Fundraising - a challenging year
As well as supporting people affected by blood cancer, we helped nurses make sure they could give their patients the best possible care.
Sports challenges and community fundraising have been at the heart of our fundraising for many years, and so our fundraising programme was hit particularly hard by the pandemic.
All the fundraising events we have traditionally depended on were cancelled, from small community fundraising to big sports challenges, and our annual Christmas Carols concert at the Royal Albert Hall. We also saw much lower income from corporate partnerships, as these depend on the kind of employee fundraising that was much less easy to do with COVID-19 restrictions.
Given how much of our income depends on these types of fundraising, at the start of the pandemic we expected our income in 2020/21 would be £6 million lower than we had budgeted for. However, through the amazing effort of our community we actually raised just under £3 million less than the previous year. This included our community raising an incredible £1.1 million, with £190,000 being raised by our dedicated branches and groups. This is a phenomenal achievement in the face of the challenges to fundraising presented by the pandemic.
We achieved this by being quick to adapt our fundraising so that much more of it was done online or via “do it yourself” fundraising challenges. In February, for example, more than 400 runners took part in Run 50, raising over £200,000. The following month an amazing 1,300 people took part in our first ever Walk of Light, where people walked at dusk to remember or to support someone with blood cancer, raising almost £500,000.
We saw an increase in the amount we raised from pharmaceutical companies, and our trusts and foundations programme also had a very good year. Higher income in these areas helped offset some of the losses elsewhere.