Animal charity WWF-UK has seen its total reserves decrease by £6.3m, largely due to falling income, its accounts for the year to 30 June 2025 show.
The charity’s annual report shows that its income over the previous 12 months was £89.3m, down 3.5% from £92.5m in 2024.
Expenditure rose marginally year on year to just over £96m, from 2024’s total of £95.4m, fuelled mostly by a £700,000 increase in the cost of raising funds.
“Net expenditure for the year of £6.6m, with a £0.2m gain in cash flow hedges, resulted in a reduction in total reserves from £56.2m to £49.8m,” the report says – a drop of 11%.
In November 2025, WWF-UK announced that it was consulting on axing 90 jobs – about 20% of its workforce – because of the harsh operating environment stemming from inflationary pressures, rising operations and people costs and slowing income growth.
“Our annual report reflects the context in which we’re working and the steps we’re taking to continue delivering our mission effectively,” a WWF-UK spokesperson told Civil Society.
“This includes reviewing our structure and ways of working, with consultations with colleagues underway as we support our people through this time of change.”
Over recent months, many peer organisations have taken or weighed similar decisions. Household names including Scope, the National Trust and NSPCC have been among the charities announcing plans for staffing cuts.
‘Some fundraising channels financially unviable’
WWF-UK’s annual report says the charity, which held its expenditure on grants and programmes steady at £69.8m, had seen individual donations drop to £37.4m from £39.5m in 2024.
“This decline is attributable to a combination of factors that have continued from the previous year, including reduced spending and activity across certain supporter acquisition channels,” the report reads.
“Rising costs across the sector have made some fundraising channels financially unviable.”
The report adds that this had led WWF-UK to “pivot towards stronger performing channels”, as well as “short-term income impacts”, and that the organisation would need to continue adapting.
WWF-UK did not comment on which areas had become unviable, but its spokesperson said the focus was on “prioritising activity that offers sustainable, long-term value for the organisation and for our supporters”.
The charity also saw corporate donations and income decline sharply to £10.6m in 2024-25, from £18.2m the year before. The fall was driven by its 2024 total including a one-off £3.1m receipt from charity lottery operator Omaze.
“Several partnerships either came to an end in FY24 or were renewed at a lower level during FY25; these included Tesco, HSBC, Reckitt and KPMG,” the report says.
More positively, it notes that this was “partly offset by a new transformational partnership with GSK that was launched during [2025]”.
Reserves ‘at an appropriate level’
WWF-UK also saw its income from aid agencies and government grants rise by £1.9m in relation to three of its projects in Pakistan, east Africa and the Bolivian Amazon.
Meanwhile, money from charitable trusts was up £1.1m, thanks to new income from several projects.
The charity reported that its decrease in total reserves consisted of a £6.4m fall in restricted funds to £14.1m, while unrestricted and endowed funds remained unchanged at £30m and £5.7m respectively.
General reserves grew slightly from £13.8m to £14m, a figure WWF-UK said was “at an appropriate level and sufficient to protect programmatic expenditure in the short term from any sudden drop in income”, in line with policies.
