Citizens Advice is seeking to develop its individual giving after its income fell by 6% last year, its chief executive has revealed.
Clare Moriarty told Charity Finance magazine that Citizens Advice’s network of more than 250 local charities has to make “difficult decisions every day to stay afloat” while continuing to support beneficiaries.
Speaking to the magazine for its Charity Chief Executives Survey 2023, Moriarty said that the cost-of-living crisis presents “huge pressures” for local charities which are trying to meet increasing demand with resources that are tighter than ever.
The charity’s accounts for the year ending 31 March 2022 show that its total income fell from £162.7m to £153.6m.
Developing individual giving
Moriarty said that although “there has been some welcome government support on energy bills, rising running costs continue to be a huge challenge when funding has often remained stagnant”.
“We know our network of local charities are having to make difficult decisions every day to stay afloat and continue providing their vital support to people who need it.”
Most of Citizens Advice’s income comes through funding agreements and is restricted to a particular area of activity and can only be used in a specific financial year.
Moriary said: “An example being the delivery of services like Help to Claim which support people in making a claim for Universal Credit. Our ability to run these key services relies on government funding, and so cuts are clearly a huge concern.
“We’re seeking to develop our individual giving work and have piloted small-scale tests on our website and on Facebook and Instagram. This is a very new initiative and therefore a drop in donations would not significantly impact on our ability to deliver key services.”
She added: “That said, we always have an eye on the future. Given the huge demand for charitable support, demonstrating the value of Citizens Advice’s services to the government and the public is more important than ever.”
According to its accounts, the charity received £33.1m last year to deliver the Help to Claim scheme compared with £34.7m in 2021.
‘We’ve experienced a huge rise in demand’
Moriarty said that an increasing number of people are seeking the charity’s help, with “more urgent and complex problems than ever before”.
“We’ve experienced a huge rise in demand, particularly for energy advice, that shows no sign of abating.
“And most concerningly, it’s getting harder for us to find solutions for people because of the rising costs people are facing. Organisationally, Citizens Advice is continuing to look at ways of increasing meeting demand. That includes steps like seeking additional support and funding, to trialling new referral routes and improving online content and signposting.”
‘Challenging time for the charity sector’
Recruiting staff and volunteers has also become more challenging, Moriarty said, at a time when the charity’s services are needed “more than ever”.
“We want to make sure as many people as possible know they can come to us for help and that we can meet that demand,” she continued.
“There are challenges because we need more volunteers and staff to be able to provide advice, but we also need to reach people who struggle to come to us. That’s why we’re looking at a range of options - from how to get more funding to the multi-channel delivery of our advice.”
On the financial position of her charity, she said: “This is a challenging time for the charity sector. We were fortunate to have received a number of one-off grants to help us deal with issues specifically related to the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, but our core unrestricted funding has remained the same for several years while our demand has only increased.
“We need to work hard to convince funders to invest in infrastructure and innovation, and be able to demonstrate how ultimately that will help our clients and the pressures they are facing. Against a really difficult backdrop, our job must be to keep working together to demonstrate our value to society both now and in the future.”
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