Raising and spending our funds

The Meningitis Trust is dependent on voluntary donations and the generosity of individuals and organisations across the UK to help fund our work. Without their invaluable support the Trust simply wouldn’t exist. We are grateful to everyone who helps us.

Without funding we cannot provide support for life to the thousands of people who need help to cope with life after meningitis, nor could we continue to raise lifesaving awareness of this dreadful disease.

We make use of a range of fundraising activities in order to avoid over-reliance on any particular source. In addition, this also provides choice to our supporters in how they want to support us.

The economic climate continues to be challenging but despite this we are delighted that we have increased our income, with particularly strong results in community fundraising, major gifts and trust and grant income.

Raising vital funds

Our funds come from many different sources including:

• Community fundraising rose by over 20% year on year, thanks to the tireless efforts of our supporters, who either took part in activities organised by the Trust or organised their own. The personal commitment and energy that people put into fundraising never ceases to amaze us.
• Our major gifts programme (LINK), although still in its infancy, is developing well, and we were delighted to receive gifts totalling £100,000 from a family who are living with the long-term impact of meningitis.
• We received first-time support from 29 trust and grant bodies.  
• Events fundraising reduced significantly although it still generated more than £705,000 and this stream remains an important part of our income stream.
• We now have 285 Tribute Funds and these have raised over £2 million since they were started.
• Companies work with us in many ways, from Charity of the Year partnerships to one-off events and sponsorship. All of these enable us not only to raise vital funds but also raise lifesaving awareness with the company’s staff, customers and suppliers.
• Individuals help us through ad hoc donations and regular gifts either through a direct debit or via their salary, and by responding to our appeals. Ad hoc donations are easy to do; in fact you could donate this very minute. 
• Legacies are also important to us and we achieved income of £170,000 from this during the year.

With no central government funding we are indebted to all the individuals and organisations who fund our work and enable us to reach more people every year.

Meningitis Trust income 2011/12

In 2011/2012, we raised £3.2 million, up by nearly 8% (£228,000) on the previous year. Total expenditure at £3.1 million was up by 4.5% (£136,000) on the previous year. Expenditure on our core activities was up by 4%, including a 21% increase in our financial support grants, helping 23% more families and individuals. 

Our expenditure on Community Support reduced by just over 3% (£15,000) reflecting continued effective use of volunteers for awareness activity, enabling our Community Team to spend a greater proportion of their time on supporting people.

We increased our investment in digital activity, resulting in a small increase in our communications and education expenditure (3%, £23,000). This enabled the delivery of our Android awareness app and the start of work on our mobile enabled website.

Using our funds

We strive to make our limited funds have the greatest impact. Our expenditure is in three principal areas:

Professional Services – our unparalleled range of professional support services are provided throughout the UK. These include our 24-hour nurse-led Freephone helpline, home visits, counselling, creative therapies, family days, one-to-one service and financial support grants. These services help thousands of people every year.

Community support – we took the decision during the year to double our community team, to ensure we remain local to you wherever you are in the UK. This means we will have a dedicated support officer and fundraiser in each region. The majority of support officers’ time is spent supporting individuals, families and local communities after meningitis has struck, ensuring they get the support and help they need, for as long as they need it.

Awareness and Education – raising awareness of the signs and symptoms of the disease and making sure people understand meningitis can strike anyone at any time is a critical part of our work. We fight common misconceptions and use all the communication channels at our disposal to raise awareness – including the news media, digital channels such as the web, Facebook and Twitter, face-to-face presentations and talks and partnerships with other organisations, charities and health professionals.  

Cost of raising funds

We have to spend money in order to raise funds. We do this as cost-effectively as we can, to ensure that as much of the money we raise goes to helping those who need us. Our fundraising costs rose by 5%, reflecting the increase in income of 8%. Our fundraising costs, excluding challenge events and pack events, were just over 26%, slightly up on the previous year, highlighting the challenges in raising funds.