Barn Owl Trust finances
What happens to your money?
For every £10 you donate, £8.81 goes directly towards Barn Owl conservation. The other £1.19 helps us to run the charity and to raise the next £10. We spend £6.28 from every £10 on practical conservation work such as making and erecting nestboxes and caring for casualty owls and £2.53 on running our free national information and advice service. Support costs include running vehicles, paying phone bills, insurance, etc. Our management costs are 37p in every £10 and include accountancy and end of year ‘independent examination’.
We are always pleased to hear from individuals or businesses that would like to support our work. Please contact us.
Income
This chart below shows how our income was made up in the financial year ended 31st March 2024. Donations were 37% (12% in 2023) and grants less than 1% (2% – 2023) of our income. ‘Charitable activities’ which includes the sale of nestboxes and training courses accounted for 30% (11% – 2023) of our income. Legacies accounted for 21% (73% -2023) of our income in the year. Fundraising and sales goods accounted for 4% (1% in 2023) ‘Other income’ was 8% (1% in 2023) and includes, bank interest and solar energy generation. Our total income was £413,029 (£1,323,041 in 2023 due to an extraordinary £962,055 of legacies).
You can view full copies of our accounts from 2012 onward on the Charity Commission website.
Expenditure
As with most organisations our expenditure usually increases year-on-year. It costs us more to do the same amount! Our total expenditure for the year was 18% more than last year at £475,064 compared to £404,246 in the previous year. However legacy income from 2023 did allow us to increase our conservation staff and employ and education officer during the year. The chart to the right shows that we spent 88% (86% – 2023) of our expenditure on Conserving the Barn Owl and its Environment. 63% went on practical conservation, 12% of this was the cost of building nestboxes. 25% went on running our free national information and advice service. Our Support costs made all these things possible – 5% of total spend covered the costs of running vehicles, telephones, electricity, insurances etc. We spent 3% on management of the charity enabling us to fulfil our legal obligations, accountancy, VAT, financial inspection etc. Fund-raising, publicity, grant applications and purchase of sales goods accounted for 3.5% (4.9% – 2023) of expenditure. We are able to keep these figures low because we have a wonderful team of volunteers.
The significance of grants and legacy income
The Barn Owl Trust became a registered charity in 1988 and we published our first accounts in 1989. The Trust has grown in response to the need for the services we provide – practical conservation, education, information and research. We also manage 26 acres of land for wildlife The Lennon Legacy Project which, in 2021 we transferred to the Barn Owl Legacy Trust. We also have a small owl sanctuary and owl hospital and in 2023 we replaced our old office with an energy-efficient future-proof workspace thanks to legacy income.
This growth has been made possible by the donations and other income we receive with the support of grants for specific projects and legacies. The chart below shows our annual income and the significance of grants and legacy income (and gifts in memorium) since 1989.
As you can see in the last financial year legacies made up 21% of our income compared to 73% in 2023.
The Economics of Charity Life
-We have now have 20 staff (7 full-time and 13 part-time). We don’t have a fund-raising team. Applications for grants are written by the staff and most fund-raising is done by volunteers. The general economic situation over the last few years has affected us. Grant giving trusts have less money available and more applications. Like most other charities the grant income we receive varies year on year. This year our expenditure exceeded our income by £62,053 whereas last year our income exceeded our expenditure by £918,795. Grants and Legacies were significantly lower than the previous year as were donations possibly due to the ‘costs of living crisis’.
The chart above shows our income and expenditure since 2000 and the difference between the two. You can see that since 2004 we have ended several years with a deficit. We’ve been able to weather these low periods (when expenditure exceeds income) thanks to legacy income. Our reserves were severely depleted by deficits, including this year: -£33,281 in 2012, -£99,674 in 2013, -£40,021 in 2020 and -£62,035 in 2024. To ensure we can continue operating at our current level we need to become less dependent on legacies and increase our regular support, donations and fund-raising. We need more Friends!
You can help by:
- Making a donation to support our work or a specific project
- Becoming a Friend of the Trust and making a regular annual or monthly donation
- Adopting an owl
- Giving an Owl Aid gift
- Considering a bequest to Barn Owls in your will
- Buying from our ‘green’ Shop
- Checking our “Do you have something we need” page
- Holding a fund-raising event – email the office with your ideas
- Giving without money
Thank you for supporting Barn Owls
