Dogs Trust becomes £100m charity for first time

15 Jun 2018 News

Dogs Trust’s income has increased by £8m, meaning it received over £106m in 2017, according to its latest annual accounts.

The charity’s annual report for the year ending December 2017 showed that it had an income of £106.4m in 2017, up from £98.4m the previous year. This figure included a total of £95.8m from voluntary income.

Meanwhile, charitable expenditure increased by 17 per cent to £71.4m. Of this £55.3m was spent on its rehoming centres, £6.6m on its preventative work, and £6.5m was spent on its international work.

In addition to charitable expenditure, it spent £22.8m on generating voluntary income, and £5.1m on trading.

The charity had around £167m of reserves.

In 2017 Dogs Trust cared for 15,446 dogs at its 21 rehoming centres, up from 15,343 in 2016. It rehomed 13,141 dogs in 2017, up by 74 on the previous year. The year also saw the reopening of its extensively rebuilt Eversham rehoming centre, and the news that it had planning permission to build a brand new centre in Cardiff.

Adrian Burder, Dogs Trust’s chief executive, said: “What does the future hold? Helping dogs wherever we can, and helping people to make the best choices when it comes to acquiring and caring for a dog. We’re excited by the prospect of being able to improve our Darlington rehoming centre, and we can’t wait to bring more dogs and people closer together through Dog School. 

“Our work overseas continues to go from strength to strength, through our sister charity, Dogs Trust Worldwide. At time of writing, we are responding to a government consultation on their proposed ban on the sale of dogs by vendors who are not the breeder, which we see as a huge opportunity to improve canine welfare in the UK."

The Dogs Trust also increased its number of dog schools from 6 to 26. It also opened a new canine behaviour and research department to ensure all of its training and behaviour based activities and advice is founded on scientific evidence.

A total of 18 people earned over £60,000 throughout the year, up by three on the year before. The highest earner was the chief executive, who earned between £150,000 and £160,000.