achievements: fundraising activity

One of our priorities in 2006-7 was to grow support amongst WRVS volunteers and employees for fundraising activity and maintain the positive financial position we achieved last year.

We continued to expand our fundraising activities, securing more than £1.2m of income for the year of which we have recognised £1.1m through our accounts. This contributed a net figure (after direct fundraising costs and before allocated support costs) of £317,000, substantially exceeding our target of £250,000. An additional £0.8m was secured for future years.

We are still at the early stages of embedding a fundraising culture in WRVS, but a significant proportion of the income we raised relied on the efforts of our volunteers and supporters. For example, we increased the amount of money raised by raffles from £86,000 in 2005-6 to £174,000 by introducing a very popular second raffle in the summer. We also expanded the number of collection tins in our shops and cafés, and recorded a 61 per cent increase in income from £62,000 in 2005-6 to more than £100,000.