Charity funds

[Outandover]

I have been volunteering for a charity for about six months and do about 8 hours a week. I do an almost identical role to those that are employed there so I know the monthly target that we need to achieve (fund-raising area) and am told each month what we achieved.

I’ve just found out that of the monthly total approximately 7.5% goes to the actual cause, so I presume then that the balance is used for administrative purposes.

I feel uncomfortable about this yet I can’t quite tell from looking online whether this is a normal % amount- does anyone know? It feels like stuff-all actually goes to the cause and the bulk to admin. I fully appreciate that good charities can’t run on thin air, but this seems like a huge % goes to admin.

I won’t name the charity (not a National one) but in its area of expertise it is widely respected and known about. Fairly good size charity I guess but definitely not on the scale of the big ones like BHF/Oxfam etc.

The staff there work such long hours for minimum wage (often unpaid I’ve heard) and the end cause seems to get so little. I just wonder if this is normal in the charity sector?

Have you looked on the charity commission for their accounts? That’s an unusually low percentage.

With 7.5% going to the cause it doesn’t necessarily mean that all of the other 92.5% is ‘administrative’

There will be other costs such as property rent/leasing, energy bills etc
There may be charities that have had a drop in donations but still have the overheads which are also likely to have risen.
But of course there are those that can also be a fund raising exercise with a high proportion of ‘costs’ and minimal proportion going to the cause

When Help for heroes were at their peak in publicity, going into partnership with the Army for the Tidworth centre there were also numerous other ‘heroes’ charities which tended to have a basic gazebo or table with some cam net, a ‘heroes’ branded banner & secondhand army Land Rover or 4wd, middle aged pot bellied men in desert DPM trousers and may or may not have had a charity commission registered number