War Child grew its income by more than £1.3m in 2012, boosted by the launch of its first public appeal.

Its recently-published accounts show that for the year ending December 2012 the charity’s income was £4.97m (spending £4.52m) up from £3.68m the previous year and almost double its income for 2009 when it was £2.49m.

The charity is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and plans to raise more than £5m.

The charity brought forward its plan to launch an appeal one year ahead of schedule in response to the Syrian crisis. Press and television adverts resulted in War Child receiving 4,000 text donations and 500 online donations. It has since converted 400 of these into regular monthly direct debit donors, almost doubling the number of regular givers on its books.

Rob Williams, chief executive, said in the introduction to the annual report: “We were humbled again by the generous support we received from individual fundraisers and from the UK music industry.”

Approximately 60 per cent of War Child's income comes from institutional donors and foundations such as the Department for International Development, the European Union and Comic Relief - as well as a range of grants from smaller trusts and foundations. The other 40 per cent is generated by music projects, corporate sponsors and through individual donations and fundraising projects.

War Child plans to continue to invest in regular giving and has also set aside £285,000 to expand its capacity across programmes and fundraising.