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Comic Relief takes great care in how it spends the money that the public donates, and uses it to make the biggest difference possible to people living tough lives in the UK and around the world.
Grant making
Allocating Money to Grantees
Comic Relief gives the money it raises to thousands of charities to fund their crucial work – it doesn’t run its own projects. All of the money raised from Comic Relief’s fundraising campaigns is paid out in grants to these charities and used by them to help people living tough lives in the UK and around the world.
Comic Relief allocates 100% of the money raised during one Red Nose Day campaign to other charities before the next Red Nose Day two years later, and takes the same approach to Sport Relief.
The money takes two years to allocate because Comic Relief approves grant applications in phased cycles. This is to ensure that any charity that thinks it is eligible has the chance to apply for funding. It is also so that we can maintain our rigorous application and checking systems to ensure we are funding the best applications that will make the biggest difference.
Paying Money to Grantees
Once a charity has applied for and been allocated funding, it will not usually receive all of the money immediately. Comic Relief is committed to supporting long term, lasting change, so most grants are for a number of years.
In order to make sure that the projects Comic Relief funds deliver against their objectives, charities have to report on an annual basis what they’re doing with the funding that they’ve received, before another payment is made. This process of reporting back is essential to ensure that the money is being spent as agreed and delivering the promised results.
Investing Money
While Comic Relief is working to allocate and pay out this money, in keeping with Charity Commission guidelines the funds are invested. The return on these investments goes towards paying the costs of running Comic Relief and its fundraising campaigns, which means that these costs don’t have to be paid out of money donated directly by the public. Comic Relief won’t take big risks with the money donated by the public. But to comply with Charity Commission guidelines we have to invest it and seek the best return. When we do this, we follow the best investment advice from a committee of experts who give their time and expertise to Comic Relief, free of charge as volunteers.
We do not invest directly in any company. We do invest in blue chip managed funds in the same way as many other charities and pension funds. The relatively poorer performance of ethical funds has meant that our Trustees have been unable to invest in them at the same time as meeting their statutory duties. Investing in the way we do ensures that we can deliver more support to our beneficiaries at home and around the world.
Running Comic Relief
No money donated directly by the public goes to pay our running costs. We cover these in other ways – such as returns on investments and income from Gift Aid, participation fees and licensing. We work hard to keep costs under tight control and to make sure that any increase on money spent on fundraising raises significant additional funds for our beneficiaries.
Find out(opens in new window) more information about how we operate as an organisation, our grant making or how we manage our money.
