Four years at a glance: A review

Although Community Support for disasters fluctuates depending on need, Community Support for everyday work has been steadily growing year on year. This makes a critical contribution to the organisation’s work and Red Cross is investing to help ensure growth of this fundamental source of funds.
Red Cross is continually working to contain fundraising costs, having restructured the fundraising team in 2009, increased low cost alternatives and improved technologies to deliver efficiencies. Cost of fundraising expenditure expressed as a percentage of Community Support is 26%.
Government Grants increased in 2011 and again in 2012. This is predominantly due to grants to address the impact of migration, in response to changes in government policies concerning Community Detention and the provision of bridging visas to asylum seekers. This is offset with a comparable increase in expenditure over the same period, as per the terms of the grant agreements.
In 2012 investment was approved by the Board to grow future income through fundraising and Red Cross College and provide greater stability in funding. This was a further commitment by the Board to help diversify Red Cross’ income base and build on reforms in both areas from previous years.
Following a review of the organisation’s processes and capturing of business needs in 2011, Red Cross has been determining the level of IT infrastructure needed to support its increasing service delivery. During the year Red Cross was successful in winning support from Microsoft to the market value of $10 million, including desktop software, file sharing technology and a Customer Relationship Management system, providing an excellent foundation for upgrading legacy IT systems.
In 2008, a new way of working that defined services according to seven priority areas was adopted. This year, Red Cross reported on a three year review of the progress made. This confirmed that significant quality improvements had been achieved and provided support for further program investment.
Two properties were sold this year allowing Red Cross to reduce debt and to move into purpose built premises in Sydney that would support Red Cross’ commercial interests and house all Sydney CBD based staff in one city location, supporting greater collaboration.

	ACTUAL
	2012	2011	2010	2009
	$,000	$,000	$,000	$,000
Financial Results
Blood Service ¹	578,461	567,471	574,207	456,491
Government Grants ²	217,663	115,086	80,072	91,983
Community Support - for everyday work	56,729	53,677	47,628	38,829
Community Support - for emergency appeals	4,102	55,586	21,173	376,096
Commercial Operations	34,336	34,766	36,664	37,187
Government Grants for Commercial Operations	17,074	14,094	8,833	6,627
Other income ⁵	46,567	24,913	28,896	20,298
Total income	954,932	865,593	797,473	1,027,511
Blood Service	539,317	465,798	474,248	418,658
Domestic programs	223,754	121,981	93,837	111,218
International programs	28,620	17,716	17,116	19,110
Emergency Appeals ³	31,439	53,149	32,989	404,546
Commercial Operations ⁴	47,753	49,988	43,404	27,725
Fundraising Costs6	15,965	14,880	12,600	16,563
Marketing	5,981	6,356	6,170	5,066
Administration	22,694	19,482	23,822	32,059
Total expenditure	915,523	749,350	704,186	1,034,945
Surplus/ (Deficit)	39,409	116,243	93,287	(7,434)
1 To understand the activities and financial affairs of the Blood Service, the annual report and full financial statements can be obtained at donateblood.com.au 2 Government grants exclude Blood Service and Commercial Operations - shown separately 3 Emergency appeals include domestic and international appeals 4 Commercial operations include Red Cross College, Red Cross Products and Retail 5 Other Income includes investment income, net gain on disposal of property, plant and equipment, non government grants, rental revenue, ticket sales and membership income. 6 Fundraising costs include all costs for raising revenue and in-kind support from public, government and non-government grants.

ACFID Compliance

Australian Red Cross is a signatory to the Australian Council For International Development (ACFID) Code of Conduct and is thereby required to publish the financial statements on pages 56 - 59 of this Annual Report, according to their prescribed format and standards. Commentary is provided to assist readers in understanding their content. For further information on the Code’s requirements, please refer to the ACFID Code of Conduct Implementation Guidance available at acfid.asn.au.