Finance Score: -2

Governance Score: 4

Support Score: 0

Large legacies income: +2
Spending falling: -1
Volatile income: -3
No PartB

No volunteer policy: -2
Dynamic board: +3
Gender balanced board: +3

No supporters identified

Overall GiG Score: 2

SIGHT RESEARCH UK

Mission:

Sight Research UK funds research to bring forward the day when sight loss and blindness are a thing of the past.

Analysis by Giving is Great

Positives:

The charity has received modest backing from a grant maker recently
This charity has received more than half of its income from legacies in recent years
The Board appears to be well diversified in terms of gender and dynamic in terms of composition

Regulatory & Governance issues to consider:

Although this charity works with volunteers it does not have a Volunteer Management policy
Over half the Board have joined recently

Financial issues to consider:

Spending has fallen significantly over the last 5 years relative to the previous period
Income has been volatile recently
A PartB annual return has not been required and so detailed financial information is not available from the online data

Comment by the Charity:
1) Considerable income from legacies response: historically, our income generation has been dominated by legacies making our finances difficult to predict. Over the least 5 years alone, our legacy income has fluctuated from £300k to £900k, and in the year ending in June 2021, we received less than £150k in legacies. While legacies are a very welcome income stream, it is also the one most difficult to forecast. The delays in HMCTS since November 2019 were further compounded by the pandemic, which resulted in slower legacy payments being received and almost no new notifications of estates in the last 18 months. The charity has made strategic plans to diversify its income generation by growing lifetime giving from individuals and from other areas such as corporate supporters. The implementation of the plans has suffered setbacks due to the pandemic disruption. In addition, creating sustainable income streams capable of replacing our legacy income will take a number of years because we have very little money to invest in fundraising (we prioritise our expenditure on our charitable activities). 2) Dynamic Board response: Trustees serve a term of 3 years which is renewable for another 2 terms of 3 years, if the Board approves their continuation. Since July 2018, the charity has made a proactive effort to review its Board composition to ensure that the charity would be even more strongly supported by a greater variety and depth of the required skills. We recently elected a new Chair, and have created the roles of Vice-Chair and Treasurer, as well as subcommittees for Finance, Research, and HR so that we can use the time provided by our volunteer Board in the most efficient an effective way. 3) Asset transfer from National Eye Research Centre response: The National Eye Research Centre is the historic name of Sight Research UK. The charity became a charitable incorporated organisation (registered charity no. 1156134) on 12th March 2014 and the old charity (registered charity no. 294087) was amalgamated with the new CIO on 5th May 2020 (hence the asset transfer on this date). The charity’s main name was then changed to Sight Research UK this year. 4) Liquidity response: During the year ending in June 2020, the charity paid out ongoing research grants of £614,355 and made new grant commitments of a total of £149,291. It also designated £750,000 to research expenditure in lieu of its usual April annual grant round which was postponed to July 2020. The postponement was a result of the Board’s approach to protecting its finances and ensuring that all existing commitments could be met despite the financial turmoil caused by the breakout of COVID-19. At the time of the decision making (April), the charity’s investment portfolio had recorded significant losses of over £250,000 with no signs of market stabilisation. In addition, it had become clear that developing the charity’s fundraising would become even more challenging in the post COVID-19 climate and that the plans would most likely take longer to come to fruition. At the April 2020 meeting, therefore, the Board agreed to monitor the financial situation and postpone decisions on further grant commitments to the July 2020 meeting. 5) Income in excess of spending: In July 2020, we awarded over £300k worth of new grants and an additional £60k were awarded in costed extensions to grant holders disrupted by COVID. The Board continued to be cautious in 2020-21 because of the low income generation outlook. This is mainly due to delays in legacies being received, but also in view of the tougher fundraising climate due to COVID. In January 2021 it decided to raise its reserves from £700k to £1m to mitigate low income generation predictions. While our annual running costs have remained stable over the last 5 years at approximately £250k (thanks to greater internal efficiency), our expenditure on existing grant commitments has grown significantly. To ensure that we have sufficient funds for a year’s operations (running costs plus grant payments), the Trustees have thought it prudent to raise the reserves level. 6) Spending is declining: While fewer new commitments were made in 2019-20 and 2020-21 it should be noted that the charity carried a liability of over £800k in grants commitments made in previous years. We recognise the full value of multi-year grants in the year that the awards are made, but many of them are payable over 3 years. In the last 5 years, we committed some £3m worth of new grants and we have been paying the yearly instalments on the grant commitments. Given the poor outlook on income generation, we have lowered the amount committed to new grants in recent years to ensure that we would have enough funds to meet our existing commitments should the lack of income continue for over 18-24 months.

Financial Data ?

Income & Spending ?

Sources of Income ?

Y/E		Income £k	Spending £k	Surplus/ Deficit £k	Fundraising Cost £k	Total Funds £k	Unrestricted Funds £k	Mths Rsrvs	Staff	Volun- teers
30/06/23		£390	£356	£33	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
30/06/22		£826	£414	£412	£179	£2,223	£2,161	62.6	3	12
30/06/21		£425	£611	£-186	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
30/06/20	*	£1,087	£411	£676	£165	£1,813	£1,754	51.3	3	8
30/06/19		£1,232	£872	£360	£190	£1,265	£1,267	17.4	2	0
30/06/18		£774	£695	£78	£207	£882	£862	14.9	3	0
30/06/17?		£915	£1,507	£-592	£243	£767	£798	6.4	3	0
31/03/16		£719	£452	£267	£186	£1,180	£1,092	29	3	0
31/03/15		£410	£862	£-452	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

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Download accounts

Highest pay bracket: less than £60,000

Balance Sheet History

Established: 11 years

www.sightresearchuk.org

hello@sightresearchuk.org

0117 325 7757

Charity Commission for England and Wales

Tweets

How you can help

What it does

The relief of sickness and the promotion of good health for the public benefit by funding and supporting research into the causes and treatment of eye disease and blindness and publishing and disseminating the useful results thereof.

Listed activities

The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives

GiG Classification

Blind people

How it operates

Acts as an umbrella or resource body
Makes grants to individuals
Makes grants to organisations
Sponsors or undertakes research

Where it operates

Throughout England And Wales,

Who it helps

Children/Young People
Elderly/Old People
People With Disabilities
The General Public/Mankind

Who supports them? ?

Donations from Grant Makers ?

We have details on the following donations. Multi-year donations are allocated to the years for which they are earmarked.

Specific Donations

Amount	When Months	To be used for
Quartet Community Foundation - Grant to Sight Research UK
£500	15/11/2022	As directed by the donor towards the work of Sight Research UK (formally National Eye Research Centre) which is based in Bristol.
Masonic Trust - SRPK1 inhibitors in Diabetic Retinopathy
£61,000	19/10/2016	Testing whether certain chemicals can be used to prevent or treat diabetic retinopathy.

Data sourced from Donors via 360 Giving

How is it governed?

Trustees (9)

Current Trustees appointed

Gender Split

CAROL MARGARET ELIZABETH MAYO (Chair) Appointed: 2020

In 2019, Carol exited Polarn O Pyret, a Swedish childrenswear company, after leading the retail division for 12 years and contributing to its growth from a start-up business to a multi-channel operation of solus stores, concessions, and website. The role involved defining a brand ambassador approach to build brand awareness, through a network of....more

CLIVE IAN HETHERINGTON Appointed: 2023

DR DOLORES CONROY Appointed: 2019

Dolores has a degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in Pharmacology and spent her research career studying the role of inflammation in asthma at University of Sherbrooke, Canada, and Imperial College London. In 2004, she took the post of Principal Scientist at Mercia Pharma Inc. working on the development of disease-specific immunotherapeutic vaccines....more

JOHN RICHARD SWARBRICK Appointed: 2023

PHILIP CLIVE JACKSON Appointed: 2018

Philip is currently the Product Director for Specsavers, a privately held optical business. In this role Philip holds the responsibility for the product offering across the Specsavers operations in Europe. His experience stretches from operations, supply chain, marketing and commercial delivery. With over 25 years’ experience working with....more

PROFESSOR JOHN GREENWOOD PHD Appointed: 2023

ROBERT DREWETT Appointed: 2024

SERENA SALVATORE Appointed: 2023

SIMON BOWKER Appointed: 2021

Simon is a qualified accountant who has worked in senior roles in the public, private and charitable sectors. Simon’s career has focused on improving financial results, sustainability, governance and business partnering. He has wide-ranging experience in devising financial strategies for organisations and is also a qualified business coach.

Legal constitution

Charity registered in England & Wales on 12/03/2014, number: 1156134

Gift Aid

Registered with HMRC for Gift Aid

Policies in force

Complaints handling
Complaints policy and procedures
Conflicting interests
Financial reserves policy and procedures
Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
Internal risk management policy and procedures
Investing charity funds policy and procedures
Investment
Risk management
Safeguarding policy and procedures
Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
Trustee expenses policy and procedures

Filing Record

9 returns made; AR20: 286 days late,

Recent reorganisation events:

Asset transfer in from NATIONAL EYE RESEARCH CENTRE on 05/05/2020

Main office

Redwood House
Brotherswood Court
Almondsbury Business Park
BRISTOL
BS32 4QW

Objectives

THE OBJECTS OF THE CIO ARE THE RELIEF OF SICKNESS AND THE PROMOTION OF GOOD HEALTH FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT BY FUNDING AND SUPPORTING RESEARCH INTO THE CAUSES AND TREATMENT OF EYE DISEASE AND BLINDNESS AND PUBLISHING AND DISSEMINATING THE USEFUL RESULTS THEREOF.

Data Sources

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