Income at the NSPCC is down by nearly £20m on four years ago, as the charity reports its fifth consecutive budget deficit.

The NSPCC’s annual accounts show a drop in income of £12.9m to reach £135.7m and a deficit of £3.1m for the year ending March 2012. Income is the lowest it has been since 2006’s £116.4m, and the loss is greater than last year, when the charity was £1.97m in the red – although it is not as high as the deficit in 2010, which was £5.2m.

For 2011/12, NSPCC reduced spending on fundraising by 7.3 per cent and raised 5 per cent less than in the previous financial year. During the most recent financial year it spent £24.3m to raise £122m. In 2010/11, the charity still managed to grow fundraising income by 1.7 per cent to £128.5m.
 
The total decline in income (8.7 per cent), was attributed by the NSPCC as “largely due to a reduction in income from fundraising events and statutory sources”. Income from fundraising events fell by £3.7m to £7.8m and the NSPCC reported a decline in corporate support also. Ninety per cent of the charity’s income comes from voluntary sources.

More than half, £70m, of its fundraising income came from regular donors, and legacy income was £20.1m – both steady from the previous year. One area of fundraising improvement was the charity’s Christmas campaign, in which supporters send a child a Christmas card from ‘Santa’  along with a donation to the NSPCC. This raised £400,000 more than in 2011, to reach a total of £1.7m. The end of the Child’s Voice Appeal, which had run for three years, had hurt the charity.

The charity has reduced its spending on fundraising between 2010/11 and 2011/12. Its accounts read: “Costs of generating funds fell to £29.1m (2011 £31.4m), a decrease of 7.3 per cent, reflecting a reduction in direct marketing activities in the year. Costs of generating funds are monitored and compared to other charities.”

Following restructures in the past few years, the last couple of months have seen some high-profile staff changes at the charity, with interim director of fundraising Mike Parker stepping down and the chief executive Andrew Flanagan announcing his intention to quit at the beginning of next year.

A senior spokesman for NSPCC told civilsociety.co.uk that the recent deficits were merely a temporary result of the charity still implementing its new five-year strategy (2010 to 2015).

“We are focused on expanding our ChildLine and adult phone-line services in order to reach more people nationwide,” he said.

“Even though we’ve recorded deficits, the board was prepared for this and the trustees have budgeted for it. It has meant that we have had to sacrifice some of our fundraising activities, since we didn’t want to spend so much on fundraising before the new strategy has been set up.”

With additional reporting by Celina Ribeiro