Parkrun, the charity that organises weekend community running meetings, has seen both its income and expenditure rise by around 30% in the year to 31 January 2024.
The organisation’s most recent accounts revealed that its income had risen by just over 29% to £9.36m compared with £7.25m during the previous 12 months, driven by an increase in sponsorship and retail revenue.
The proportion of revenue coming from retail rose sharply, accounting for just over 40% of total income – £3.76m – compared with 32%, or £2.33m, the year before.
Meanwhile, expenditure grew almost 32%, to £9.63m against £7.30m in the year to the end of January 2023.
Parkrun said the increase was due to a growing employee headcount – 56, from 49 the year before and 34 in 2021-22 – as part of a planned growth strategy. The charity had also now had a complete year of its retail offering being sold via its own shop, its annual report said.
“We are now bearing the full costs of our retail products, rather than receiving a commission from third-party suppliers,” the report said.
It added that both income and expenditure were likely to keep rising over the remaining four years of its current five-year strategy.
Back in March 2023, parkrun’s chief executive Russ Jefferys told Civil Society that the charity expected to grow its global revenue to around £20m within five years.
Donations dip
While most of parkrun’s numbers were up in its latest financial statements, the charity recorded a slight drop in donations.
These fell overall from £572,000 to £550,000, largely driven by public donations globally dropping from £434,000 to £383,000.
Total restricted donations, however, increased from £138,000 to £167,000.
Parkrun’s income from charitable activities rose to more than £1.95m in the year to January 2024, an increase of just under £200,000 from the previous 12-month period.
Of this, grants made up £1.16m, almost unchanged from the year before’s £1.13m, while event-related income grew from £627,000 to £793,000.
Parkrun receives £1m annually from Sport England, which it began receiving in 2022 and will continue to do so until 2027.
The parkrun group had net assets of £3.06m at 31 January 2024, compared with £3.32m a year earlier. Of this total, unrestricted funds made up £2.43m, against £2.74m in 2023, while restricted funds were £627,000, compared with £577,000.
The charity’s general reserves, after deducting fixed assets, stood at £1.24m as of the end of January 2024, which parkrun’s annual report said would cover 2.3 months’ expenditure – short of the three months desired by trustees to mitigate risk.
“Trustees would like to see an increase in general reserves over the next few years, in line with the overall growth of the organisation,” the report said.
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