to just over €1m – it was worth nearly half (48%) of the sector’s total income in the year.

The only sector for whom legacies were worth more than half of fundraised income was arts and culture, at 68%.

Looking at spending on charitable activities, nature and environment charities increased their outlay most substantially at 23% (an extra €96m), alongside animal welfare charities (also 23% or €18m), and health organisations (22%, €89m).

Staff and fundraising costs

Across the sector as a whole, 90% of income is spent on charitable activity (as opposed to back office costs including fundraising) a figure that drops slightly among smaller and medium-sized charities.

The proportion of income spent on fundraising operations ranges from 5% in international aid and social welfare to 12% in animal welfare, and 10% in arts and culture, and education.

Feiten & Cijfers also looks at figures around charity sector staff and salaries.

The average director salary in 2024 was €134,498 in large charities, €89,774 in medium charities, and €116,390 in smaller ones.

The 235 charities participating in the study employed 15,326 full-time equivalent staff in 2024, virtually unchanged from 2023. More than half (58%) of these worked in social welfare organisations.

Picture by Helena Jankovičová Kováčová from Pixabay