Can you afford to give to charity?

Just a couple of years ago many of us were happy to give generously to a range of worth causes, and we were prepared to whip out our debit or credit cards whenever there was a charity appeal, sign up to monthly donations for charities, and make one off payments to worth causes. However, household finances have been hit hard over the past year, and households have had to cut down on their expenditure in order to keep their heads above water financially. Unfortunately, for many this has also meant having to cut back on the amount of money that they are able to donate to charity.

This has been confirmed by many charities, and following a recent survey it was revealed that the level of charity donations had indeed been falling dramatically over the past twelve month. The research was carried out by the Charities Commission, and involved polling around five hundred UK charities. One of every five charities stated that there had been a significant drop in the amount of money coming in by way of donations, and furthermore one in twelve charities has had to make redundancies as a result of lack of finances.

The situation has been made worse for charities by the collapse of the Icelandic banks recently, as many had placed money into accounts with these banks in order to make the most of the high rates of interest that were being offered by Icelandic banks trying to break into the UK banking sector.

One industry official stated: “Even before last week’s problems with Icelandic bank collapses, some charities were really being squeezed by higher costs and higher demands for vital services. They will wonder how they are going to survive the current crisis while trying to continue meeting people’s needs.”

She did urge consumers to try and keep giving to charity wherever possible, as they really needed the money.

What’s more many charities have seen a rise in the level of demand for their services over the past twelve months. Charities dealing with the elderly and with issues such as homelessness have seen a rise in demand for their services. One such charity, the homeless charity Shelter, said that demand had gone up enormously recently, partly fuelled by the global financial crisis and the difficulties that households were experiencing when it came to their finances. One official from the charity said: “People are struggling with their mortgages and are facing repossessions so they are calling our helpline to ask for advice.”

In addition to all of these issues, charities, like other businesses, have been hit with increasing costs, such as rents, energy usage, the cost of food where applicable, rising fuel costs, and more, and this has further impacted on their financial situations. In the survey around 54% of charities said that they had been affected by these rising costs.

Tags: advice, usage, Big Society, Social Issues, high rates, charity