OSCR’s report also looks at the average income and expenditure breakdown of charities with an income of £250,000-plus — the level at which this detail is required by the regulator.

These charities get 63.1% of income from charitable activities (such as delivering contracts or services), 18.1% from trading activities (such as retail, merchandise or admission fees for museums), 13.4% from donations and legacies, and the remaining 5.3% from ‘other’ sources.

Looking at their outgoings, 83% of expenditure is on charitable activities, 7.6% is on raising funds, and 9.4% on ‘other expenditure’.

Cross-border comparison

These figures are broadly in line with the 5% to 12% which Dutch charities spend on raising funds, as highlighted in a Fundraising Europe story in December — although these figures are not directly comparable given differences in how each regulator defines and reports fundraising and overhead costs.

The above figures also relate only to charities registered solely in Scotland. In addition to these 23,640 charities, a further 1,306 ‘cross-border charities’ are registered with OSCR. These are charities also registered with another regulator, generally the Charity Commission for England and Wales (CCEW).

The Scottish charities have an average income of £794,000, while for the cross-border charities it is a far larger £15.2m. This reflects the cross-border charities being generally high-profile organisations operating across the UK and sometimes internationally — and OSCR estimates that roughly a tenth of cross-border charities’ money might be spent in Scotland.

The majority of Scottish charities are far smaller — around seven in ten charities have an income of less than £100,000, and 26% have an income under £5,000. Two-thirds (69%) have no paid staff, and less than a tenth have more than 10 staff.

Nearly half of the £18.76bn total income of Scottish charities is from 18 universities (31.2%) and 149 registered social landlords (14.3%).

Charities per population

Scotland’s population is 5.6m, giving it 4.3 registered charities (excluding cross-border charities) per 1,000 people.

The same 4.3 figure is true of Northern Ireland, with 8,337 charities registered with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile in England and Wales, the figure is much lower at 2.8 per 1,000 population, based on CCEW’s figure of 171,613 charities.

OSCR’s report also looks at the average size of charity boards. Among Scottish charities, the mean average number of trustees is seven, and the median is five. Cross-border charities have both a mean and median of nine trustees, reflecting their generally larger size.

In April, Fundraising Europe reported on separate research into Scotland’s grantmaking foundations, which found they hold almost £4bn (€4.7bn) in net funds.

This is according to the Feiten & Cijfers 2022 report from Goede Doelen Nederland, which is based on data from 190 of the organisation’s 241 members.

The report shows total spending of €2.83bn, an increase of €315m, while total income rose 11% to €3.23bn.

Growth was particularly strong among larger charities, defined in the survey as those with more than €20m income, with income up 12% and spending up by 15% compared to 2021.

Income at mid-sized charities (€5m-€20m income) rose by 5%, and spending by 8%. Sub-€5m organisations grew their income by 4%, but cut expenditure by 6%.

The most significant income increases were experienced in educational charities (31%), although it should be noted that there were only two such charities (one mid-sized and one small) in the study.

Other sectors experiencing significant income growth were arts & culture (19%), international aid & human rights (16%), and health (9%).

Aid & human rights charities increased their spending by nearly a fifth (19%) in 2022, while health charity spending rose by 17%.

Arts & culture was the only area with decreased spending (-7%), while the only area with decreased income was animal charities (-4%).

Income streams remained similar to 2021, with private individuals contributing 52% of income to medium and small charities, and 29% of income of large charities. Grants were the biggest source of income for large charities, accounting for 41% of revenues. Across the sector, donor and member numbers were broadly stable, while volunteer numbers rose by 2% – although that figure is based on data from just 92 of the charities in the report.

The report is created by Goede Doelen Nederland in order to provide transparency and clarity around the sector.

Picture by RalfGervink on Pixabay