Finance FAQ
1. Where does
Concern Universal get its money from?
2. What do you spend your income on? (Where
does my money go?)
3. How much do
you keep in reserves? (What is your reserves policy?)
4. How much do you spend on
administration?
5. How do I know my money goes where I want
it to? (How do you avoid corruption?)
6. What is your 'pay ratio'? (How much do
executives get paid?)
1. Where does Concern Universal get its money from?
Our income comes from a variety of sources. Last year, we raised approximately 80% or our income from the EU, government grants and other major institutions. We raised the remaining 20% from Trusts and Foundations and businesses (12%) and individuals (5%). (Approximately 4% of our income was micro-finance income from Concern Universal Microfinance Operation (CUMO) in Malawi.)
2. What do you spend your income on? (Where does my money go?)
93% (£12,064,549.) of our total expenditure went directly on charitable activities in our ten country programmes overseas. The remaining 7% was spent on management and administration, fundraising and governance in the UK as well as development education and awareness raising in UK schools. For a full breakdown of which countries view the Expenditure by Country pie chart in finances at a glance. This expenditure enabled us to work with over 2 million people to improve health, reduce hunger, improve respect for rights, build skills and reduce vulnerability. For a breakdown of expenditure by sector and the number of people helped in these ways, view the pie charts in finances at a glance.
3. How much do you keep in reserves? (What is your reserves policy?)
Our aim is to hold 25 to 50% of 'support costs' in reserves. This is to protect our programmes and the people who benefit from them and work with Concern Universal against the risk of an unexpected reduction in income or cashflow. (The underlying rationale for the amount held in reserves is, in the event of a catastrophic collapse in funding, we would be able to cover the costs of winding down all operations over a minimum of 3 months.) Currently we hold approximately £500,000 in reserves.
4. How much do you spend on administration?
Last year, we spent approximately 7% of our total expenditure (or 7p for every £1) on fundraising, governance and administrative type expenditure in the UK. It is difficult to make judgments and comparisons on charity expenditure on administration as the Charity Commission doesn't currently legislate for measuring and reporting on expenditure. There are a variety of factors that impact a charities administration costs including geographic location, size of the organization, and type of work performed.
5. How do I know my money goes where I want it to? (How do you avoid corruption?)
Concern Universal has staff and offices in every country of operation, who work in partnership with effective, trusted, locally-based organisations over many years. All programme expenditure is budgetted in advance, monitored and audited. Full accounts are consolidated in the UK and independently auditted. View our full auditted accounts here.
6. What is your 'pay ratio'? (How much do executives get paid?)
We are proud of having a very good ‘pay ratio’ (the ratio of highest paid employees to the lowest.) This means greater pay equality within the team and modest pay scales for senior executives. For staff employed on UK contracts, the highest pay level is less than three times the lowest (therefore a ratio of <3:1) which compares very favourably with comparable charities in a recent survey. In our income category we would have been top of the survey.
Downloads
Trustee Annual Report & Accounts 2011
(PDF 2634 Kb)
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