The charity Dogs Trust has seen its income swell by £8million in the last year to £106m.

So you might think that means it’s been caring for thousands of more dogs.

Sadly not. In the same year, the number of dogs that it cared for rose by just 103.

Higher salaries and other staff costs gobbled up £4.8m of that extra income and the charity now has 18 members of staff on more than £60,000 a year. An extra two directors have been taken on, pushing the total pay of the executives from £930,000 to £1,090,000.

An extra £3m spent on fundraising campaigns swallowed most of the rest of that extra income.

Since 2009, Dogs Trust income has increased by 73% but the number of dogs it cares for has gone up by less than 10%.

At the other end of the charity spectrum, there’s All Dogs Matter, based in Waltham Abbey, Essex.

No fatcat pay here – the highest salary is around £12,000 and its annual income is just £252,000.

Yet All Dogs Matter still managed to care for 430 dogs – and not just any dogs.

Most were Staffies, Lurchers and even the Japanese hunting dog Akita, all breeds that can be difficult to re-home.

Put another way, it needed only £585 in donations to help a dog.

In contrast, Dogs Trust needed £6,415 per dog in its care.

“They often don’t have the resources, both physical and financial, to focus efforts on marketing and awareness raising activities,” says Pauline Broomhead, chief executive of the Foundation for Social Improvement, which is behind Small Charity Week.

Small charities, those with a turnover under £1million, account for 96% of all charities but they receive just 20% of donations.

Ira Moss, general manager of All Dogs Matters, knows all about the difficulty of raising your profile when you’re eclipsed by a charity giant.

“One woman fostered a dog from us and wants a second, but her husband is doing a sponsored run – for Dogs Trust,” she said.

“We have not had any money from legacies apart from literally £3.50 that was left in a will.”

Ira, I must point out, did emphasise that she’s grateful for the vouchers given by Dogs Trust that help pay to have dogs neutered.

Dogs Trust said: “Our salaries are in line both with the scope of work carried out by the charity and with pay at other charities of comparable size.”

The charity also said that the number of dogs in its care now cannot be fairly compared to previous years. “More dogs than ever come to us with behaviour issues who, without our help, would be at risk of being put to sleep,” it said. “These dogs tend to stay with us for longer as they require in-depth attention.”

It added that it now runs 300 Dog School classes a week “with the aim of helping owners understand and train their dogs well, so they are not at risk of becoming unwanted or abandoned because of behavioural issues”.