Donations to the UK’s top 500 fundraising charities fell by a real £70m last year, a fall of 1.1 per cent, according to latest research.

The Charity Market Monitor 2011, published annually by the ESRC Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy at Cass Business School, found that voluntary donations had fallen for the second year running, resting at £6.05bn.

It also found that their total income fell by 0.5 per cent, leaving them making just 1.5 per cent more in 2009/10 than in 2005/06.

For the first time, the very largest charities, which are traditionally considered to be resilient to wider economic pressures, took the biggest hit in their fundraised income, losing 1.8 per cent compared to the top 500 average of 1.1 per cent.

Bucking the trend were animal welfare charities, which experienced a 4.4 per cent growth to £426m, while services and ex-services welfare charities were strong on legacies, up 6.2 per cent.

The British Heart Foundation replaced Oxfam as the UK’s second largest fundraising charity, a position the latter had held for the past six years, while Cancer Research retained top spot.

Professor Cathy Pharoah, author of the report and co-director of the ESRC Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy at Cass Business School, said:  “The results of this research show that charities are subject to a pincer movement with their donated and investment incomes reaching a low point just as government spending cuts begin to hit their budgets.

“The evidence suggests that giving cannot fully substitute for public spending because donors have different priorities.”

CivilSociety.co.uk subscribers can read an extensive summary of the findings by Pharoah here.