An update on our financial situation

A message from Gavin Atkins, Executive Director of Services and Support

Firstly, I’d like to thank you for your ongoing commitment to the MS community.

Volunteers play a huge role in everything we do, so I wanted to give you an update on our financial situation.

Unfortunately, we’re facing a difficult financial period. Whilst most of our fundraising activity is progressing well, we’ve seen a sharp downturn in our legacy income in the last three months. This has resulted in a shortfall of £1.9m against our legacy income plan. Legacies are hard to predict, and we believe that this shortfall, which is the result of receiving fewer high-value legacies than normal over a three month period, is most likely to be a short-term 'blip'.

I know this news may feel unsettling for some people. Please be assured our top priority is and always will be the MS community. We anticipate our legacy income will recover over time. And we’re confident our transformation programme will help us connect with more people and increase our income in the long term.

Our charity remains strong financially, but to protect our position it’s important that we act swiftly to address what is a significant income shortfall. This means we need to freeze spending for the rest of the year, including non-critical recruitment and discretionary non-staff costs. For example, we may cut back on staff travel to visit our groups. We’ll continue to review our financial position throughout 2026.

What does this mean for our services transformation work?

Project Mead, our services transformation project, is a vital part of improving how we deliver for the MS community, and it will continue. However, the costs of the project and its outcomes will be reviewed and re-evaluated, along with every area of our wider transformation programme.

Will we be cutting service provision?

The needs of the MS Community are our primary focus. While we’ll be looking to reduce spending, maintaining our service impact and support to volunteers will remain a priority.

Is this why Assemble has been delayed?

The delays to Assemble are not linked to our financial position. You can read more about the reason for the delays here. We’re excited to share more about the launch of Assemble in September’s newsletter, so please keep an eye out.

I understand this may feel concerning, but I want to reassure you our organisation remains financially strong and our strategy remains clear.

To hear more, please join me at Volunteer Voice on Thursday 25 September at 2pm. You can sign up here. If you have concerns or questions in the meantime, please contact the Volunteer Support Team by calling 0300 500 8084 (select option #3) or by emailing [email protected]. If you have questions relating to Project Mead, please email [email protected]

Thanks again for your commitment – supporting our community in the way we do would be impossible without you.

Best wishes,

Gavin

Executive Director of Services and Support