Public services and small charities

Overview

Around one-in-four small charities deliver public services ‘a great deal’ or ‘a fair amount’ as part of their work, compared to 59% of the largest charities
62% of small charities do not deliver public services at all
In 2017/18, small charities earned £1,140m in income from government to deliver public services on their behalf
The value of government contracts has declined for charities of all sizes over a five year period, most markedly for small charities with an income between £100k and £1m
22% of small charities make a loss on their public sector contracts, and 61% of small charities subsidise public service contracts with income from other sources

Around one-in-four small charities deliver public services ‘a great deal’ or ‘a fair amount’ as part of their work, compared to 45% of large charities and 59% of major charities.
62% of small charities do not deliver public services at all.

Government contracts were worth £1,140m to small charities in 2017/2018.
The value of government contracts has declined for charities of all sizes over the past five years.
Charities with an income of between £100k and £1m saw the steepest drop.

61% of small charities subsidise public service contracts with income from other sources.
One-in-five say they have delivered a contract outside of their core mission.
Small charities are much less likely than large and major charities to walk away from public contracts because of operational risk or mission drift.

One-in-five small charities make a loss on the public service contracts they deliver.
Half break-even and three-in-ten make a profit.