A 160-year-old sight-loss charity is hoping to raise £2m by the end of this month to avoid closure after completing a strategic exit from providing residential care services last year.
East Midlands-based Vista had been recording annual operating deficits of over £1m for several years, which its interim chief executive said was largely due to the charity having to subsidise local authority contracts.
Speaking to Civil Society, Beth Brook said her charity had faced a “perfect storm” of increased staff costs, due to recent employer national insurance and minimum wage rises, and a reduction in funding from various sources.
Vista transferred its last residential care service in October to a new provider, which saw 56 employees move to the new operator, but Brook said a delay in completing the deal meant the charity paid extra running costs.
“Our income from trusts and foundations is down, mainly due to more competition for fewer resources,” she said.
“Grantmaking trusts are shutting or pausing while they rethink their strategies, and so that’s had a big impact on us.
“This year, individual giving is also down due to the cost-of-living crisis, and that’s going on a lot longer than any of us thought it would.”
Brook said the charity’s three shops have also faced challenges, with customers having less to spend, quality of donations dropping and income through the rag trade “dropping out”.
New model ‘sustainable’
Vista recorded an income of £3.91m and expenditure of £5.77m in the year to March 2025, when it employed 157 people on average.
The charity now has 36 members of staff, of which around 25 are full-time equivalent, with its income and expenditure also much lower after its exit from residential care.
Brook said Vista’s new financial model, which focuses on providing community support funded by more diverse sources, will be sustainable if it can raise £2m in the short term.
Since the charity’s three-year transformation plan was signed off last year, its fundraised income had “quadrupled”, she said.
“The model is sustainable if we can get to that target, we thought about it carefully,” she said.
“What we don't want to be doing is being back here in another six months.”
More than £13,000 has been raised by the charity so far for its emergency campaign.
