Annual report 2015-16 Annual report 2015-16 | Page 28

28 Annual Report and Financial Statements 2015–16 Fundraising performance We couldn’t support, campaign and fund research for people confronting deafness, tinnitus and hearing loss without the generosity of our supporters. We are hugely grateful to them for their commitment and support. • Our supporters helped us to raise £1.5m more than in 2014–15, despite an external environment that saw negative media coverage of some charity fundraising and changes in fundraising regulation. • We saw growth and success across fundraising. We raised more income from events than ever before, following improvements in the way we support people doing challenges for us, and by launching new fundraising events, including a Christmas carol concert featuring actor, Richard Wilson, and the Military Wives Choir. • The challenging regulatory and media climate led us to scale back some planned activity, allowing us to complete a review of our fundraising to ensure it remained in line with best practice. • We continued our fundraising investment this year, although we invested less than intended in door-to-door fundraising while we resolved operational issues with our third party agencies. Despite this, we have been able to achieve our planned growth targets for 2015–16 and we aim to continue investing in fundraising to maintain income growth in future years. • Legacy income, from people leaving us a gift in their will, was significantly higher than in recent years, and once again supported much of our Charity’s work.