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Fundraising costs down, but income up at Epilepsy Society

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 21 Aug 2012

Despite cuts in its fundraising spending, Epilepsy Society has reported a 15 per cent increase in voluntary income over the past year, attributing its performance to a focus on stewardship and social media.

The charity, which rebranded in 2011, has been slowly growing after income took a shallow dive between 2008 and 2009, but last year’s increase comes in the face of a 5 per cent reduction in fundraising costs. The charity reduced the cost of raising voluntary income from 32.1 per cent to 27.2 per cent of income.

Director of fundraising and marketing at Epilepsy Society, Bridget Gardiner, said that the “really significant” fundraising income increase, which does not take into account a £1.5m gift in kind made in the previous year, is the result of an investment in social media and a strong supporter stewardship programme.

“I believe our success can partly be attributed to our supporter stewardship programme and the ways in which we report what we are achieving. Supporters want to know what their money is buying,” said Gardiner.

In a blog published yesterday, alongside the release of the results, Gardiner wrote that the charity was seeing the pay-offs for taking social media seriously. “About a year ago the charity took a strategic decision to invest more resource in social media. The result has been a growth in our online community, helping us broadcast our message faster, be more responsive, and enable us to have a conversation with our supporters,” she writes.

While last year included further decline in legacy income, it also encompassed a capital appeal in excess of £1m for the building of a new Epilepsy Society Research Centre.
Gardiner said the charity, which receives 75 per cent of its income from the cash-strapped public sector, will continue to work on developing new income streams in light of undoubted challenges ahead. “It is still a very difficult economic environment. Our legacy income has been declining year-on-year, so compensating for this through other sources will continue to be challenging,” she said.

“We have started to work on some new and exciting fundraising initiatives, including a major donor programme and student fundraising, in order that we can maintain services for people with epilepsy and their families in the future.”

Total income fell by £1.8m to £17.1m over the year, but the charity attributed this to the previous year's one-off gift of a house. While the one-off gift skewed Epilepsy Societys figures for ‘donations and legacies’, and income from fundraising events and similar activities were down, the organisation reported a £500,000 increase in income from grants and other bodies to £1.8m.

Opportunities for merger

The group’s annual accounts also report on the progress of one of its goals through last year with regard to working with other epilepsy-focused charities, of which Epilepsy Society believes there are too many. While it built a strategic alliance with one charity last year, it said it is looking to go further. “The Society is continuing its discussions with four other epilepsy charities with a view to working more closely with them and possibly eventually exploring the potential for merger,” the report reads. 

Directory: Epilepsy Society