We are able to do this because our admin costs are very low and we can reclaim the tax you have already paid on your donation through Gift Aid.

With the financial crisis really being felt in the UK and the world, we faced more challenges than normal over the year, especially once exchange rates started fluctuating in the countries we work in. However, our committed supporters remained loyal, helping us maintain a relatively strong position.

How much you spend on your staff?

With recent reports in media about charity staff salaries, we are being asked this question very frequently. Please note that Islamic Aid is mainly being run by a small group of volunteers. We occasionally use temp/part-time staff to deal with increased work-load at peak times. Our year-wise total salary and other staff costs are given below:

Year 2012 …… £7,930 >>>>>> Year 2011 …… £10,711
(Annual Accounts for the year ending on 30 June 2012 at the Charity Commission website; please see 14)

Money in

Last year supporters helped us raise £3.3 million. That was a great result given the belt-tightening circumstances we all found ourselves in.

Sadly, some supporters were unable to continue their support and supporter numbers fell a little, as did our income, down by £54,921. But the good news was that by the end of the year the picture began to change.

At the same time, many of you increased your regular financial commitments and responded to our appeals. In addition we received good legacy income, thanks to generous supporters remembering Islamic Aid in their will.

Money out

Last year, we a total of £3.3 million on fighting poverty.

Almost 150 million children worldwide cannot read or write, and two thirds of these are girls. From Pakistan to Lebanon, our education projects is helping improve access to and quality of education for the children in deprived communities.

In Tanzania we built separate girls’ toilets, which removed the fear of sharing with boys and encouraged over 200 girls back to school.

In Ghana, more than 1,000 girls from 13 schools formed girls’ clubs. We trained 26 teachers as mentors to provide leadership and support, leading to an increase in girls’ enrolment.

Over 12,000 girls benefited after members of our girls’ forums in Kenya lobbied their head teachers to demand sanitary pads in school. Absenteeism declined dramatically.