Reserves Policy

Introduction

The Coalition for Life-Course Immunisation (‘CLCI’) is a diverse network of expert members and associations from civil society, representing public health, patients, health NGOs and other advocacy groups, academics and health professionals from across Europe.

CLCI members consider life-course immunisation is one of the most effective public health tools to eradicate vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. CLCI is committed to the prevention of these diseases over the life-course through the promotion of the health and economic benefits of wide-scale immunisation.

This Financial Reserves Policy applies to all CLCI’s fund-raising, expenditure, and work-planning activities

Purpose

This Financial Reserves Policy explains when and why we organise reserves. Any charitable organisation will need to deal with unexpected events such as:

The risk of an unforeseen emergency or other unexpected need for funds, e.g. an unexpectedly large repair bill or finding ‘seed-funding’ for an urgent project.
Covering unforeseen day-to-day operational costs.
A source of income, e.g., a grant, not being renewed. Funds might be needed to give the trustees time to act if income falls below expectations.
Planned commitments, or designations, that cannot be met by future income alone, e.g., plans for major asset purchase or to a significant project that requires the charity to provide ‘matched funding’; &
The need to fund short-term deficits in a cash budget, e.g. money may need to be spent before a funding grant is received.

Our commitment

CLCI will operate the fund-raising, expenditure, and annual work planning process so that we achieve and maintain financial reserves sufficient to fund the planned work for the following 12 months. As the CLCI does not currently have office costs or employ anyone as a paid administrator, the costs of the planned work for the following 12 months do not include operating costs. If this situation is planned to change, the reserves level will need to be reviewed and amended.

How we will decide on the appropriate level of reserves

CLCI starts with no reserves and so the amount and rate of build-up of reserves will be reviewed as part of the annual planning process. It will take several years to reach a level of reserves that will be sufficient to fund planned activities for the succeeding 12 months. We expect that in each yearly cycle the addition to the reserves will be up to 10% of the planned expenditure until a full reserve has been created.

How we will achieve and maintain reserves

The stability of future income is a key factor in the financial health of a CLCI. The assessment of the stability and certainty of future income sources will form an important part of CLCI’s assessment of risk and will feed into the annual work plan. In developing the annual plan CLCI will consider:

The charity’s income is from multiple sources;
Is there a risk of a sudden or unforeseen decline in a particular source of income?
Is there a tender or review by a donor in the near future?
Has any major donor indicated a change in their planned giving?
Are there any appeals or other fundraising activities available as funding sources? &
Are sources of income particularly vulnerable to the general economic situation?

In reviewing the stability of income, CLCI will consider:

how much notice of a change in income would the charity get?
the key dates at which major contracts or grants are due for review or renewal.
the impact of any other organisations seeking funding from the same sources; &
the strength of CLCI’s relationships and communications with its donors and financial supporters about explaining its financial needs.

During the annual planning process, CLCI will

Calculate the target amount of reserves.
Compare it with amounts already held.
Establish decision points and contingency positions if the planned expenditure is not funded by income received or anticipated

Changes to our financial reserves policy

We keep this policy under regular review and will place any updates on this website. This policy statement was last updated in October 2020.

Complaints

We hope that you won’t ever need to, but if you do want to complain about our Financial Reserves policy, please send an email with the details of your complaint to [email protected] We will investigate and respond to any complaints we receive.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (“ICO”). For further information on your rights and how to complain to the ICO, please refer to the ICO website https://ico.org.uk/concerns.