Save the Children is committed to delivering exceptional results from the generous contributions of our supporters. In presenting our financial profile, we aim to illustrate the remarkable achievements made possible by this support. Our commitment to transparency helps us evaluate our effectiveness, improve our services, and strengthen the trust of the communities we serve with pride. We invite you to review our financial accomplishments for 2023 detailed below.
How the funds were spent
We have a conservative approach towards managing and protecting donations.
From every dollar spent in 2023:
- 81 cents went directly to benefit children through our health, education, child protection and humanitarian response programs, and through advocating for child rights and increasing public awareness of international aid and development issues.
- 7 cents went towards raising the funds we need to deliver these programs.
- 7 cents were allocated to administration costs to make sure we have the talented people, infrastructure, and systems we need to manage and deliver our programs for children in Australia and across the world
- 5 cents were invested in our retail stores.
Where the money came from
In 2023, Save the Children Australia recorded total income of $176.2 million, a decrease of $14.8m or 7.8% from 2022. This was primarily due to a reduction in Grant, Consulting & Sales Income ($13.8m or 9%) reflecting the timing between completion and commencing new projects. Community support income decreased by $2.5m (7%) from 2022 consistent with declines in regular giving and general donations across the sector. Income from retail activities continues to grow with an increase of $0.7m from 2022.
Explanation of Terms
Community support income: Donations, fundraising, legacies, and bequests received from the Australian public and corporations. Continued generous public support through community support income to assist us to effectively deliver programs to children worldwide and to respond to emergencies such as the Ukraine conflict and Tonga appeals.
Grants, consulting, and sales income: Grants received from the Australian Government’s overseas aid program, other Australian Government departments, government bodies, UN agencies, corporations, philanthropy and international organisations. Consulting income, training fees, sales revenue, and revenue from other mission related activities by our various social ventures.
Retail: Includes revenue from our retail stores.
Other income: Includes investment income.
Where the money went
training increased by 0.2% to 81.1%, driven by a decrease in spend overall from 2022 of 3.3% or $6.2m and an increase in domestic programming. Our retail activities had a marginal decrease of $0.2m. Fundraising costs increased marginally in 2023 $0.8m or 0.2% from 2022. Our accountability and administration expenditure decreased proportionally by 0.9% to 6.5% from 2022.
Explanation of terms
Program, consulting, and training spend include:
- Long-term development and emergency response work across both international and domestic projects.
- Community education that includes costs related to informing and educating the Australian community of development, humanitarian, and global justice issues.
- Other mission-related expenditure within our social ventures.
Fundraising costs: Costs associated with developing and securing our donor supporter base to attract donations to fund our project and advocacy work.
Accountability and administration expenses: Administrative and other costs required to efficiently run the organisation. It includes items such as staff costs in finance, IT, human resources, administration, office maintenance, audit and legal fees, insurance premiums and IT equipment costs, as well as investments in further developing the organisation’s capabilities and infrastructure.
Project expenditure ratio
The total amount spent on projects, including project support costs, consulting, training, and community education. This is expressed as a percentage of total expenditure.
Our program, consulting and training expenditure ratio has increased from 80.9% in 2022 to 81.1% and is reflective of increased programming in Australian domestic programming and growth in Africa. All other regions, including Pacific, Middle East and Asia saw a decline in 2023 consistent with our overall reduction in expenditure from 2022 of $6.3m of which $4.7m related to project expenditure
Administration cost ratio
The total administration costs expressed as a percentage of total expenditure.
The administration cost ratio in 2023 has decreased to 6.5% from 7.5% in 2022, with administration costs in aggregate decreasing by 15.4%. We continue to remain focused on providing the right support to our growing programs portfolio, whilst ensuring we do this efficiently to maintain this ratio at or below 10%.
Cost of fundraising ratio
The total fundraising cost as a percentage of community support income.
Net surplus from fundraising ratio is the balance of revenue from community support income after deducting fundraising costs.
Our cost of fundraising ratio increased to 45.0% in 2023 from 39.0% in 2022. This is reflective of the decline in community income, with a marginal increase in expenditure on community fundraising and spend in channels used to acquire regular givers in 2023. We continue to focus on investment in our fundraising across multiple channels and anticipate reverting to similar historical trends in the future. Another ratio often given attention is the fundraising cost ratio as a percentage of total revenue. In 2023 this was 7.5%, an increase from the 6.5% recorded in 2022 and consistent to the decline in community income in 2023 with a marginally higher cost base.
Explanation for income streams and expenditure categories
In the full audited financial statements, retail and social enterprise results are combined under commercial activities. In the annual report financial brief and graphs, retail income and expenditure have been disclosed separately and social enterprise income combined with grants, consulting and sales income for revenue and program, consulting and training spend for expenditure. Prior year comparatives have been amended to reflect this realignment.
In 2023, Save the Children Australia was supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) to implement programs in Cambodia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka and PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Tonga; and through the Australian Humanitarian Partnership (AHP) to implement programs in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Turkiye, PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Tonga.
