Breast Cancer Now is planning to cut about 60 jobs because of an expected £16m drop in its income over the next year, Third Sector has been told.
A statement from the charity, which has about 300 employees, said reductions to its charitable and operational work might be needed to reflect its projected income drop.
Formed by the merger of Breast Cancer Now and Breast Cancer Care last year, the charity expects a 34 per cent fall in its total income this year to £30m as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. This includes a 43 per cent loss in fundraising income.
A consultation period with staff has begun and changes to the organisation, including redundancies, are expected to be complete by 31 July.
The charity, which funds a third of all breast cancer research in the UK, said that as a result of cancelling two research grant-funding rounds, at least £2m less would be spent on research in 2020/21.
Breast Cancer Now was unable to confirm the parts of the charity that could be affected by the redundancy measures.
It also declined to confirm the future of its offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff, Sheffield and London.
A statement from the charity said: “While our office space across the UK needs to be considered alongside all other cost-saving measures, there are yet to be any changes to our office space proposed to staff for consultation.”
Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive of Breast Cancer Now, said: “Over the last few months, we have taken time and great care to try to establish the impact of the outbreak on our income as best we can.
“With nearly a 35 per cent drop in our income expected next year, we have to make some extremely difficult decisions to ensure we can continue our world-class research and life-changing support services for anyone affected by breast cancer.
“Ultimately, we need to reduce our costs across our charitable and operational work to reflect our projected income.
“As part of this, we are regrettably proposing that we will need to make a number of posts redundant across the organisation, after a period of consultation with our staff.
“This is an extremely difficult time. We greatly value every single one of our brilliant, committed staff and it is with great sadness that these steps need to be considered.”
Morgan has also called on the government to support the voluntary sector.
“Without further financial support from the government for cancer charities and many other organisations, we are extremely concerned that the impacts on the voluntary sector could be felt for years to come,” she said.
In the midst of the pandemic, the charity has seen the enforced closure of its research sites, including the Breast Cancer Now Toby Robins Research Centre, its Research Unit focused on triple-negative breast cancer, and long-term projects the Breast Cancer Now Tissue Bank and the Breast Cancer Now Generations Study.
Separately, the charity is set to launch two online support services later this month, called Moving Forward and Living with Secondary Breast Cancer.
– The article was updated on 10 June 2020 to correct a reference about the creation of the charity.