Following a large deficit in 2008, our Chief Executive was tasked with reducing expenditure where possible without cutting back on services. He identified £46,000 worth of savings which were incorporated into the budget for 2009. However, the management accounts and projections at the end of the first quarter were worrying and some further cuts were made which resulted in the Chief Executive taking over the fundraising function on a temporary basis. In February 2010 we appointed a part-time Corporate Fundraising Manager to further develop that aspect of our fundraising.

The financial position improved dramatically during the last six months of 2009 and in total, income increased by 30% to £397,738 whilst expenditure decreased by 11% to £318,955. The resulting surplus is welcome but the Trustees are cautious due to the large proportion of legacy income which they feel is unlikely to be repeated in future years.

The surplus of £78,783 boosted our funds and at 31st December 2009 our unrestricted reserves of £153,425 (2008: £86,753) were equivalent to 25 weeks (2008: 13 weeks) of annual expenditure. Our reserves policy states “unrestricted reserves should be equivalent to at least 13 weeks of annual expenditure and ideally should be equivalent to 26 weeks.” With several major grants secured for 2010, the budget for 2010 is to increase expenditure by 39% which will have the effect of reducing that reserves cover to 17 weeks.

These graphs are based on figures from our audited accounts. You can also download a pdf file of the full accounts for the year ended 31st December 2009 (0.3Mb) or for the year ended 31st December 2008 (0.3Mb).

Copies of our accounts are also independently available from the Charity Commission. They also have copies of our accounts from previous years.

Our lastest Quarterly Management Accounts are also available for download.

Information about charities and how they are financed can be found at http://www.charityfacts.org

You can also find out more about us via our GuideStar profile.