The total raised by the Movember Foundation in the UK in the year to April 2014 was down by £3m, a 13 per cent drop on the previous year, according to its worldwide annual report.

The Movember Foundation, a men's health organisation, is financed by men who gain sponsorship for growing a moustache during the month of November to raise money and awareness for men’s health.

Its annual report is in Australian dollars, the currency of its home country.

The report showed the UK raised £20.9m ($36.3m) compared to £23.9m ($41.5m) last year.

However the UK still raised more money than any other country, and also had more participants, with 255,000 people taking part. The next largest was Australia which raised £15.3m ($26.4m) and had 123,000 participants.

The foundation has seen less donations and participants across the world. This year the global fundraising total was £78.5m ($136.6m), down from £81.3m ($141.5m) the previous year.

The number of registered participants also dropped from 1.13m in the 2012 campaign to 969,000 in the 2013 campaign.

John Hughes, chair of Movember, said in the annual report: “Although a very positive time for the organisation, the last twelve months have not been without their challenges. I accept though that these are to be expected as the Movember campaign continues to grow in some markets and mature in the others.”

He said the charity has faced the challenges of ensuring that there is an online platform capable of handling huge traffic levels for small periods of the year, protecting the brand as smaller markets continue to grow and “the competitive nature of the charity dollar”.