Financial Statements June 2024

Introduction from the Director-General 

I am delighted to introduce the 2023–2024 Annual Financial Statements of the Commonwealth Foundation. The Foundation’s reputation for careful and transparent use of public funds owes much to the diligent work of our small and dynamic Finance Team. My thanks to the team for supporting the Foundation through another busy and exciting year. I am also grateful to our auditors for their continued guidance.

The Financial Statements confirm that the Foundation’s current position remains strong, with cash and cash equivalents at year-end revealing a healthy balance of £3,132,717. We have unexpectedly finished the 2023–2024 year with a surplus of just under £500,000. Half of the surplus is the result of our efforts to recover arrears and bring in new members: our contributions income is almost a quarter of a million pounds higher than we had budgeted. We also received the benefit of higher interest rates. During the year there were some savings in our grants, due to several cancellations and partner underspends; of that amount, £116,499 has been transferred to a designated fund to reinvest in the grants programme in the current year. Our costs for the People’s Forum preparations during the period were lower than anticipated and those savings are being carried over to be used for the People’s Forum in 2024–2025. There were also savings on staff costs due to vacancies and restructuring.

(Continued inside document)

Download Financial Statement June 2024.pdf