Children’s charity Barnardos is to close its doors for 1 week as a way of cutting costs due to a drop in funding.

Business advisors Grant Thornton say they expect similar stories to arise and that “This is merely the tip of the iceberg”.

The charity and non-profit sector has expanded greatly in the last 20 years with nearly 75% of all non-profits in Ireland being created in that time period.

But at the same time the sector has never been in such a perilous state due to the economic downturn.

Nearly 1-in-3 of the non-profit organisations surveyed recently cited day-to-day funding pressure as the most challenging issue facing their operation.

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