Census of Cumbrian charities - August 2009

How big is the charity world of Cumbria? Up until very recently we struggled to answer these questions. However last month I spoke at the launch of the first ever in depth census undertaken of charities in Cumbria. Using Charity Commission data from 2005/06 the census tells an interesting story.

Income to Cumbrian charities was in excess of £275m. Charities employed 5,500 people and involved 18,500 people as volunteers. These figures are drawn from the records of more than 2,000 registered charities with their home base in the county.

Picking out the employment numbers gives us an idea of how the charity sector compares with others: ‘with a workforce of 5,500 in registered charities in Cumbria this sector is significantly larger than agriculture and forestry (3,299), energy and water (896), mining and quarrying (615) and financial intermediation (2,613)’. It is not always helpful to make these sorts of comparisons, because charities operate across several sectors of the economy; however it still provides a startling benchmark.

The picture is a skewed one, with only 35 organisations receiving 92% of the income. These include the county’s six independent schools, the two hospices, two outdoor education centres and major arts facilities. In contrast 60% of charities have an annual income of under £10,000.

We’ve always known that Cumbria has strong communities. This is born out with evidence that we have 4.1 charities per thousand people, the same figure as for Scotland and the South West of England which top the national table of statistics.

But our charities are not spread evenly across Cumbria. South Lakeland has the largest number with 31% of the charities and 22% of the population. In contrast Barrow is home to 15% of the population and only 5% of the charities. We think this difference relates in part to a strong historical reliance on the shipyard and its associated institutions but also the rural nature of South Lakeland with many small organisations.

Cumbria has a very large number of very small charities compared to the national pattern with more than 60% of the sector having an annual income of £10,000 or less. This certainly matches our geography.

Although the census is the best record we have it still omits information from some of our smallest organisations because the Charity Commission does not require them to return information. Equally some of our larger non profit organisations do not report to the Charity Commission.

The census was compiled by the Cumbria Council for Voluntary Service and will be repeated annually so that we can track changes over time. For a full copy of the census please visit www.thirdsectorcumbria.org.uk/information_information_other_publications.html

Do you want to respond to anything I’ve said, in this or previous articles? If so you can comment at my new blog - http://www.cumbriafoundation.blogspot.com/ I look forward to hearing from you.