A decline in large-scale emergencies and drop in government funding have been blamed for income at Christian aid charity Tearfund dropping from £70.2m to £60m last year.

But while there has been a fall in income overall, Tearfund has experienced a strong year in individual giving. The charity recruited 3,400 new regular givers and increased its unrestricted income from regular giving by more than £200,000. Unrestricted income from other individual donors also increased by nearly £200,000.

However, this improvement in unrestricted individual income could not compensate for the drop-off in income elsewhere.

The 2012/13 year saw fewer large-scale emergencies which Tearfund had to raise funds for, or spend funds on, and as a result emergency appeal income fell from £8.1m in the previous year to £3.8m. Income from the Disasters Emergeny Committee also shrunk. Legacies, meanwhile, experienced a slight fall, from £4.2m to £3.8m.

Tearfund also attracted less government funding. Institutional funding fell from £24.1m in 2011/12 to £18.6m. In its annual accounts, Tearfund commented: “In part this was a planned reduction in reliance on institutional funding, be we also experienced, in the latter half of the year, some difficulty securing government grants for our South Sudan work. This funding has been restored in the early part of 2013/14.”

Total voluntary income at Tearfund for 2012/13 came in at just under £58m, compared with £68.6m in the previous year. Donations from individuals in both emergencies and regular giving accounts for the lion’s share of the Christian charity’s voluntary income, but churches provide a critical income stream, providing more than £2.6m in 2012/13.

The charity’s expenditure also fell, by 6.1 per cent, to £61.1m – a fall which the charity said was “mainly as a result of reduced spending on our disaster response work.”

Even with the decline in income, Tearfund mobilised 8,000 local churches around the world “to address the needs of the poor, vulnerable and marginalised people within their communities”. This was slightly less than the targeted 8,500, but the charity has set itself  higher targets for next year, aiming to mobilise 9,000 churches.