Macmillan Cancer Support has drawn down on its reserves as the charity has invested in its fundraising activities, according to recently published accounts.
The charity’s costs increased by £17.6m (8%) to £252m in the 2022 calendar year, including a £10.5m (17%) increase in the amount it spent on raising funds.
Meanwhile, the charity’s income dipped to £227m (down from £231m) driven by a £4.89m (4.1%) decline in donations, which the charity said showed the beginning of “the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on our fundraised income”.
Macmillan’s total reserves declined by more than a third to £48.3m at the end of December 2022 (from £74.1m a year earlier). It previously built up funds when its programmes paused during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The charity said its deficit for 2022 was “is in line with our strategy to spend down liquidity and increase charitable expenditure”.
Paul Butterworth, the charity’s director of finance, said the charity made a “strategic decision to spend some of our reserves” last year.
“This included increasing investment in our longer-term fundraising activities to grow our income into the future in addition to providing essential support and services for people with cancer facing both the cost-of-living crisis and the longest waits for treatment on record,” he said.
He said the charity remained in excess of its liquidity target of £70m, which includes short-term investments.
Fundraising investment
Macmillan said it chose to invest in its fundraising so it “can generate more long-term income to enable us to reach more people living with cancer”.
“This investment is incorporated in the cost of raising our income, which was £73m in 2022, marking a £10.5m increase on 2021,” the accounts read.
“This was driven by long-term income investment, including increased legacy promotions and a focus on lottery player acquisition.
“We have also seen increased fundraising spend due to the full return of third-party challenge events and inflationary event costs in 2022. We continue to keep a close eye on all our costs and fundraising activities, to ensure that we are maximising our resources.”
Macmillan’s income from legacies edged higher to £90.7m in 2022 and was its largest fundraising stream.
The charity received 3,661 complaints in 2022, 2,328 of which were related to its fundraising, marketing and communications operations. It also received 5,741 negative comments on social media, compared to over 9,000 in 2021.
Other costs
Overall, the charity spent 19% more on wages (£90m in 2022) and employed 10% more full-time-equivalent staff during the year (1,687). It spent 39% more on agency staff (£4m) last year.
Macmillan gave out £19.1m in grants (up from £12.7m) to over 48,500 people who needed help with costs related to a cancer diagnosis in 2022.
“As we were hearing from more and more people severely impacted by the cost-of-living crisis, we knew we had to act quickly,” its accounts read.
“To relieve some of the unrelenting financial pressure on people living with cancer, we rapidly increased our financial support by boosting our grants budget each quarter.”
