Nitty gritty - the financials

Our objectives

Our purpose is to invest wisely in research to save lives and so achieve our vision of beating blood cancers. Our short-term performance indicators are the amount of money that we have raised and critically the amount of money that we have been able to commit to new research. In the longer-term our performance is measured through patient survival and quality of life.

The main objective of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research every year is to have the money available to invest in all of the research recommended by our expert panels. Research takes a long time and a programme, project or fellowship can be of one to five years duration, so it is essential that we set aside enough to meet these longer-term commitments.  We currently have £60 million invested to generate further income, until needed.

Rigorous review

Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research is fortunate that the founders of our charity had the foresight to establish a rigorous and robust review of research applications from the very beginning and these standards are maintained to this day. Patients are now benefiting from the continuity of 50 years of investment focused on quality research in blood cancers.

Our research goes through international peer review to ensure that it is competitive and collaborative where appropriate before it is reviewed by our panels. We are privileged to have international leaders in their field on our Medical & Scientific and Clinical Trials Panel, which ensures that our investment in research is objective and always of the highest calibre.

Strategic evaluation

For our 50th Anniversary year, we conducted a strategic review of research. As a result we are in the process of introducing new evaluative measures to assess research performance and we have an increased commitment to clinical translation and trials.

Current financial position

Results 2010/11

In spite of a very uncertain financial environment, the Trustees agreed to continue to invest in activities to raise the profile and income of LLR in order to increase our investment in research. This has resulted in a 15% increase in voluntary income and a 30% increase in our investment in new research commitments compared with the previous year. The charity raised a total of £20m in the year (2010: £19m) and was able to spend £24m (2010: £18m) on charitable activities

Reserves

The Trustees have established an appropriate level of reserves to provide a sustainable level of funding for future research projects and to protect against a decline or interruption of future sources of income. With long-term investments of £71million and cash of £11 million, it might mistakenly be assumed that LLR is not putting funds raised to good use, but this is not the case. We have outstanding research commitments of £64million and we need to have reserves for the future, not least for a downturn in our investment values as our reserves of £20million mainly comprise £12.5million of unrealised investment gains.

Investment policy and objectives

The levels of fundraising and legacy income fluctuate from year to year, therefore funds have been set aside to ensure that research commitments are fully met when due over the entire duration of the research. The Trustees have the power to invest these funds both to raise income and to generate capital gains.

For more information please visit our page on the Charity Commission site.