OSCR maps scale and income of Scottish charity sector 1

Finance | Vibeka Mair | 24 Jan 2012

Larger charities in Scotland that are in receipt of government funding get 57 per cent of their total income from public sector sources, while smaller charities in the same boat get just 18 per cent, according to a new survey from the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.

The survey, Scottish Charities 2011, analyses the scale and activity of the charity sector in Scotland. It finds that 23,351 charities are registered with OSCR.

Some 82 per cent of all charities have an annual income of less than £100,000, and 95.3 per cent of total charitable sector income is reported by 7.1 per cent of all charities. Further, the charitable purpose most commonly reported by charities was working to ‘advance education’ at 49.7 per cent, and 34 per cent of charities reported that they had a website.

In addition, OSCR commissioned a survey completed by 942 charities to analyse charities that receive monies from the public sector. This showed that 50 per cent of these charities’ total income came from public funding.

Charities with an income in excess of £100,000 got 57 per cent of their income from the public sector – 25 per cent was contract income, while 32 per cent was grants. In sharp contrast, charities reporting an income of less than £99,999 only got 18 per cent of their income from the public sector – 8 per cent was from contracts, while 10 per cent was grant income.

The majority of these charities said that the most important source of funding over the next three years will be contract or core funding.

OSCR's chief executive, David Robb (pictured), said he hoped the report would provide a useful reference for charities, funders, researchers, and the public.

Directory: Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR)

Place a comment

Stephen Lulsley
Independent Commentator and Consultant
24 Jan 2012

When should a charity not be a charity in Scotland or anywhere else?

When "50 per cent of these charities’ total income came from public funding!"

[Reply]

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.