Financial review
59
Environmental, social
and governance review
Financial review
Strategic report
Overview Financial statements Thank you
How we manage the money you give us
Macmillan, like many other organisations across
the country, has faced external financial challenges
during 2023, such as high inflation and the cost
of living crisis, which has had a significant impact
on our costs. However, thanks to our generous
supporters and a strong year of fundraised income,
we have ended the year in a financially strong
position. Macmillan has been running deficit
budgets for several years, following the decision
made in 2018 to shift the focus to holding an
appropriate level of liquidity cover rather than
targeted levels of reserves. Since this decision
was taken, Macmillan has been able to spend
approximately an additional £100 million above our
income raised to ensure the greatest impact on the
lives of people living with cancer. However, we now
need to ensure we can continue to do whatever it
takes for people living with cancer, both now and
in the future. Therefore, we will be looking to return
to a balanced budget over the course of 2024 and
2025 i.e., ensuring our expenditure matches our
income, which is likely to result in some difficult
decisions for the organisation in the coming months.
Our income
Thanks to our incredible supporters and the huge
efforts of our volunteers and colleagues, we
generated income totalling £232.5 million in 2023, an
increase of 2.4% from 2022. Despite the challenges
faced by our donors as a result of soaring inflation
and the cost of living crisis, their generosity and
loyalty has helped us maintain our income so that
we can continue to be there for people with cancer
when we are needed most.
We are almost entirely funded by charitable
donations from the public and have a strong and
diverse portfolio of fundraising income streams.
Overall, 98% of our income came from fundraising
activities, totalling £226.8 million. The remaining
2% came from grant income, charitable activities,
and investments.
Legacy and donation income
As the number of people diagnosed with cancer
continues to increase, along with the rising cost of
living, the need for our services is greater than ever.
A gift left in a will (legacy) can help to ensure that
we are able to continue to be there to meet this
need, and we have therefore continued to invest
in our legacy strategy to support income growth
for future years. 2023 saw another record year for
Macmillan with an incredible £93.1 million, gross of
discounting, being raised from legacies, an increase
of 2.6% from 2022. Legacy income continues to be
our biggest single source of revenue, making up
40.5% of our total fundraised income.
You can find out more about our Legacy work on
page 38.
Our donation income is made up of multiple income
streams and totalled £116.5 million in 2023 (2022:
£114.4 million), representing an increase of 1.8%.
This includes money raised through national events
such as the Macmillan Coffee Morning, challenge
events including our Mighty Hikes series, corporate
supporters, direct marketing, trusts, and major
donors, as well as income generated by our active
volunteer fundraising committees across the UK. It
also includes £1.7 million raised from our new charity
partnership with Omaze.
For more information on how we have raised money,
see page 11.
Income from trading activities
Most of our trading income (76.8%) comes from our
lottery and raffle, generating £13.7 million in 2023,
up from £13.5 million in 2022, as we continued to
invest in our lottery acquisition. During 2023 the
charity obtained a licence from the Gambling
Commission and the trade of lottery activity
was transferred from the four lottery subsidiary
companies in October 2023.