Scope has reported its highest income in three years, boosted by a more than £10m rise in revenue from its charity shops.
The disability charity’s income was £44.2m in the year to March 2022, according to recently filed accounts, with its expenditure also rising by almost £9m to a three-year high of £45.1m.
Fundraising complaints increased six-fold to 226 as activities increased after the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.
Scope told Civil Society News its proportion of disabled staff was 28% according to a survey it conducted in November last year. This is up from 15.8% reported in its latest accounts and 12.5% in 2020-21.
Meanwhile, the charity’s gender pay gap narrowed to 16.2% in 2021-22 from 22.4% the year before.
Trading recovery boosts income
Scope’s trading income rose to £25.4m in 2021-22, higher than pre-Covid levels and up from £14.5m in 2020-21.
Sale of new and donated goods increased to £21.3m, up from £8.8m, while Gift Aid more than doubled to £1.1m.
But government grants related to the charity’s trading operations almost halved to £2.7m.
Legacy income also fell on the year by £1.4m to £3.5m, while donations remained relatively flat.
Fundraising investment drives spending increase
Scope’s increase in expenditure was driven by a £6.3m increase in its spending on raising funds, including £3.3m more on trading activities and £3m more on recruiting new donors.
According to the accounts, the charity’s increased trading expenditure of £23.7m “includes higher than usual maintenance and improvement cost on re-opening and ongoing challenges of operating with Covid and other economic factors, like supply chain delays and cost increases”.
Meanwhile, the charity’s spending on its individual giving fundraising programme increased to £7.3m to recruit new donors the charity “couldn’t reach during Covid restrictions”.
“This investment will generate future income to fund an increase in our impact through service delivery and influencing activities,” the accounts say.
Scope received 226 fundraising complaints in 2021-22, up from 36 the year before, which it says is due to “the easing of Covid restrictions, which enabled our fundraising activities to start up again”.
“All complaints were resolved satisfactorily through our internal processes and none were escalated to the Fundraising Regulator,” the accounts say.
Increase in staff costs
Scope’s staff costs rose by almost £2m to £21.7m in 2021-22, while its average full-time-equivalent headcount increased by nine to 718.
Chief executive Mark Hodgkinson was paid £150,000 after working reduced hours the previous year to help manage costs.
The charity’s executive director of retail and communities was paid £143,200, an increase from the previous year when they were paid for 10 months’ work.
Meanwhile, the charity’s reserves decreased from £32.5m to £30.9m
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