At Save the Children Australia, we are committed to making every dollar count. Thanks to the compassion of our supporters, we turn funding into life-changing programs for children. By sharing our financial profile, we provide a clear view of how contributions translate into impact. This transparency helps us measure our effectiveness, improve our services and reinforce the trust of those we serve.
Discover how we allocated resources in 2024 below.
How the funds were spent
We have a conservative approach towards managing and protecting donations. From every dollar spent in 2024:
- 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 2024, Save the Children Australia recorded a total income of $190.6 million, an increase of $14.4m or 8.2% from 2023. This was primarily due to growth in Grant, Consulting & Sales Income ($12.9m or 9.7%) as we continue to diversify our income streams. Other income increased by $1.3m (70.0%) largely due to increased investment income from higher interest rates in 2024. Community support income decreased by $0.5m (1.6%) from 2023 consistent with declines in regular giving and general donations across the sector. Income from retail activities continues to grow with an increase of $0.6m from 2023.
Explanation of Terms
Community support income: Donations, fundraising, legacies, and bequests received from the Australian public and corporations. Continued generous public support to assist us effectively deliver programs to children worldwide and to respond to emergencies such as the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts, Pacific Child Emergency Fund and Tropical Cyclone Emergency Responses.
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 generated through our various social ventures.
Retail: Revenue from our retail stores.
Other income: Investment income.
Where the money went
The percentage of overall spend has increased by 4.2% or $7.6m and this is attributable to an increase in accountability and administration spend by 0.5% to 7% (or $13.2m) and a marginal increase of 0.1% in retail activities. Programming, consulting, and training expenditure increased by $1.4m from 2023 but represented a 0.2% decrease as a proportion of total expenditure to 80.9%. Fundraising costs marginally decreased by $0.1m or 0.4% from 2023.
Explanation of terms
Program, consulting, training, and community education spend:
- 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, technology, 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 marginally decreased from 81.1% in 2023 to 80.9% whilst the dollar value in spend has increased by 3.9% or $5.7m. This is reflective of increased programming in Pacific and strong growth in Asian regions. Spending on programming in Australia and other regions has decreased due to the conclusion of a social venture and a reduction in commercial sales and ongoing programming delays in the Middle East.
Administration cost ratio
The total administration costs expressed as a percentage of total expenditure.
The administration cost ratio increased in 2024 to 7.0% from 6.5% in 2023, with administration costs in aggregate increasing by 12.1%. 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 increased marginally to 45.3% in 2024 from 45.0% in 2023. This small increase is reflective of the decline in community income, whilst maintaining a consistent level of expenditure on community fundraising and spend in channels used to acquire regular givers in 2024. 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 as a percentage of total revenue. This was 6.8% in 2024, a decrease from the 7.5% recorded in 2023, reflecting the increase of $14.4m in total income in 2024 with minimal changes in channel spend used to acquire regular givers.
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.
In 2024, Save the Children Australia was supported by the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) to implement programs in Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Vanuatu and Vietnam; through the Australian Humanitarian Partnership (AHP) to implement programs in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Turkiye, Vanuatu and Vietnam; and through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to support Lao PDR. Save the Children Australia is a member of the Emergency Action Alliance (EAA), a collective of Australia-based aid organisations that uses its combined reach and resources to raise more money for greater impact.