LONDON (AP) - The British Red Cross has canceled its winter fundraising ball — and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
British charities are expecting a fundraising shortfall next year as corporations donate less, investments fall in value and fundraising costs rise during an economic downturn, a large survey published Monday found.
Britain is home to around 190,000 charities, including international ones like the poverty-fighting charity Oxfam and Cancer Research UK. Together, the country's charities raised a total of 47 billion pounds ($70 billion) over the 12 months through Dec. 1 for domestic and international causes, according to the Charity Commission.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Institute of Fundraising and the Charity Finance Directors' Group surveyed 362 of these charities — and found that, big or small, all expect their incomes to fall and their costs to rise in 2009.
PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated the charities could end up with about 2.3 billion pounds — or around 4 percent — less than they expected to have in 2009.
"Charities will have to use their reserves, work more efficiently and even cut back on services," Ian Oakley-Smith, director of PricewaterhouseCoopers, told The Associated Press.
The British Red Cross, which had to cancel its winter ball in November partly because it could not find a corporate sponsor, is expecting to do less than it would like in crisis zones like Congo.
Although the winter ball — which usually raises around 500,000 pounds — represents a tiny fraction of its annual fundraising of around 100 million pounds, it exemplifies the charity's problem.
"I'm predicting modest growth in income next year, but if you'd asked me this time last year, I would have been expecting really good growth for 2009," said Mark Astarita, director of fundraising for the British Red Cross.
Shelter, a charity that fights homelessness in Britain, said it lost 400,000 pounds worth of expected funds this fall when corporate sponsors, including the nationalized mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley, canceled donations. It expects to drop a further 1 million pounds — out of a total annual income of 49 million pounds — due to the fall in property and stock prices hitting donations left in peoples' wills.
The charity said it needs the money to help the increasing numbers of people who are being made homeless by bank repossessions.
In all, 71 percent of charities expected their corporate sponsors' donations to fall or remain flat in 2009. Most also expected their own investments to take a hit in the economic downturn.
"All of us at charities are concerned about what will happen next year," Astarita said. |