The Charities Aid Foundation distributed over half a billion pounds to charities in 2016/17 for the first time, its latest annual report has shown.
CAF paid £539m to charities in the UK and worldwide last year, with donations via CAF reaching a record £611m, its accounts for the year ending April 2017 have shown.
In the year ending April 2016, CAF had paid £462m to charities, and received £523m in donations and legacies.
CAF manages donations on behalf of wealthy philanthropists, 2,500 businesses and more than 250,000 people. Many donations are paid right away to tens of thousands of good causes, while some use their CAF accounts to grow philanthropic funds over time.
The charity’s total income was £491.8m (£423.3m in 2016), and total expenditure was £417m (£373.5m in 2016).
The charity’s CAF Donate online fundraising service grew by 10 per cent over the year, achieving an additional £2.3m to charities, slightly above the organisation’s expectations.
Overall giving increased and consequently the group’s unrestricted, restricted funds and depositors’ balances grew during the year. Total charitable funds increased from £1,119m to £1,285m.
CAF also received £4.8m in legacy income into unrestricted funds.
CAF spent £70,000 on redundancy and termination costs – up from £45,000 last year. The average number of full-time equivalent employees in group grew by 27 to 487.
The number of employees earning over £60,000 grew by one to 32. For the year ending April 2017 there were no members of staff earning over £170,000, compared to one in the previous year. Two charity employees earned over £160,000.
John Low, CAF’s chief executive, said: “We are overwhelmed by the level of generosity among the people and businesses who work through CAF to support the causes they care about.
“Despite economic uncertainty, we have been able to help our donors give well over £500m to charities, amazing resources that will strengthen communities and transform lives all over the world.
“And we are delighted that so many philanthropists trust CAF to steward and grow their major donations so they can continue giving strategically long into the future.
“As a charity that exists to support civil society, we are proud to be able to grow our services for colleagues across the sector, both here in the UK and around the world. As well as our work in the UK, our colleagues in America, Canada, India, Brazil, Russia and Southern Africa are building civil society, making it easier for people to give across borders and helping support the development of the voluntary sector around the world.”
CAF corporate donors gave more than £98m to charities, up from £76m, and CAF Bank’s lending grew to £72m from £46m, with a further £14m of loans and overdrafts committed but not yet drawn at the end of the year.
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