How we spend your money
Our finance team is led by Kelvin Walker and is supported by our Finance and External Audit subcommittee. The subcommittee’s remit is to oversee the charity’s financial resources and investments and is comprised of members of our board of Trustees and senior volunteers.
We regularly benchmark our pay scales to ensure they are competitive with other health and social care providers (both non-profit and private), and other charities, aiming to pay in or around the market median. All hospice staff are paid at levels above the National Living Wage and London Living Wage.
Our expenditure 2024/25
Our total expenditure for 2024/25 was £16.6 million. This was spent on:
Core operational costs (£12.53million) (76%) includes expenditure on all the essential services we offer including running our Inpatient Unit (IPU), community services, maintenance of our buildings, clinical and clerical staffing and bereavement & family services.
Retail (£2.74million) (17%) costs are associated with the running of our high street presence across North London including rent of premises.
Fundraising (£1.21million) (7%) expenditure is related to generating income and promoting the charitable purposes of North London Hospice to as wide an audience as possible.
Investment Management (£0.067million) (less than 1%).
Our income
Our total income for 2024/25 was £14.7 million This was raised through:
Donations & Legacies (£3.45million) (23%) Donations include regular gifts, money raised by fundraisers in the local community, event fundraising including sponsorship of people taking part in events such as the London Marathon, donations from Businesses, Trusts and Foundations, Major Donors and gifts left to us in Wills
Retail (£4.19million) (29%) This reflects the income generated through our high street retail activity as well as online sales through Vinted and eBay.
Government Grants (£5.8million) (39%) Granted income provided to North London Hospice by the NHS.
Other Grants (£0.78million) (5%) Granted income provided to North London Hospice by Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) (£0.28million) and Peabody (£0.5million)
Investments (£0.4million) (3%) This is income from interest received on reserves and other investments
Other (£0.088million) (1%)
Frequently asked questions:
To meet the needs of our community and deliver our services we can meet our additional costs by accessing our funds held in reserve. Reserves have been built up over a number of years and allow us to plan for the future and safeguard the organisation. In additional to restricted reserves the hospice currently has 9 months' worth of unrestricted reserves which aligns with our Reserves Policy as agreed by the board of Trustees.
We are emerging from a strategic period of transformation at North London Hospice. This has made us more agile as an organisation and better equipped for the future. Investments in our retail operations, including an expansion of shops, and within fundraising resources are pivotal to our growth and enable us to safeguard the future of the hospice to ensure we meet the needs of patients and families. This ongoing process has included working through a comprehensive period of financial transformation to identify cost savings and efficiencies across all areas of our work.
This year it will cost us over £16million to run our hospice, and we are operating with a projected deficit of £500,000 (before depreciation). A significant factor in this shortfall is due to the charity receiving fewer gifts in wills than forecast. This has fallen notably behind our ten-year average, which we use for budgeting purposes.
Looking ahead, we recognise that further innovation and support in fundraising will be required to address this gap. Our Retail portfolio of 19 shops continue to deliver a high return on investment with growth plans for new shops and locations in 2026.
Our goal is to achieve a balanced budget by the end of 2027/2028, ensuring long-term sustainability while maintaining the exceptional care that defines our hospice.