St Vincent’s de Paul Victoria’s latest annual report filed with the ACNC on the 15th December 2023 shows how the cost of living crisis is influencing community shopping and giving behaviour.

Vinnie’s charity shop sales surged to $61.4 million ($45.6m in 2022), while donations (excl bequests) fell to $8.82m ($9.86m in 2022). The overall 2023 result was a small operating surplus of $0.6m ($6.6m deficit in 2022).

The 2023 financials mark a return to pre-pandemic levels of sales income for Vinnie’s charity shops. Increases in employee costs, computer costs and direct assistance (up $3m, particularly food and medical support) pushed 2023 costs higher to $77m.

Donations and bequests continue to flatline and are well below the 2020 peak driven by the community response to devastating bushfires.

Many charities urged Australians to embrace the Christmas spirit of giving and dig deep. St Vincent de Paul Victoria says it spent $2.6 million on its homelessness support in FY2022-23 compared with $1.6 million the year before, marking a 62.5 per cent increase, after inflation jumped to a near 33-year high 7.8 per cent in 2022.

Vinnies’ fundraising and retail network of charity shops deliver material aid and companionship to those in need through our home visitations, assistance centres, soup vans and a range of education, no-interest loans and prison programs.

The Yarra Riverkeeper, a community led charity which advocates for the river’s health, is also responding to a decline in donations, membership and sponsorship by cutting costs and investing in more effective fundraising. The downturn has resulted in successive losses.

Treasurer Candice Charles said in its latest 2023 annual report that, like many Australian charities, the organisation, “has struggled to attract donors given the current cost-of-living pressure on households and the general downturn in giving since the COVID pandemic.”

The Fundraising Institute of Australia has been warning of a dip in donations following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s 13 interest rate rises since May 2022. It reported that 26.9 per cent of donors polled in November said they were likely or extremely likely to decrease their monthly donations (up from 16.7 per cent in 2022), while 26.3 per cent were likely to pause their donations, up from 19 per cent.