Income remains steady for largest Dutch charities despite pandemic

Despite the pandemic, income and target expenditure for the biggest Dutch charities remained stable on average during 2020, according to a survey by Goede Doelen Nederland. Increases in donations, lottery money, and legacies, as well as the creation of alternative or new activities all helped to mitigate the impact of events and activities unable to take place.

The survey of 26 of the country’s largest charities (those with income of more than €20 million per year) comes ahead of the fundraising association’s annual sector survey. It shows that thanks to charities’ ingenuity as well as the increase in income seen in some areas, the 26 charities together were able to spend almost the same on their social goals as in 2019 – €1.14billion vs. €1.13billion, which was an increase of 0.7%.

The Goede Doelen Nederland survey reveals that although income from campaigns, collections and events decreased in 2020, the total income of the 26 charities surveyed increased by 12.4% (€151 million) compared to 2019. This was partly due to a 12% increase in income from gifts and donations (€27.3 million) with donors continuing to support charities throughout the year.

Added to this, 2020 also saw charities receive an extra 17.5% (€23.9 million) from the Dutch lotteries, compared to the previous year, while legacy income increased by 35.6% (€39.7 million). The study partly attributes the latter to two significant bequests received, and possibly the excess mortality seen as a result of the pandemic with 73% of the surveyed charities seeing an increase or more or less equal income from bequests last year.

Some areas of income saw a drop however, as many charities restructured their fundraising activities when major campaigns, events, door-to-door recruitment and public collections became so limited due to the pandemic.

By far the largest part of income was spent on providing direct services and assistance. This accounted for 73% of the total target expenditure in 2020 with the charities involved in the study able to maintain similar levels of direct services and assistance to 2019.

Organisations among the 26 surveyed include: Doctors Without Borders, Red Cross, Natuurmonumenten, WWF, Prince Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Plan International Nederland, Hartstichting, and CARE Nederland.

New COVID-19 survey now in progress

The impact of the pandemic across Europe is currently being explored with a multilingual survey conducted by EFA and Salesforce.org. Find our more here.

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