Survey Report on the Financial Reserves of Social Service Agencies – a co-publication with HKCSS

In Hong Kong's social services sector, the level of financial reserves among social services agencies has been a hot topic and attracted substantial media attention, particularly after the October 2017 issuance of the Director of Audit's Report No. 69 on the administration of lump sum grants by the Social Welfare Department. The public has been curious, and there has been some concern about social service agencies' financial performance and how they use their reserves.

Understanding the current state and establishing a baseline are essential for our future work. In view of this, Deloitte and The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS) made a pioneering attempt and initiated the Survey on the Financial Reserves of Social Service Agencies to understand the sources, types and usage of Agencies' financial reserves, as well as Agencies' financial reserves planning and policies. The survey has a primary focus on two types of reserves, (1) LSG reserves and (2) general and non-designated reserves.

The survey was jointly developed by Deloitte and HKCSS. Deloitte was responsible for collecting the completed surveys for data compilation and analysis. This survey report summarizes the survey results and is published by Deloitte and HKCSS.