Macmillan Cancer Support generated income totalling £232.5m in 2023, according to its latest annual report and accounts.
This marks an increase of 2.4% from 2022, and includes £226.8m generated by fundraisers and supporters.
2023 was Macmillan’s first year under the tenure of Gemma Peters, who joined the organisation as chief executive in January 2023.
The charity said the external environment has “remained a challenging one” and references “the difficult decisions made in March of this year to reduce the size of its workforce to help ensure the future stability of the organisation”.
Indeed, Macmillan has said it plans to cut 150 roles from its workforce after conducting a major strategic review.
Income and expenditure
Macmillan spent £80.3m on raising income, and £184.9m on services for people living with cancer.
Therefore, its total expenditure was £265.2m.
This is in line with its financial strategy to continue to invest in its services and respond appropriately to the changing external environment to deliver the greatest care and support for people living with cancer, a statement from the charity reads.
The charity spent £25.5m on campaigning and raising awareness, and £59.3m on healthcare services.
Macmillan is largely funded by charitable donations from the public, with 98% of its income in 2023 coming from fundraising activities, and the remaining 2% from grant income, charitable activities, and investments.
Most of its trading income (76.8%) comes from lottery and raffle sales, generating £13.7m in 2023, up from £13.5m in 2022, “as we continued to invest in our lottery acquisition”.
Its emergency grants appeal raised £2.6m to help people with the cost-of-living crisis, and its legacy income remains the largest single source of turnover.
Indeed, legacy income made up 40.5% of its total fundraised revenue, and reached “record figures” of £93.1m in 2023.
“We focused on our legacy fundraising for future income. We continued to focus on future growth through the promotion of our legacy products and the stewardship of our legacy supporters.
“Our legacies campaign secured extensive media coverage, including a high-profile partnership with the Telegraph, to inspire more supporters to pledge to leave a gift in their will to Macmillan,” the report reads.
Its free will service proved “incredibly valuable” with more than 6,500 supporters pledging £50m, compared with £36.8m in 2022.
Overall, it has seen a 36% increase in donation pledges from 2022, and unlocked £68m of estimated future income through campaign activity.
Its flagship fundraising event, Macmillan Coffee Morning, raised £16.8m, compared to £13.7m in 2022.
In 2023 the charity raised £23.6m through corporate and philanthropic partnerships, matching the amount raised in 2022.
Staff
The accounts say the charity “made some progress in our ambition to be a truly representative organisation” with 20% of colleagues identifying themselves as disabled, neurodivergent, or have previously had or have a cancer diagnosis at December 2023 (compared to 13.1% in December 2022).
And 13.4% of colleagues identified as ‘ethnically diverse’ at December 2023 (compared to 10% in December 2022).
“However, we acknowledge that there is more work to be done to nurture a culture of inclusion and trust within Macmillan,” the report concedes.
In 2022 it was reported that an investigation into discrimination faced by disabled and ethnically diverse employees at Macmillan found that a “significant number” of reported incidents at the charity “appear to have been ignored or actively buried”.
The charity’s median pay gap (which measures the difference in pay between the middle-ranking female colleague and the middle-ranking male colleague) decreased from 11.9% in 2022 to 9.7% in 2023, “which is encouraging”, the charity says.
Complaints
In 2023 the charity managed 4,141 complaints, 2,504 of which were specific to its fundraising and marketing operations.
This compares to 3,661 complaints in 2022, 2,328 of which were specific to fundraising, marketing and communications operations.
It also received 5,238 comments on social media which expressed dissatisfaction with Macmillan. This compares with 5,741 such comments in 2022.
“We respond to every complaint or piece of negative feedback that we receive through our complaints procedure or on social media with the aim of learning from everything we are told.
“This customer insight is shared with the teams who deliver the experience and use it to look at the overall journey that supporters, people living with cancer and volunteers have with Macmillan. This is to ensure that we listen and learn from what they are telling us in order to make improvements,” the accounts state.
Macmillan also recorded 1,020 interactions with its safeguarding team in 2023 – which marks a 13% increase on 2022 – from people requesting support, guidance and information.
Around 86% of these interactions were in relation to safeguarding issues identified in the lives of people living with or affected by cancer.
The remaining 14% were concerns raised by colleagues, regarding themselves or those around them.
Related Articles
