Charity Finance Directors’ Group CFDG, CAF and Small Charities Coalition Banking Survey: Summary of results

Demographics – Annual Turnover

Demographics – Primary Activity and Function ‘Health’ and ‘Education and Training’ sectors produced the strongest number of respondents 51% of the respondents identified themselves as service providers

Demographics – Location 35% of responding charities were located in London and 22% were in the South East. There was also a strong regional representation with 28% of participants being based in the Midlands or North of England

Your Bank 40% of respondents held accounts with only one bank. 31% held accounts with two banks 6% held accounts with over 5 banks Where organisations hold their main account

Primary Account 69% of responding charities make use of online banking for their primary bank account When choosing a primary bank account the most important considerations to charities were fees and charges and customer services

Customer Service 31% of respondents said that they were very satisfied with their banking services 42% were somewhat satisfied Very few, 4%, of respondents stated that they were very unsatisfied 71% of those that said they were less than satisfied cited customer services as the issue

Fees and Charges 51% of respondents did not feel that fees and charges were excessive 26% felt that they were excessive and 23% said that they didn’t know Depositing and issuing cheques was associated with the highest charges

Performance of High Street Banks in Dealing with Charities Results in this area are fairly mixed There is however a slight majority of charity customers that felt they were valued by their bank just as much as business customers There was also a slight majority that felt their bank understood the financial realities of running a charity

Cheques 55% of respondents received less than 100 donations in the form of cheque each year However 19% receive more than 1000 cheques each year 9% receive more than 5000 cheques each year

Cheques - Values 44% of respondents approximately valued the cheques they received at less than £5,000 However significant proportions were for higher values and 10% of respondents received cheques at an approximate value of over £1million

Payment of Suppliers 43% of respondents preferred to pay suppliers by cheques 38% of those that make payments by cheques do so because the recipients generally won’t or can’t accept other forms of payment 31% prefer to because of the ability for dual authorisation 15% prefer cheques due to ease and convenience

Grant Making Charities 42% of grant making charities that responded typically disperse their grants by cheque

Target End Date of Cheques Most organisations were concerned about the effects that the end of cheques would have on their charities (at least 65%) 89% of respondents felt that banks and the charity sector need to come together to set up workable and affordable alternatives to using cheques.