Comic Relief has created a £9.5m fund from surplus investment income to “support innovative ways to tackle relief of poverty”, according to its annual report, published this week.

The annual report for the year ending July 2015 reveals that the New Fund was set up in 2014/15 and provided funding to three projects totalling £350,000.

Comic Relief says the fund will become “fully operational in 2016”. And that it “will be proactively seeking proposals from organisations that we feel have bold, creative and innovative approaches”.

The £9.5m fund has been built up over the years from surplus on investment income and gift aid.

Applications to the fund are currently by invitation only.

Comic Relief’s total income for the year was £128.8m, up by £2.4m on 2013, the previous Red Nose Day year. The charity’s income fluctuates biennially, depending on whether its has held a Red Nose Day or Sport Relief appeal.

First redundancies

During the year the charity carried out a restructure to “put digital at the heart” of the organisation and make the charity more efficient.

“Unfortunately, some redundancies have been a necessary part of this process. This has been a first for us and has been hard,” the annual report said.

Despite this, the average number of staff at the charity rose from 288 to 295.

Comic Relief US recommissioned

The first Red Nose Day USA took place in March 2015 and raised $23.9m (£14.9m).

The report also revealed that the event has been recommissioned for 2016 and will be held again this month.

Investments

During the year the value of the charity’s investments increased from  £135.3m to £144.4m – an increase of 6.7 per cent.

The total return for the year to 31 July 2015 was £11.3m.

The previous year Comic Relief had commissioned an independent review of its investment policy following widespread media criticism. This resulted in a number of holdings being sold and the charity started the year with half its portfolio invested in cash.

It appointed Fundsmith LLP as its main equities manager and by May 2015 most of the portfolio had been reinvested.