Financial Information about the charity

Financial review of 2018

Income decreased by 4% to £376,342 (2017: £390,748). Our budget for the year had predicted income to decrease to £370,600 so actual income was therefore 2% over budget.

Expenditure increased by 1% to £392,740 (2017: £390,212). Our budget for the year had predicted expenditure of £370,460 so actual expenditure was 6% over budget.

This has resulted in a deficit of net resources of £16,398 (2017: surplus of £536). Our Restricted Funds decreased by £55,502 (2017: increase of £22,994) with grants that had been received in the previous year being spent. Our Unrestricted Funds showed an increase of £39,104 (2017: decrease of £22,458).

Budget for 2019

The Trustees have agreed a budget for 2019 of income totaling £411,603 (2018: £370,600) of which £74,103 (2018: £42,600) had been secured by the start of the year. Budgeted expenditure is £407,161 (2018: £370,460).

Reserves policy

Over the course of the first six months of 2011 the value of our reserves fell by 64% which forced us to cut back on our activities and make some redundancies. During 2018 we have again experienced erratic income from fundraising with December bringing in the same amount as the first 16 weeks of the year. Our reserves have once again enabled us to level out the fluctuating income and continue our work as planned and without cutting back. Our reserves were partially replenished by the end of the year.

Our reliance on one-off donations from Charitable Trusts makes our income very unpredictable so our Reserves Policy is relatively conservative. Our policy is that “Unrestricted Reserves should be equivalent to between 30 and 40 weeks of budgeted future annual unsecured expenditure.” At the end of the year our Unrestricted Reserves (General Funds) were £134,121 (2017: £101,998). Our budgeted expenditure for 2019 is £411,603 of which £74,103 had already been secured and £110,167 was covered by Restricted Funds leaving a balance of £227,333 (2017: £162,191) to raise. Our Unrestricted Reserves were sufficient to cover 59% (2017: 63%) of this balance which equates to 31 weeks (2017: 33 weeks).

Given the volatile nature of much of our income, the Trustees will continue to closely monitor the reserves position throughout the forthcoming year, spending any surplus funds on charitable activities.

These graphs are based on figures from our audited accounts for 2018 (PDF 871KB).

You can also download accounts from previous years:

• 2017 accounts (PDF 520KB)
• 2016 accounts (PDF 530KB)
• 2015 accounts (PDF 500KB)
• 2014 accounts (PDF 262KB)
• 2013 accounts (PDF 120KB)
• 2012 accounts (PDF 188KB)
• 2011 accounts (PDF 229KB)
• 2010 accounts (PDF 247KB)

Copies of our accounts are also independently available from the Charity Commission.

Our latest Quarterly Management Accounts and Key Performance Indicators are also available on request.