As the Treasury Select Committee prepares to review the Payments Council proposal to phase out cheques by 2018, a survey by nfpSynergy and Fundraising has found that a significant proportion of the charity sector is extremely worried about the impact this could have on their income.  

In an online survey which garnered more than 640 responses, two out of five charity respondents rated their concern level about cheque abolition as ten-out-of-ten.

A further third ranked their concern at the impact on their revenues as either eight or nine-out-of-ten.

The survey was launched just after the Committee announced that it would reopen its inquiry into the cheque abolition proposal.  Its consultation closed today.

Two-thirds of charities believe the abolition of cheques in 2018, as has been proposed by the Payments Council, would have a significant or very high impact on them, especially on the level of donations from existing donor appeals. More than half think it will have the same disastrous effect on securing donations from new supporters.

At present, 40 per cent of charities say they earn between 80 and 100 per cent of their income from appeals from existing donors via cheque and a third get at least 90 per cent of their major donor income paid in by cheque.

Some of the comments submitted to the survey verged on the apocalyptic; “If cheques are abolished, so too is the voluntary sector” said one respondent, though others were more accepting of the need for charities to “move with the times”.

Respondents also supported cheque use for providing a clear paper trail, and as means of building relationships with donors, particularly those that feel writing a cheque is a more significant action than approving a bank transfer or similar.

The results of the research, revealed exclusively on Civil Society, will be submitted to the Committee today in order to provide a sense of the strength of sector feeling regarding the proposal.

The charities represented in the survey were generally small. Half have voluntary income of less than £500,000 a year, but medium and larger charities were also well represented, with 18 per cent of respondents falling into the £1-£5m voluntary income band and 8 per cent reporting donated income of £21m or more. 

Click here to read the full submission by nfpSynergy and Fundraising to the Treasury Select Committee inquiry.