Income and expenditures

Explanation of income

In 2012, income increased by 22% compared to 2011 to almost € 22.7 million, an increase of over € 4 million and approximately € 0.7 million above plan. Expenditures increased by 16% compared to 2011.

The 2011 deficit of approximately € 500,000 was followed by a surplus of approximately € 568,000 in 2012. War Child will use the surplus to build an earmarked reserve of € 121,189 for upgrading security measures in DRC and to increase its continuity reserve by € 446,784 to make sure War Child can fulfil its future obligations even if unexpected income gaps arise.

The increase in total income compared to 2011 and exceeding the planned income amount can be explained by:

• A € 408,000  increase in income from legacies compared to plan, which was € 65,000 higher than in 2011;
• Share in activities by third parties was € 900,000 below the planned income, however an increase of almost € 1.4 million was realized compared to 2011;
• An increase of over € 1,700,000 was realized through government grants and others, mainly as a result of MFS II, an important grant under which War Child spent more than € 1.7 million more than in 2011. Subsidies that we received in 2011 from PSO and the Dutch Embassy in Sudan were stable in 2012.

Explanation of expenditure

War Child’s total expenditures amounted to roughly € 22.1 million, an increase of over € 3 million (16%) compared to 2011. The expenditures exceeded the budget for 2012 with approximately € 680,000. War Child was able to spend the largest part of its budget surplus on its objectives:

• Project activities rose by 21% compared to 2011. In 2012 War Child scaled up activities in almost all programme countries.
• The category ‘preparation & coordination on behalf of the project activities’ increased by 9%; just as in 2011, this increase is mainly caused by the strategic choice to invest more in global advocacy and the need for more security measures.
• The increase of communication and awareness raising costs is a result of increased presence of fundraisers and ambassadors in the streets. Because the impact of face-to-face contact is larger and it is focused on the content of War Child’s work, War Child allocates expenditures related to War Child’s presence in the street partly to fundraising and partly to communication and awareness-raising.

Expenditures fundraising

Costs of fundraising are 4% above plan and 6% under the level of 2011. The Central Bureau for Fundraising stipulates that a recognized charity may devote a maximum of 25% of its own fundraising income to fundraising activities. War Child's internal policy is and has always been to keep this expense significantly lower, at approximately 15%. In 2012 we spent 14.8% of our fundraising income on fundraising.

Management & administration

The percentage of costs for management & administration related to total costs is 6.8%. Although this ratio has been relatively stable, the absolute amount of management and administration costs has increased. This increase is mainly related to an increase of support staff in War Child’s growing organization – both in terms of income and people.

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