CAF research shows northern charities among hardest hit

4th April 2023

The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) has surveyed more than 1,300 organisations across the UK about the challenges they’ve faced over recent months. Many charities say they are being stretched beyond their means, as their incomes have also taken a hit. Less than a third (31%) have high levels of confidence in their current funding, and half (50%) have had to use their reserves to cover day-to-day running costs.

Furthermore, charities in the north of England are among the hardest hit, where demand has increased for nearly seven in 10 (67%) charities. Two-fifths (40%) say it has increased substantially (compared to 55% and 24% across the rest of England) and charities in the North (63%) are also significantly more likely to have used their reserves to meet running costs than those based elsewhere in England (50%). The full CAF Charity Resilience Index can be read here.

The Charities Aid Foundation makes a number of recommendations, some of which are to funders, including:

• Providing resilience funding for charities, which would also cover core costs, giving “charities the time and space to identify areas where they need to strengthen their organisation”.
• Understanding the impact of inflation on charities and consider increasing grants to allow for these pressures.
• Multi-year funding “should be the norm and should be unrestricted”. This would help charities to “become more resilient and enhance the relationship between grant-makers and the people and communities they want to help”.