We describe ourselves as a not-for-profit partnership, but what exactly does that mean? Our income that covers our running costs comes from two key sources:

  • our partners who pay annually for access to GiGL partnership data and related services via a service level agreement, and
  • our customers, who pay on a case by case basis for access to our data search service.

Every partner and customer contributes a comparatively small amount of funding to gain access to services that it would be impossible for them to resource individually for the same financial contribution.

During the 2009/10 financial year, our income was higher than our expenditure once again. This was for several reasons, including some partners paying for their 2010/11 SLA in advance, and because we received funding for our planning project. We are now in the fortunate position of having 3 months running costs set aside having accrued a small surplus annually. The remainder of the surplus will be used to upgrade our systems and to cover any funding cuts by partners in the 2011/12 financial year.

Our figures are reported formally in London Wildlife Trust’s audited financial statement, and are managed as a designated fund within LWT’s finance systems.