FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

The National Trust: Financial Performance

The National Trust: Financial Performance

Introduction

With some 50m visitors each year, the National Trust is as integral to many British childhoods as Marmite or picnics in the rain. It has heft in the adult world, too. With almost 4m members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (Scotland has its own, sister organisation), the trust has more than seven times as many paid-up supporters as all Britain's political parties put together. Trust bosses cite that statistic in their rows with the government, the latest of which is over a bid to loosen planning laws to establish a presumption in favour of “sustainable development” (www.nationaltrust.org.uk).

The trust has long spoken out against airport expansions or other schemes that menace its properties. But it was a slumbering giant in national politics: a genteel guardian of crumbling aristocratic piles, through which deferential heritage fans were herded behind velvet ropes. In the past decade, however, the trust has undergone a cultural revolution, adapting to a country from which deference had vanished as surely as liveried footmen or dressing for dinner (www.nationaltrust.org.uk).

The aim of this report is to evaluate the financial performance of the trust the National Trustee relating to the financial performance of the National Trust 2009/10

Variance analysis (Part A)

£0

%

Financial Period

Total 2010

Total 2009

2010/2009 Variance

Incoming Resources from generated fund

Voluntary income

Appeals and gifts

10,758

47,679

-77.44%

Legacies

50,316

42,779

17.62%

Revenue grants and contribution

8,912

8,163

9.18%

Activities for generating funds

Enterprise Income

54,669

50,417

8.43%

Hotel Income

8,025

3,305

142.81%

Investment income

25,150

35,519

-29.19%

157,830

187,862

-15.99%

incoming Resources from Charitable Activities:

Membership income

125,245

121,987

2.67%

Capital grants and contributions

15,514

14,986

3.52%

Direct property income

105,642

95,753

10.33%

246,401

232,726

5.88%

Other incoming resources

Other income

1,827

2,545

-28.21%

Total incoming resources

406,058

423,133

-4.04%

Cost of generating fund

Appeals and gifts

2,408

2,428

-0.82%

legacies

637

766

-16.84%

Enterprise cost

41,934

40,125

4.51%

Hotel cost

8,008

3,483

129.92%

investment management fees

2,631

2,181

20.63%

55,618

48,983

13.55%

Charitable Activities :

Routine property running

177,425

166944

6.28%

Capital projects expenditure

100,027

97,950

2.12%

Acquisition

8,191

21,037

-61.06%

Conservation and advisory service

12,103

12,170

-0.55%

Membership ,Recruitment , publicity and education

50,192

47,178

6.39%

347,938

345,279

0.77%

Governance cost

2,589

2,662

-2.74%

Total resources expended

406,145

396,924

2.32%

Net(outgoing)incoming resources before transfers

87

26,209

-99.67%

Variance analyses are meant to find the area of the business operations that has caused the budget not to have been met. The Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended on the 28 February 2010 and Variance Analyses shows a greatest actual decrease from incoming resources in Appeals and gifts (appeal and gifts), as this is on voluntary bases, and recession cut deep into family budgets therefore it might have affected people's decision towards charity (Chairman's statement, pp.2). On the other hand, the best percentage increase 142.8% in hotel income (activities undertaken by the Trust's trading subsidiaries) (pp. 56) “Visitor numbers at pay for entry properties were unprecedented, up 16.2% on the previous year to a total of 17.2 million” because of membership retention rates reached 3.7” million in 2009/10. In Incoming resources profits from direct property income increased 10% because of the rise in recruitment figures and paying visitors to properties... thanks the public appeal made that raised £3 million from charitable trusts organisations and individuals Seaton “HM Government transferred Seaton Delaval Hall and most of its historic contents to us in December 2009 under the Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) the acquisition of Delaval Hall in Northumberland and, thus the acceptance in lieu of tax in 400 acres ...