The financial well-being of the charity sector has important social implications. Numerous studies have analysed whether the concentration of income in a few sources increases financial vulnerability. However, few studies have systematically considered whether the type of income (grants, donation, fund-raising activities) affects the survival prospects of the charity. We extend the literature by (a) explicitly modelling the composition of sources of income, (b) allowing for short-term volatility as well as long-term survival and (c) testing alternative specifications in a nested form. We show that the usual association between income concentration per se and financial vulnerability is a specification error. Greater vulnerability is associated with dependence on grant funding, not overall concentration. Previous studies showing that concentration of income per se is problematic are picking up a proxy effect. We also show that the volatility of income streams may be an important factor in the survival of charities, but that this also varies between income sources.

慈善部门的财务状况具有重要的社会意义。许多研究已经分析了收入集中在少数几个来源是否会增加财务脆弱性。但是，很少有研究系统地考虑收入的类型（赠款，捐赠，筹款活动）是​​否会影响慈善机构的生存前景。我们通过（a）显式地建模收入来源的构成，（b）允许短期波动以及长期生存，以及（c）以嵌套形式测试替代规范来扩展文献。我们表明，收入集中本身与财务脆弱性之间的通常关联是一个规范错误。更大的脆弱性与对赠款资金的依赖有关，而不是整体集中。先前的研究表明，收入集中本身是有问题的，正在产生替代效应。我们还表明，收入来源的波动性可能是慈善机构生存的重要因素，但收入来源之间也存在差异。