Bristol cancer charity announces proposed restructure
Bristol cancer charity, Penny Brohn UK, has announced a proposed restructure in an effort to protect front-line services in response to the impact of COVID-19 on its fundraising and income generation. Penny Brohn UK Commercial Director, Andrew Hufford, discusses the proposed restructure at the charity. Penny Brohn UK is currently facing the biggest challenge in its history. The coronavirus outbreak has had a devastating impact across the charity sector, and will continue to have a long-term impact on so many charities’ ability to raise money and provide services.
It is essential that we make significant changes to the way we operate in order to protect our front-line services and ensure that we are still here for people living with cancer who need us now and in the future. It is because of this that we have begun this consultation with our staff teams, as we look to ensure that the organisation continues to maximise support to cancer patients on lower levels of income.
Penny Brohn UK has been supporting the holistic needs of people with cancer for 40 years. The charity moved its support for cancer patients online in April. We will continue to develop these services to meet the needs of cancer patients now and in the future. It is very unlikely that the Penny Brohn At Penny Brohn, we are facing an income UK National Centre in Ham Green, near shortfall of over £750,000 this year and will have to reduce our cost base accordingly. For Bristol will be able to welcome back cancer a charity that needs to raise around £2.5 mil- patients for face-to-face services until 2021. lion each and every year, this is a devastating blow. It is clear that the impact of coronavirus Andrew Hufford, Commercial Director of Penny Brohn UK said: “It was a heart-breakon fundraising is set to continue. We cannot ing decision to start the change consultation afford to think only in the short term. with staff. We planned great things for our The charity has been severely hit by the loss 40th year. However the reality is that we will have to operate with, potentially, much less of income from its primary funder plus staff to ensure we protect direct services for cancellation of all its public fundraising events. In March we furloughed approximately people with cancer. 80% of staff. Every single member of staff at Penny Brohn UK is dedicated to making sure anyone with In July the charity launched a change programme directly in response to the immediate cancer and their families get the support they need. Which is why it is very difficult to lose impact of coronavirus on its fundraising and people who have worked so hard and shown trading arms. At that time, we informed our such team spirit – especially over the past few staff that we would need to make an challenging months. But the sad reality is that organisational restructure to survive the cu this change cannot be avoided. rrent crisis as well as for our medium and long-term sustainability.
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