Charities Run Out of Money — Just When They Need it Most

Charities have lost an estimated £32.4m from cancelled subscriptions over the past 10 months, the company said. Direct debits account for about £2.5bn of private donations to charities each year.

Scott Gray, the managing director of Rapidata, said: "We've had a very close look at these figures and what they suggest is that the monthly cancellation rates during 2008 were so high that they were not likely to have been subject to the same factors influencing cancellations before the credit crunch hit."