Children's charity hit by €1.5m loss as donations fall

on 16/10/2012 00:00:00

Public donations declined by 9%, from €7.4m to €6.8m last year. The loss follows a surplus of €139,000 in 2010.

Barnardos suspended its services for one week earlier this year and made 14 staff redundant in a bid to stem the losses.

The remaining staff agreed to take a pay cut of more than 10% and lost their incremental pay increases.

The directors' report states the charity's need to protect its capacity to continue to provide high-quality services in cost-effective ways "will involve hard decisions and shared sacrifice".

The charity's spend last year decreased from €24m to €23.9m.

The drop in public donations came in spite of the charity increasing its spend on generating voluntary income by 58%, from €2.1m to €3.3m.

The charity, led by former Labour Party figure Fergus Finlay, now has reserves of €7m. Cash and short-term deposits reduced from €6.9m to €4.3m.

Barnardos said the year was one "in which demand for our services grew considerably, while our capacity to respond was put under immense pressure".
The accounts showed a number of high earners at the charity, with eight employees sharing €720,000 in salaries last year.

One employee earned between €110,000 and €120,000 and a second earned over €100,000. Three people earned between €90,000 and €100,000, with another three earning between €80,000 and €90,000.

The HSE's contribution declined marginally, from €9.57m to €9.52m. The charity's network of shops increased sales from €1m to €1.12m.

Major donations plummeted from €207,000 to €80,000. However, committed donations and cash-giving increased from €2.8m to €3.1m. Corporate donations also increased, from €862,000 to €1m.

Staff are the charity's highest costs, increasing from €16.99m to €17.16m last year, with staff numbers increasing from 403 to 408.

The charity yesterday declined to comment.