Charity Sector Income
OSCR published its first profile of the Scottish charity sector, Scottish Charities 2005 in January 2006. This was based on Annual Returns submitted to OSCR in advance of the commencement of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. We intend to publish Scottish Charities 2007 in spring 2008. This will provide our first profile of the sector based on Annual Returns and Monitoring Returns submitted in a full year.
In the meantime, we are able to publish some facts and figures summarised from the Scottish Charity Register. Key points are as follows.
- The total annual income for charities entered in the Scottish Charity Register is over £10 billion.
- There are 19 charities responsible for 36.6% of the sector's total income.
- Two thirds of charities have an annual income under £25,000.
The evidence from the Scottish Charity Register demonstrates that OSCR takes a proportionate approach with regard to monitoring. The two thirds of charities with income under £25,000 prepare simplified accounts and submit these to OSCR with an Annual Return form that confirms basic information such as the charity's name, contact details, charitable purposes, and beneficiaries. In most cases the Annual Return form is pre-populated and all that is required is that the form is signed, dated and returned to OSCR with a copy of the charity's most recent accounts.
The graphic below shows the percentage of charities in each income bracket; and the percentage of the total income represented by each income bracket:
What this shows is that 5.04% of charities are responsible for 92.8% of the sector's income. The two thirds of charities with an income under £25,000 account for less than one per cent of the sector's income.
The same information is set out in the table below.
Note that the amounts stated are gross amounts calculated from Annual Returns and Monitoring Returns. Within the sector, charities donate funds to other charities, so the total amount will contain some multiple counting. Also, the Register now contains a number of charities that are also bodies registered as charities elsewhere, and these charities have stated their total income, not just that which applies to their activities in Scotland.
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