Paul Farthing has been recruited to lead fundraising at the NSPCC, a charity which has been raising less money each year since 2009.

Farthing, presently director of fundraising at Age UK, will take on the same role at the NSPCC. The NSPCC fundraising director’s role has been vacant since interim director of fundraising Mike Parker left in September, after seven months in post. Parker’s departure preceded the resignation of NSPCC CEO Andrew Flanagan, which comes into effect in March, giving the children’s charity board two senior positions to fill.

The new director of fundraising, who will take his post on 15 April, will be faced with a challenge at NSPCC as the charity has seen voluntary income on the decline for the past few years, during which time some other children’s charities have reported strong growth. NSPCC last year reported a deficit of more than £3m after fundraising income dropped by £12.9m year-on-year.

The one-time giant of fundraising cut its spending on fundraising by 7.3 per cent in the year ending March 2012, but still invested £24.3m on fundraising activities.

Speaking to Fundraising magazine while still in post in July last year, previous director of fundraising Parker said he hoped investments he was making in fundraising would see the NSPCC start to increase fundraising revenue again within 12 to 18 months. After a swathe of redundancies in the fundraising department, Parker had also said he expected the number of fundraisers to remain steady at around 350.

Mark Wood, NSPCC chairman, welcomed the new director of fundraising to the fold. “Paul brings a strong fundraising and marketing background to the NSPCC as well as business experience.”

Farthing is no stranger to challenge; he was the first director of fundraising at Age UK, which was created following the merger of Age Concern and Help the Aged. He is also chair of the International Fundraising Congress.