Oxfam’s income recovers post pandemic

Oxfam shops bounced back after lockdown closures as donations flooded in and shoppers returned, generating a net contribution after shop costs of £21.5m - the highest in a decade. Oxfam’s online shop continued to go from strength to strength, generating £8.1m this year, with second-hand sales growing by 20 per cent to £6.6m.

Fundraising was also up by £32.6m compared to last year, driven mainly by increased income from DEC appeals and legacies.

In the last year, Oxfam GB worked with partners and local communities to support eight million people in the fight against poverty and injustice. This number is down on the previous year which peaked due to the organisation’s global Covid-19 response. It also reflects Oxfam’s strategy to work in greater depth in fewer places and on fewer issues, concentrating its resources in areas where it can have the most impact. Having stretched its finances to respond to the Covid pandemic, Oxfam has now rebuilt its reserves.

Danny Sriskandarajah, Oxfam GB Chief Executive said:

“We are extremely grateful to the incredible generosity of our supporters and volunteers who share our vision of a fairer and radically better world. At a time of rising poverty at home and abroad, deepening inequality, and worsening climate change, their support has enabled Oxfam to stand with those facing poverty and injustice, and deliver life-saving and life-changing work that have reached eight million people around the world.

“Having weathered the impact of the pandemic on our finances and operations, Oxfam is now better placed to support our partners and communities around the world as together we face the challenges of the cost-of-living crisis and economic uncertainty.”

In East Africa, 28 million people have been forced into a hunger crisis as a result of climate change, conflict and crippling food prices. Working in partnership with local groups and community organisations, Oxfam has provided 2.6m people with vital support including food, clean water and sanitation facilities.

Oxfam launched a partner-led response to the Ukraine crisis, working closely with humanitarian organisations in Ukraine, Poland, Moldova and Romania. The response focusses on the needs of the most vulnerable groups, including LGBTQIA+, Roma, women travelling with young children, and people with disabilities. Oxfam also joined calls to the UK Government to provide safe routes for refugees fleeing conflict.

At the same time, Oxfam continued its work to bring about systematic change including pressing governments to tackle the inequalities and power imbalances that fuel poverty everywhere and campaigning for equitable global access to vaccines as part of the People’s Vaccine Alliance. Oxfam called on the UK government to lead by example in its role as COP26 president and highlighted the inadequacy of current funding to help those countries who have done least to cause the climate crisis but are suffering the most.

As part of its ongoing commitment to better protect all those with whom it works, Oxfam published a new safeguarding strategy in February 2022. Central to the strategy is the acknowledgment of the power held by the organisation and its duty to ensure that power does not fall into the wrong hands. In 2021/22 Oxfam’s Safeguarding Team concluded 38 investigations.

Sriskandarajah said: “I remain personally committed to making sure that Oxfam’s work takes place in as safe an environment as possible. We recognise that abuse is more likely to occur when there are imbalances of power, and so our safeguarding strategy is underpinned by our commitment to shift power to the people we serve, and our ambition to be feminist and anti-racist in all that we do.

“We continue to work with our partners to shift power in our network, to connect on a more equal footing, to decolonise relationships, to champion diversity and to seek racial justice.”

Full report can be viewed here: