Money
As a chartered accountant, with a background in healthcare, and as a new Trustee of The Prostate Cancer Charity, I have been hugely encouraged by the Charity’s financial achievements.
Income has leapt forward in the last year, thanks to a strengthened fundraising team who understand the opportunities out there very well. This is important, not only in terms of paying for our research, information, support and awareness work in the coming year, but also because we have set ourselves a target of raising our income to £8 million by 2010/11.
To get there, we will need to develop highreturn sources of income such as legacies, which are under-represented in our fundraising mix because we are still a young charity. To give us the stability we need as we grow, and the ability to plan effectively, we will also be investing in finding more people who would like to give monthly gifts to the Charity, and in securing three-year grants and sponsorship. But when you consider that we have achieved a jump in fundraising income of 21% against a 2% increase in spending on fundraising, I am confident that investment will be money well spent. Our aim for 2010/11 is for every £1 spent on fundraising to be generating £4.
Because we receive almost no statutory income, we will be looking at other ways of securing statutory funds, such as selling information services to the NHS.
Being effective also means keeping costs down, and I have been impressed at the leanness of the operation here. Out of 40 staff, only seven are administrative. It is a tight ship.
We spent less in 2005/06 than the previous year for two reasons. In 2004/05, we took the full financial commitment of a major, five-year research award to Hammersmith Hospital, which was not repeated this year. Also, we were building up resources for a new round of research projects for the next financial year – applications for grants totalling some £750,000 will be invited shortly.
If you have any questions about the financial picture, you can download a PDF copy of our full accounts.
Meanwhile, a big thank you if you have been part of making this happen.
John Wotherspoon, Treasurer
Total income in 2005/06 increased 20% on the previous year
The surplus for the year, of £1.26 million will enable us to commission a new phase of medical research in 2006/07
Fundraised income increased 21% to £3.727 million, while fundraising costs increased just 2%
Investment in direct marketing paid off, with 800 new major donors joining us, giving an average of £400 a year each
Running the Charity accounted for 5% of costs
We now have reserves to cover four and a half months’ running costs for our services, should there be an unexpected dip in income.
Income
Expenditure
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