Donations to charity down 20%

Donations to charity have fallen by 20% in real terms in the past year, with £1.7bn less being given, says a report.

The amount fell from £11bn to £9.3bn in 2011/12 - a fall of £2.3bn when adjusted for inflation, the study said.

The number of people donating fell - as did the amounts they gave, from an average of £11 to £10 a month.

The report, based on a survey of 3,000 people, was compiled by the Charities Aid Foundation and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.

The survey was carried out by the Office for National Statistics.

Charities were facing a "deeply worrying" financial situation, the CAF and NCVO warned.

They said some had been forced to cut back frontline services and make staff redundant or were even facing closure because of the fall in income.

They launched a Back Britain's Charities campaign, urging individuals and businesses to give what they could.

And they called on the government to modernise Gift Aid and to ensure that public bodies do not disproportionately cut funding for charities when seeking budget savings.

The fall in giving is the largest one-year decline in the Survey of Individual Giving's eight-year history.

The report found that 28.4 million people gave to charity during 2011/12 - more than half of all UK adults.

But the proportion of people donating to charitable causes in a typical month fell from 58% to 55%.

A larger proportion of women (58%) than men (52%) gave to charity.

Medical research, hospitals and hospices and children and young people were the most popular causes among donors, but religious causes received the largest average donations.

And cash was the most common form of giving, accounting for 50% of donations. Direct debits accounted for 31% of the total, an increase of 6% on the previous year.