Victim Support is to launch its first public fundraising appeal for many years in February, to shore up its revenues against a real-term decline in Home Office funding.
Although it received about three-quarters of its £40m income from the Government last year, it was the first year that statutory funding actually fell. This, together with increased demand for Victim Support's witness services as a result of local statutory initiatives to get more people to give evidence in court, means the charity has to find new income streams.
The charity's national office has been running the Sunrise Appeal, targeting major individual and corporate donors, for most of this year and has nearly met its £1.7m target.
Next year, it will challenge the 90 local Victim Support charities to run similar campaigns.
