The total income of the voluntary sector rose sharply, but most of the increase went to the largest charities, according to the UK Civil Society Almanac 2016, published today by NCVO.
The Almanac is based on data reported by charities for the year to March 2014.
It shows that in that year the sector had its highest ever level of real-terms income, passing its previous peak in the year ending March 2008.
Large charities are continuing to grow - with income spikes greater than ever before - but smaller charities face an increasing struggle for survival, the research found.
An analysis of the latest charity accounts submitted to the Charity Commission revealed that charities with an income of between £1m and £100m saw income increase by 3.7 per cent.
But charities with an income between £100,000 and £1m saw income fall by 0.7 per cent. Those with an income between £10,000 and £100,000 saw a drop of 1.7 per cent.
The figures continue a long-term trend, marking the largest income increase for larger charities to date, at £43.8bn for the year 2013/2014.
This morning, Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, called for “more to be done to ensure that smaller, specialist charities can bring their expertise to public services”.
“Charities of all sizes make an immense difference to our society and out world every day. We should be please that some of Britain’s most well-known and influential charities are continuing to grow and thrive,” he said.
“However, while we should remember that each charity’s circumstances will differ, these figures do underline our concern that small and medium-sized charities are struggling in particular at the moment.”
Etherington said the sector needed to “focus on what more can be done” to support smaller charities.
He also pointed to the method of commissioning as a wider concern for the sector.
“Increasingly, the problem is not larger charities winning contracts at the expense of smaller charities, but that public service procurement is done in such a way that only large charities could win these contracts to begin with.
“At the moment, smaller charities find it hard to bid for public contracts due to commissioning practice that favours the largest of organisations, such as growing contract sizes and short bidding timeframes.”
The research was compiled from a sample of 7,500 charity accounts submitted to the Charity Commission.
