The cancer charity founded by the sailor Dame Ellen MacArthur has set out an ambition to grow its income by at least 15 per cent over the next three years.
The Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, which was founded in 2003, uses sailing and outdoor adventure to inspire young people who are living with cancer.
The charity said it was looking to boost its annual income by at least 15 per cent to £1.9m, as part of its new 2026 to 2029 strategy Connection, Belonging and Brighter Futures.
The charity’s last recorded income was £2.3m in the year ending November 2025, its latest accounts show; but this was due to a large one-off donation for the purchase of a new yacht.
Karenza Morton, the trust’s strategic development and communications manager, told Third Sector that without this donation, the charity’s income was just under £1.8m, adding that it would record a similar amount in the 2025/26 accounts.
The charity’s strategy also includes plans to diversify its funder pool, with the aim of not having any one funder representing more than 30 per cent of its overall funding by 2029.
Morton said the EMCT had received support for the past 15 years from the Postcode Lottery, which remained the charity’s major funder and represented more than 20 per cent of its income.
“But we recognise, especially with the world the way it is, that having a diverse income, and not having all our eggs in a handful of baskets, is super-important,” she said.
The strategy says that while investing in trust and foundations and philanthropy resource led to a 29 per cent increase in trust and foundation fundraising, the charity is yet to reduce its reliance on one funder to the extent it had hoped.
Morton said the charity’s primary investment over the past couple of years has been in high-value income streams, such as high-net-worth giving, trusts and foundations, and corporate giving.
It added an additional trusts and foundation fundraiser to its team in 2024 and recruited a new philanthropy lead earlier this year, she said.
Morton said the charity’s fundraising strategy would focus on five areas, including retaining and cultivating current supporters and maximising its existing database by converting engagement into direct support.
It will also focus on developing robust prospect pipelines and growing its networks, in work that is centred on high-value income streams; innovating through a “try and test” approach, with the aim of establishing a further three stable income streams by 2030; and being commercially creative, looking at the viability of using its assets to generate income and grow its retail offering.
The charity’s strategy includes a bid to remain within its target of always having between six and nine months of reserves.
The organisation’s strategy also pledges to increase the number of young people it supports each year and to continue to put belonging and lived experience at the heart of decision-making so they are “built-in by design”.