11.8.15 Oxfam Figures

In broad terms, the annual figures apparently show an overall income of £401million, with only £298million being spent on 'charitable expenditure'.  In other words, £103million goes on paying running costs, admin, and wages.

A closer look shows the income is broken down into three main areas:
1 - Funding from governments at £180million +
2 - Sales from shops at £87million
3 - Charitable donations at £101million

Not sure where the other £40million comes from.  But aside from that gap, I am more concerned with the £24million spent 'raising money'.  On this point, I start to struggle even more with the whole thing.  If the shops bring in £87million, and governments contribute the bulk, that surely means the charitable donations and legacies which amount to £101million are the real results of money raising activities.  If no money were spent on that at all, then the charity could see donations drop to £77million without any real loss at all.

For anyone deciding to give to Oxfam, whether directly or via some sort of fund-raising sponsorship, I suggest it is rather galling to have to accept that the real economics mean a couple of interpretations are true:

Your donations have been 'drummed up' with an outlay of £24million, so out of your £1, almost 24p is not going to anything charitable.

But worse . . .

Your donations are pointless, as they form part of a £101million total, yet the charity spends £103million on running costs.

It follows from the above that if Oxfam did away with its promotional efforts, to save £24million, then it would be no worse off even if donations dropped to £77million - in which case there would be even more reason to stop the whole bandwagon, because then, for every £1 donated, there would be a minus figure going to charity, if the running costs are £103million.  Basically, you would need to up your contribution so that instead of £1.00 for there to be nothing going on charitable things, you would need to pay £1.30 so that nothing could go on charitable things.  What a mess.


Oxfam is not alone.  This general model applies to most of the large charities, and the UK is awash with big business hiding within 'charitable' status.

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