2023-09-30-accounts

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World Cancer Research Fund

Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements Registered Charity No: 1000739 Registered Company No: 2536180 30 September 2023

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Contents

Contents
Reference and administrative information	3
Report of the Trustees	4-21
Statement of Responsibilities of the Trustees	22
Independent auditor's report to the members of World Cancer Research Fund	23-25
Statement of financial activities	26
Balance sheet	27
Statement of cash flows	28
Notes to the financial statements	29-41

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Reference and administrative information

WORLD CANCER RESEARCH FUND

CHARITY NO: 1000739 COMPANY NO: 2536180 REGISTERED OFFICE 140 Pentonville Road London N1 9FW www.wcrf.org

TRUSTEES

Mr R Power (Chairman) Ms A Sinclair Prof A Cooper Ms A Hunter Ms S Pepper Mr F Hill Mr J Bunn (resigned on 3 August 2023)

PRESIDENT Ms Marilyn Gentry CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Ms Rachael Hutson SECRETARY Reed Smith Corporate Services Limited AUDITOR RSM UK Audit LLP Chartered Accountants 25 Farringdon Street London EC4A 4AB BANKERS Barclays Bank Plc P.O. Box 288 Gloucestershire GL1 2EH NatWest Bank 246 Regent Street London W1B 3PB SOLICITORS Reed Smith LLP The Broadgate Tower 20 Primrose Street London EC2A 2RS Bates Wells LLP 10 Queen Street Place London EC4R 1BE

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Report of the Trustees for the year ended 30 September 2023

The Trustees, who are also directors of World Cancer Research Fund for the purposes of the Companies Act, present their Report and Accounts for the year ended 30 September 2023. The Trustees have adopted the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice, Accounting and Reporting by Charities (Charities SORP (FRS 102)) and the Financial Reporting Standard 102 applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Charities Act 2011 and UK Generally Accepted Practice as it applies from 1 January 2019, in preparing the annual report and financial statements for the charity. This Report of the Trustees incorporates the Strategic report and the Directors’ report required under the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic report and Directors’ report) Regulations 2013.

Who We Are

World Cancer Research Fund examines how diet, weight and physical activity affect your risk of developing and surviving cancer. As part of an international network of charities, we have been funding life-saving research, influencing global public health policy and educating the public since 1982.

To date, we have invested around £154 million into research across our network. As part of this, we created the Global Cancer Update Programme – the world’s largest and most authoritative source of up-to-date scientific research on cancer prevention.

Every day in the UK, around 1,100 people will hear the words ‘you have cancer’, but we know that 40% of cancers are preventable. That’s why we turn our findings into easy-to-understand advice so everyone can reduce their cancer risk through informed decisions around healthy living.

While society continues searching for a cure, our prevention and survival work is helping people to live longer, happier and healthier lives – free from the devastating effects of cancer.

Preventing cancer. Saving lives

Public Benefit

It is estimated that one in two people in the UK will develop cancer in their lifetime but around 40 percent of cancers in the UK could be prevented – that's nearly 155,000 cases every year. Eating a healthy diet, being more active each day and maintaining a healthy weight are, after not smoking, the most important ways to reduce cancer risk.

We think it is vital that all research on cancer prevention is pieced together to give a clear picture on what people can do to help prevent cancer. We are proud to achieve this and provide clear, consistent, science-based messages about what people can do to reduce their cancer risk.

We confirm that we have complied with public benefit guidance from the Charity Commission (in England and Wales). In particular, the Trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives set, and the effect that these will have on our beneficiaries.

The World Cancer Research Fund Network

In a world dominated by funding for cancer treatments and cures, we’ve relentlessly promoted the importance of prevention. For 4 decades, we’ve been dedicated to helping healthcare professionals, policymakers and the academic community understand the role diet, weight and physical activity play in our chances of developing cancer. And to help all of us to understand how the choices we make and the environment we live in can affect our overall risk of developing the disease.

World Cancer Research Fund is a member of a network of cancer prevention charities with a global voice. For over 40 years, the World Cancer Research Fund Network (WCRF Network) has advocated the vital need for cancer prevention measures to be taken through a healthy diet, physical activity and being a healthy weight.

Our message was echoed in February 2014 when the World Health Organisation came out strongly in support of urgent implementation of effective prevention strategies to curb the disease.

Being a member of a network, led and unified by World Cancer Research Fund International (WCRF International), we achieve much more working together than we can alone. We access and support research around the world, share resources to influence policymaking and reach more people with our cancer prevention health information.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Collaboration means we can fund more research, share evidence, pool expertise and use our resources efficiently so you can be confident you are getting excellent value for the funds you donate to us to help prevent cancer.

We believe that it is possible to reverse the cancer burden, but it will take all of us – governments, health professionals and individuals - pulling together to make this happen.

Charitable Information

World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) is a charitable company limited by guarantee and was established on 3 September 1990 (the charity was registered by the Charity Commission on 30 October 1990). It is governed by up to 10 Trustees in accordance with the Articles of Association.

Governance Information

The Trustees are responsible for the overall strategic direction and management of the organisation. They are elected at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and can hold office until the second AGM following their appointment when they are eligible for reappointment. The Trustee Board meets at least twice a year where decisions are made relating to issues affecting the charity. The Trustee Board delegates responsibility for the operations of the charity to the Executive staff:

• Marilyn Gentry – President, World Cancer Research Fund Network

• Rachael Hutson - Chief Executive Officer (CEO), World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF)

Periodically, new Trustees are recruited to ensure the charity has access to a comprehensive range of skills and on the basis of the specific needs of WCRF. New Trustees are invited to attend a board meeting prior to their appointment. New Trustees receive key documents relating to the charity and a complete induction programme. Training needs of the Trustee Board are assessed and met as necessary on an ongoing basis.

Senior Staff Structure

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is responsible for the day-to-day management of the charity and reports to the President of the Network and the Board of Trustees.

WCRF has three key divisions: Communications and Health Information; Fundraising; and Finance & Operations and each have a director, who reports to the Chief Executive Officer and manages each team’s staff and activities.

WCRF’s staff works closely with colleagues in WCRF International, and the two organisations share office space. WCRF International provides strategic direction to all members of the global network; it guides and manages the Science and Research programmes on behalf of WCRF, as well as providing support in the following areas: Finance, Human Resources, IT and general operational logistics.

Remuneration is assessed annually in accordance with WCRF’s appraisal process. The appraisal process involves objective setting for each employee and a review of performance against objectives on an annual basis. The performance against objectives is used as a basis for any variable compensation awarded. The individual salary is predominately based on the employee’s professional experience and organisational responsibilities as set out by their job description and terms of employment. Salaries are benchmarked every two to three years using Cronor Rewards and XpertHR salary surveys to ensure competitiveness in the marketplace, with the latest benchmarking project completed in May 2024.

Here is an overview of our main achievements for the year October 2022 to September 2023:

Since inception, the WCRF Network has invested £154 million in research worldwide. As cancer is a complex disease, to understand the bigger picture, every year we invest in a variety of research projects. Some are the more traditional laboratory-based projects, while others, such as the Global Cancer Update Programme, analyse research findings from around the world and translate information into usable advice for the scientific community and our Cancer Prevention Recommendations for the general public.

Our wider Science and Research programmes are delivered by World Cancer Research Fund International (WCRF International), funded by and for the benefit of all World Cancer Research Fund Network members, including World Cancer Research Fund in the UK.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Research Interpretation and the Global Cancer Update Programme

Key goals and achievements:

1. Launch of Global Cancer Update Programme and inaugural Expert Panel meeting

Achievements:

Webinar launch

The Global Cancer Update Programme (CUP Global) was formally launched with a 90-minute webinar on 13 October 2022. All CUP Global Expert Panel members were present, including the Panel’s chair, Lord John Krebs, and Sir Professor Michael Marmot, a world-renowned expert on health inequalities.

The webinar included introductions from the CUP Global Secretariat, presentations from Panel members, including Professor Lord John Krebs and the Panel’s Deputy Chair, Professor Matty Weijenberg, and a live Q&A session along with Dr Kostas Tsilidis (Co-Principal Investigator, Imperial College London).

Key stakeholders from World Health Organisation (WHO), American Cancer Society, and Cancer Council Australia attended the webinar, along with over 200 others from all over the world. Hundreds of people have subsequently watched the webinar online.

Panel meeting

The inaugural Expert Panel meeting was held in London over three days (30 Nov 2022 - 2 Dec 2022). We brought together the CUP Global Panel, along with collaborators, and the CUP Global Secretariat. There were over 50 attendees including formal observers and collaborators, the CUP Global Secretariat and our patient representative.

WCRF International worked closely with the Panel to formally judge the evidence from 5 systematic reviews. This included discussion around how the evidence could best be judged; the mechanistic evidence underpinning how diet, nutrition and physical activity influence cancer, and inequalities in cancer outcomes. We reviewed and interpreted the data and systematic literature reviews and worked with our experts in advance of the meeting to develop all the documentation that the panel needed to be able to judge the evidence.

“It has been truly inspiring and encouraging to work together with such a dedicated team of renowned scientists during the panel meeting and contribute to the aim of the WCRF International Global Cancer Update Programme, to synthesize the most authoritative evidence for cancer prevention”. Professor Matty Weijenberg (Deputy Chair of the Panel)

2. Breast cancer survivors' outputs, 5 academic papers plus draft cancer survivors' guidance developed

Achievements:

Five scientific papers reporting the outcomes from the systematic reviews on breast cancer survivors carried out by Imperial College London were published in Oct-Dec 2022. Since then, these have been cited 35 times in academic journals with over 22,000 full text views. Four papers published in the International Journal of Cancer reported the impact of diet, nutrition and body weight on medical outcomes like mortality and cancer recurrence. Another paper was published in JNCI Cancer Spectrum, this reported how physical activity impacts quality of life.

Since the Inaugural CUP Global Panel meeting, the CUP Global Secretariat have been working with members of our Cancer Survivors Expert Committee and Panel to develop draft Guidance for dietary and lifestyle factors where evidence is not strong enough for formal Recommendations . We have incorporated feedback from health professionals working in cancer care, as well as people living with and beyond breast and bowel cancer, to ensure that the guidance helps meet their needs as well as possible. Draft guidance has been developed; this will be published later in 2023.

3. Provide science support for the wider organisation

Achievements:

Last year WCRF International provided extensive scientific guidance and support for other UK-based teams, particularly in relation to media and campaigning work, major donation asks, web and health information content, and on understanding wider cancer-related issues.

Some wider impactful figures:

• Seven scientific lectures at different universities

• Three webinars presenting on CUP Global

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

• Six CUP Global collaborations, with over 30 collaborators

• Four blogs on global cancer incidence, health inequalities in cancer outcomes, our prevention work, and ultra processed foods.

• Last year WCRF International provided extensive scientific support for other UK-based teams, both specifically in relation to CUP Global and on wider cancer-related issues, including checking for scientific accuracy within publications.

Other notable achievements from the year:

• WCRF International had a presence at the World Cancer Congress in October 2022 - we led a symposium entitled ‘Early-life exposures and future cancer risk’ with eminent speakers, Professor Alan Jackson, Professor Ellen Kampman, Dr Jennifer Lyn Baker, and Dr Trudy Voortman contributing. We ran a side event on innovation, had a stand and met many of our major stakeholders.

• We worked with our Expert Committee on cancer mechanisms and collaborators from IARC to develop a new mechanisms framework for systematically evaluating the complex evidence on the biological mechanisms underlying the development of cancer. Until now, these data have not been looked at in a systematic way, limiting our understanding of this important area.

• We followed up the successful inaugural CUP Global Expert Panel meeting, holding two virtual half-day meetings with our experts in July.

• We disseminated the findings from our work through online presentations at prominent events, webinars, blogs, university lectures, numerous live radio and TV appearances plus other media work. This included presenting as part of an expert roundtable for the European Cancer League/ European Public Health Alliance during European Week Against Cancer in May 2023.

• European Code Against Cancer WCRF International partnered with International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) on updating the European Code against Cancer (ECAC). This is the first time that policy development work has been included. The working group is chaired by Elio Riboli and met on 22 June 2023 to start the work.

• UICC nomination

WCRF International was one of the three shortlisted for the UICC Outstanding Contributions to Cancer Control Awards. These awards help bring visibility and due recognition to extraordinary individuals and organisations whose work has made a meaningful difference for people living with cancer. As part of our nomination, we received letters of support from Professors Alan Jackson, Linda Bauld and Professor Sir Michael Marmot.

The award ceremony was held in Long Beach, California in October 2023, sadly we did not win but from being nominated, we did garner a great deal of exposure at the World Cancer Leaders Summit where the awards ceremony was held.

Key Global Cancer Update Programme partnerships

During the year there were five key collaborations, in addition to our central partnership with Imperial College London. These were with:

• Dr Dora Romaguera from the Health Research Institute of the Balearic Islands (Spain), who reviewed the evidence on dietary and lifestyle factors and breast cancer. This review is currently being written up for scientific publication.

• Professor Ed Giovannucci from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (United States) who is reviewing the evidence on dietary and lifestyle factors and colorectal cancer. This review has been completed and the evidence from it will be formally judged at the Panel meeting later this year.

• Drs Dieuwertje Kok and Franzel van Duijnhoven from Wageningen University (Netherlands) who are conducting three reviews on the impacts of lifecourse factors on cancer risk for three cancers (breast, colorectal and prostate cancers ). The evidence judgements from the review on colorectal cancer are currently being finalised by the Panel and the review on breast cancer is underway and will be discussed at a Panel meeting in early 2024.

• Dr Laure Dossus from IARC (WHO, France), with Professor Marc Gunter from Imperial College London, who are reviewing mechanistic evidence to support the epidemiological reviews carried out by these collaborators. They are currently undertaking a review on colorectal cancer and a dietary and lifestyle

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

• patterns review, and they have completed the first lifecourse review. They have developed a new protocol for the incidence reviews and will then be working on a brand-new protocol for the survivorship reviews.

• A newly established collaboration being led by Dr Pau Erola from The University of Bristol. He is leading a team and collaborating with Imperial College London to develop new methods for automating the CUP Global reviews. This state-of-the-art computer science work will facilitate more efficient work for CUP Global and beyond.

Regular Grant Programme

Our Regular Grant Programme, managed by WCRF International and funded by World Cancer Research Fund and Wereld Kanker Onderzoek Fonds (WCRF in the Netherlands), provides funding of up to £350,000 per project, enabling us to invest in varied projects worldwide; these can be Investigator Initiated Grants or Seed Grants.

Key goals and achievements

1. To successfully run the 2022/2023 Research Grants Programme

In the 2022/2023 Regular Grant Programme (RGP) cycle, we received a total of 115 outline applications; 45 of these were shortlisted by the Panel at the January 2023 Grant Panel meeting. They included 30 Investigator Initiated Grants (IIGs) and 15 Pilot and Feasibility Grants (PFGs).

Achievements:

The Grant Panel meeting to review the 44 full applications was held face-to-face in June 2023. After fruitful discussions on the applications, and taking into consideration the peer reviewers’ comments, 20 applications were shortlisted for funding (14 IIGs and 6 PFGs). The WCRF International Board approved 16 of these grants for funding in September 2023.

Summary statistics for newly funded RGP grants:

• Total Network RGP funding: £3.8m

• By funder: 11 grants funded by WKOF (€2.9m (£2.5m)), and five by WCRF (£1.3m)

• Research area: five Cancer Prevention grants, and 11 Cancer Survivorship grants

• Research theme: eight Evidence for Cancer Survivors, four Host Factors/Individual Susceptibility, and four Biological Mechanisms

• Cancer types: five mixed, three colorectal, two childhood, two breast, two prostate, one oesophageal, and one neuroendocrine tumours

• Locations: five Australia, four Netherlands, three United Kingdom, and one each in Belgium, Denmark, France and Palestine

We are also continuing the funding partnership with Cancer Australia (CA) for a third year. As part of this partnership, CA co-funds grants based in Australia, raising our profile as a funder there as well as promoting good research.

2. To support capacity building and early career scientists through the Academy.

The Academy began in 2009 by offering fellowships for young researchers to undertake courses at Imperial College London. Since its inception there have been a series of activities including webinars, lectures and travel bursaries for conference attendances. These activities enabled the Academy to grow its network to 41 alumni, most of whom have progressed to more senior roles, working within the remit of WCRF.

Achievements:

In 2023 we re-engaged with 9 Academy alumni through a series of calls, where potential plans for the Academy and for collaboration were presented.

3. To develop and implement new processes for evaluating the impact of the Research Grant Programme. Achievements:

We have been working on new methods to evaluate the impact of the research funded by WCRF through the Research Grant Programme. This includes developing an Impact Evaluation Framework for the systematic analysis of the actively running grants, and applying the methods described in the Framework to assess our current impact.

Regular Grants Programme highlights

Between 2016 and 2022 the WCRF International Network has funded 69 grants, totalling £17.9 million. 63 of which are active and six were completed in 2023.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

From the 69 reviewed grants, 24 (35%) focus on nutrition, 19 (28%) investigate a combination of nutrition, physical activity and/or body composition, 16 (23%) look at body composition and 10 (14%) target physical activity.

Newly funded studies

The newly awarded grants - funded by WCRF Int are:

• Prof Sarah-Maria Fendt, VIB-Flemish Institute for Biotechnology, Belgium, £350,000: Defining the role of diet and age in how breast cancer spreads .

• Dr Evelyn Monninkhof, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Netherlands, £349,848: Breast cancer: effect of yoga on endocrine-related musculoskeletal symptoms.

• Dr Pekka Keski-Rahkonen, International Agency for Research on Cancer, France, £349,807: Understanding the link between colorectal cancer and obesity through metabolic profiling .

• Dr Raoul Reulen, University of Birmingham, UK, £349,792: Investigating lifestyle factors and survivors of childhood cancers .

• Prof Adam Frampton, University of Surrey, UK, £348,030: Exercise and outcomes in advanced oesophageal cancer .

• Dr Rachel van Leeuwaarde, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Netherlands, £339,000: Investigating the role of lifestyle in neuroendocrine tumours .

• Dr Dieuwertje Kok, Wageningen University, Netherlands, £324,060: Non-metastatic colorectal cancer: liver fat, treatment tolerance & prognosis .

• Dr Alina Vrieling, Radboud University Medical Center, Netherlands, £305,263: Reducing sedentary behaviour after colorectal and renal cancer .

• Prof Daniel Galvão, Edith Cowan University, Australia, £299,578: Trialling exercise alongside radiotherapy for prostate cancer patients .

• Dr Simon Lord, University of Oxford, UK, £270,394: Impact of obesity on cancer survival using the Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy Dataset .

• Ms Lene Mellemkjær, Danish Cancer Society Research Centre, Denmark, £243,467: Body composition and risk of obesity-related cancers .

• Prof Robert Newton, Edith Cowan University, Australia, £65,609: MYEX exercise trial for patients with prostate cancer .

• Dr Rania Abu Seir, Al-Quds University, Palestine, £60,000: Colorectal cancer survival in Palestine: a feasibility study on lifestyle factors .

• Prof Ruth Hubbard, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Australia, £60,000: Older adults with cancer: designing a diet and activity model of care .

• Prof Stewart Graeme Trost, University of Queensland, Australia, £58,268: Feasibility study using exercise for survivors of paediatric sarcoma .

• Dr Jasmine Menant, Neuroscience Research Australia £29,981: Feasibility study for helping patients with chemo-induced peripheral neuropathy .

Details on all of our funded grants can be found at https://www.wcrf.org/research-we-fund/what-we-are-funding/

INSPIRE

As part of the continued commitment to enhancing our research portfolio, earlier in the year WCRF International (in partnership with AICR, WCRF and WKOF) launched the ‘Inspire Research Challenge’. This new grant call is aimed at Early Career Investigators worldwide and runs in parallel with our existing Grant Programmes.

The Inspire Research Challenge prioritises innovative, bold, and creative proposals with the potential to catalyse rapid and impactful advances in cancer prevention, treatment and survivorship. The research areas covered are cancer prevention and survivorship, addressing lifestyle (diet, nutrition, physical activity) and environmental (pollution/contaminants, pathogens) factors. Particular interest was expressed for research into novel lifestyle exposures, such as stress, sleep and immune function.

Key INPIRE statistics:

• 48 applications received

• 14 applicants invited to submit full application

• 6 grants funded

• Total Inspire funding: £397,331

• Funders: three funded by WKOF (£208,732) and three funded by WCRF (£188,600)

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

• Research areas: Cancer Prevention (2) and Cancer Survivorship (4)

• Cancer types: childhood cancer (2 grants), skin cancer (1), breast cancer (1), reproductive cancers (1), and mixed cancers (1)

• Locations: United States (2), Hong Kong (1), Spain (1), Greece (1), and Denmark (1)

The newly awarded Inspire Research Challenge grants, funded by our network of cancer prevention charities - which includes World Cancer Research Fund in the UK and Wereld Kanker Onderzoek Fonds in the Netherlands - are:

• Dr Julie Aarestrup, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital, Denmark, £69,700: Early life infections: pathways to prevent adult cancers?

• Dr Christos Chalitsios, University of Ioannina, Greece, £69,700: The impact of sleep on the development of reproductive system cancers .

• Dr Micah Skeens, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, US, £69,700: Using AI chatbots to support families of children with cancer .

• Dr Shan Luo, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, £69,619: Exploring links between sleep patterns and breast cancer risk .

• Dr Dong Woo Kang, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, US, £69,412: How exercise and fibre affect immunotherapy outcomes for melanoma patients .

• Dr Alice Chaplin, Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red, Spain, £49,200: Life S-Can: a new clinical tool to improve cancer survivorship care .

Partnerships

WCRF supports the International Collaboration on Nutrition in relation to Cancer (ICONIC), which continues to provide a grant training course to improve the grant-writing capabilities of researchers working in Nutrition and Cancer epidemiology-related fields in Africa. Our work with ICONIC supports our continued efforts to support researchers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and early career scientists.

WCRF has also supported Dr Elom Aglago to attend the AORTIC 2023 conference in Senegal to showcase ICONIC and our CUP Global work.

Policy and Public Affairs

Our wider Policy and Public Affairs work is delivered by WCRF International and funded by WCRF network members, including World Cancer Research Fund in the UK.

In 2022/23 we continued to implement the Policy and Public Affairs strategy developed and adopted in 2021.

Key goals and achievements:

1. Finalise and disseminate remaining CO-CREATE outputs

WCRF was part of the EU Horizon 2020 funded CO-CREATE project on child and adolescent obesity. Its key aim was to reduce childhood obesity by working with young people to create nutrition and physical activity policy actions to promote healthier environments.

Achievements :

Our CO-CREATE work involved developing a suite of tools to help monitor, benchmark and assess the nutrition and physical activity policies of 30 European countries. The key outputs, the NOURISHING and MOVING policy indexes, were finalised and launched at two webinars in early May.

The final outputs of two policy briefs and 60 country snapshots were also completed, and we then presented the COCREATE findings at six conferences during the year:

• Oral presentations of MOVING policy index at International Society for Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA) conference & Health Enhancing Physical Activity Europe (HEPA Europe).

• Poster presentations of NOURISHING & MOVING findings at European Congress on Obesity (ECO), UK Congress on Obesity (UKCO) and UK Prevention Research Conference.

• An interactive session at the Youth School of Advocacy and Health Policy conference.

• The findings were further shared via various other conferences and stakeholders and their communications channels. This included being featured on the Union for International Cancer Control website in June.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

2. Maintain and strengthen relations with the World Health Organisation

We are in official relations with the World Health Organisation (WHO), a status that is granted to civil society organisations which engage with and support WHO following a strict application procedure. This privileged status enables us to contribute to and influence the development of global public health policy that is relevant to cancer prevention.

Achievements:

We have maintained and strengthened our relations with WHO through five key meetings with WHO officials working on nutrition, physical activity, cancer control and commercial determinants of health, and by actively participating in WHO Executive Board (EB) and World Health Assembly (WHA) meetings.

Our WHA and EB representation involved two joint statements and one constituency statement at EB 152, along with four constituency statements and five meetings with representatives of national governments from WHO countries at or for WHA 76.

At EB 152, we signed statements on non-state actor engagement (‘civil society engagement’ in WHO’s terminology), social determinants of health (SDoH) and nutrition.

At WHA 76 we co-signed constituency statements (developed and signed jointly by a number of civil society organisations) on NCDs, UHC, well-being, and social determinants of health (SDoH).

We also submitted a joint response with NCD Alliance to the consultation on fiscal policies to support healthy diets, and an individual response to the consultation on the digital marketing of breastmilk substitutes.

3. Building Momentum report on policies to promote physical activity in primary healthcare

We launched our fourth report in the Building Momentum series, designed to help policymakers to overcome barriers to implementing evidence-based policies. It was the first Building Momentum report on physical activity policy; previous reports addressed nutrition policy.

Achievements:

The report was finalised and an additional four-page summary was created. Country snapshots for USA, UK and Netherlands were completed and included.

A report launch webinar took place on 21 June 2023 and attracted 65 participants from key organisations including WHO, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, cancer charities across Europe, national governments and academia. The findings were presented at the Health Enhancing Physical Activity Europe (HEPA Europe) conference in September. The report was shared by EuropeActive, the European fitness industry body, the Dutch Knowledge Centre for Sports and Movement and the EU Health Policy Portal.

Supporting the policy activities of WCRF in the UK

We attend regular meetings and undertake other activities with:

• Obesity Health Alliance (OHA)

• Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA)

• Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) Public Affairs Working Group and Heads of Policy Group

• UK Working Group on NCDs

• Children’s Food Campaign

• • International Coalition for Advocacy on Nutrition (ICAN) UK

We responded to three parliamentary consultations: a Department for Health and Social Care major conditions strategy consultation; a Health and Social Care Select Committee Prevention inquiry, and an OFCOM consultation on advertising restrictions for HFSS (high in fat, salt and sugar) products.

Other activities included:

• Co-signing an AHA letter to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt asking for increase to alcohol excise duty in February.

• Helping to promote the One Cancer Voice petition on the need for a long-term cancer strategy in March.

• Co-signing an OHA letter to party leaders on childhood obesity in May.

• Contributing to the development of an AMRC general election manifesto in July.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

• Co-signing a Sustain and OHA letter asking retailers to join Sainsbury’s and Tesco in implementing multibuy promotion restrictions on foods high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) after the UK government delayed mandatory measures in September.

Developing an alcohol policy focus

We undertook meetings with a number of alcohol policy stakeholders including NordAn and Movendi as well as regular meetings of the AHA. We also attended the Eurocare Lancet conference on alcohol policy and the International Agency for Research on Cancer's (IARC) Summer School on alcohol and tobacco, both in June.

Policy Partnerships

We expanded our network of nutrition and physical activity policy verification contacts across the 30 European countries addressed in the CO-CREATE project. Verification contacts are national experts, either civil servants/government officials or researchers in public universities or public research institutes who are able to verify policies for inclusion in our NOURISHING (nutrition policy) or MOVING (physical activity policy) database.

The CO-CREATE NOURISHING and MOVING databases also continued to grow, with:

• 1,213 policy actions and 110 evaluations from 134 countries in the NOURISHING database.

• 720 policy actions and 12 evaluations from 28 countries in the MOVING database.

• 115 people attending a NOURISHING policy index webinar.

• 60 people attended a MOVING policy index webinar.

We have continued our partnership with UICC, agreeing a new work programme in late 2022 and undertaking quarterly meetings during 2023. We also participate in the UICC global advocacy coordination group and contributed to the development of a UICC position on universal health coverage in early 2023.

Looking ahead

We were one of the few civil society organisations in the health field to attend the UN Food Systems (UNFSS) stocktaking meeting in Rome in July. We met with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN, WHO, Consumers International, World Food Programme and UNICEF. These are relationships we intend to build upon over the coming year.

The PPA team is now represented on the European Code Against Cancer Lifestyles Working Group, which began its work in June. The 5[th] European Code Against Cancer is being updated and the work is being coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

Communicating healthy lifestyle messages

All our communications, health education programmes and campaigns aim to enable better understanding and to encourage behaviour change to reduce the occurrence of preventable cancers. We do this by offering high-quality evidence-based information and health tools to empower people to make healthy lifestyle choices.

Our team of nutrition experts has continued to support cross-charity projects, ensuring all our content is up-to-date and in line with our cancer prevention recommendations.

Our projects cover the areas of cancer prevention, ensuring that as many people as possible not only know that 40% of cancers can be prevented but know what they can do to reduce their risk and also cancer survival, providing support, advice and guidance on diet and exercise to people who are living with and beyond cancer. We connect with the public directly and also with health professionals so that they can give the most up to date information to their patients.

Key goals and achievements

1. Increase the reach of our healthy living publications so we can support more people to reduce their risk of developing a preventable cancer. Achievements:

105% more free healthy living publications were requested or downloaded this year (74,420 in total, compared to 36,213 in 2021-22).

Our new Budget Bites cookbook accounted for 11,692 print orders alone. Its timeliness in the cost-of-living crisis and successful promotion across channels combined to make this the most popular resource produced by the Health Information Team.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

As our cookbooks are a great entry point for our messages to people new to WCRF, with this cookbook we incorporated health information such as tips and myth busting alongside the recipes, an approach we will continue.

Budget Bites’ recipe writer, Zoe Griffiths, was instrumental in promoting the resource on social media and it was featured by several freebie websites. Its launch also gained media coverage in The Independent (linked to a co-funded research story), on Times Radio and across regional print press. Useful contacts were made with not-for-profit Veg Power and the public health departments of local authorities who promoted the cookbook to their users.

2. Launch a nutrition helpline which enables people living with and beyond cancer to get their questions answered by a specialist oncology dietitian, to help them cope with the side effects of treatment or of their cancer itself. Achievements:

The pilot Cancer and Nutrition Helpline launched in May 2023 and over the next six months to November 2023, the service was open four hours a week, totalling 106 hours and receiving 122 enquiries. The most common reason for contact was for requests for information based on our current evidence.

100% of users completing our feedback survey rated both their overall experience of the helpline and the information they received as excellent or good.

74% said they felt ‘much more confident’ managing their diet or any side effects associated with cancer after using the helpline; 22% ‘more confident’

The helpline’s first months have demonstrated that the service meets a real need so the focus now is to spread the word about it via health professionals so many more people can benefit.

3. Increase the reach of our support through growth of our health professional membership package, to provide education and information for professionals who are supporting people to reduce their cancer risk or to live well during and beyond cancer treatment.

Achievements:

Membership of our package for health professionals reached 6,214, an increase of 408 since last year.

A busy year of conference attendance accounted for 304 sign ups to our health professional package with visitors to our stand introduced to our new brand and impressed by the range of our resources.

We launched Activ8 , our eight-week behaviour change email support programme to inspire and support subscribers to make healthy habits to help lower their risk of cancer. To date, 1,527 people have signed up.

New/updated publications for the year:

• Budget Bites cookbook

• Three factsheets (on fibre, processed meat and alcohol)

• Men’s Health guide

• Protect yourself against bowel cancer guide

• Women’s Health guide

• 5 A DAY portion poster

We completed our Junior Cooks Club pilot project in several schools in Brent, London, an area chosen for its high rates of both childhood obesity and people living in poverty. Through a series of video cooking lessons for 7–10-yearolds, we reached around 1,300 children, improving their understanding of healthy eating and increasing their cooking skills and confidence.

To provide nutrition education to professionals and raise awareness of the support we offer, we: delivered webinars for the British Dietetic Association Specialist Oncology Group and the UK Oncology Nursing Society (with 79 live attendees); ran a webinar for the dietetic department of the Royal Marsden Hospital and joined a MyNutriWeb roundtable panel discussion on sweeteners (267 live attendees).

We successfully trialled a speaking slot at Nursing in Practice in Liverpool with a Registered Dietitian speaking for us on ‘Teachable moments for cancer prevention’.

We ran five online cancer prevention workshops, supported by Pfizer and Merck Serono, with 170 professionals attending during the year. Every attendee said they felt more confident about cancer prevention, lifestyle and dietary factors and that they would attend another WCRF workshop.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Typical comments were:

“Very good, informative update on cancer prevention”.

“I feel more confident to promote health and well-being relating to cancer”.

There were 81,272 visits made to our Eat Move Learn web pages for 7-11 year olds (a decrease on last year: 123,040).

We had 854 active users register for our cancer prevention e-learning, reaching a total of 1,526 user accounts created to-date.

Key partnerships

Our strategic partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and its Cancer and Nutrition Collaboration is focused on delivering consistent, credible information and training about the links between cancer and diet more widely.

Discussion at our three steering group meetings led us to make links with a range of valuable academic and clinical contacts such as the Nutrition Society Special Interest Group on Diet and Health for Ethnic Minority Groups.

We also attended the NIHR Cancer and Nutrition collaboration meeting at the Oncology Forum in Birmingham where we spoke about ways we support professionals.

One aspect of our joint work with NIHR aims to address the lack of nutrition content in the undergraduate medical curriculum, an acknowledged deficiency. We aim to develop and embed learning materials on nutrition and cancer prevention for medical students, building on a 2021 curriculum statement from the Association for Nutrition, and, with medical schools, develop exemplars for teaching and learning around nutrition.

We reviewed our existing learning materials to establish how well they fitted against curriculum requirements and prepared a suggested learning package for use alongside conversations with stakeholders in medical schools. Our ideas have received an initial positive response and this engagement has also given us useful feedback on how medical teaching is organised and students’ preferred learning styles.

We have also joined the Collaboration’s reconvened Professionals workstream which will focus on professionals sharing knowledge and developing standards of practice, with a specific objective on supporting our Living with Cancer FAQs project.

We will also be joining a new NIHR Prehabilitation group. Prehabilitation is an area of growing interest to oncology professionals and we will be considering the role WCRF might play in preparing cancer patients to cope with treatment.

Working with the Media to reach the public and raise awareness

The media here in the UK and also around the world, play a key part in helping us to raise awareness of charity and our messages. Our dedicated Press and Communications team have relationships with a number of national news outlets and we are often called upon for quotes on relevant stories on cancer prevention and related statistics.

Key goals and achievements

1. Continue to grow our reach in traditional media highlighting WCRF’s work Achievements:

• During the year we achieved a total of 6,272 mentions and articles across the media.

• Our yearly YouGov awareness poll was picked up by national and broadcast media including The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, Times Radio, BBC Radio Scotland, as well as over 200 regional outlets.

• We press released a number of our research findings, including a study on overweight being linked to at least 18 cancers. In July 2023, the study gained coverage across national and international media such as The Evening Standard, Mail Online, The Independent and The New York Post, as well as getting picked up by over 250 regional media outlets.

• In September 2023, Director of Research, Innovation and Policy, Dr Panagiota Mitrou, took part in a roundtable with The Guardian, following its report on the cost of preventable cancers. This resulted in WCRF being included in two separate articles (as well as featuring on the front page of The Guardian’s newspaper). The first piece included our 40% preventability stat, and the second follow-up piece included our evidence on risk factors.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

• In the exclusive piece in The Guardian, quotes from Dr Mitrou were included on another front page, discussing the need for impactful campaigns to reduce preventable cancers. Following the news, our Assistant Director of Research and Policy, Dr Helen Croker, appeared live on LBC, and WCRF was also mentioned on multiple radio stations including BBC Radio 4, GB News & Talk TV.

2. Disseminate and ensure the organisation incorporates new set of organisational key messages and tone of voice into their communication.

Achievements:

After delivering a brand-new set of key messages, including tone of voice, the various WCRF teams then worked to integrate them into their communications. We continue to champion these among staff to ensure our communication is as impactful as possible.

3. Deliver a successful Cancer Prevention Action Week campaign with an increased reach from the previous year.

Held in February 2023, the theme for 2023 was ‘The Great British Sarnie Swap’. Our key message was that there is a link between processed meat and bowel cancer, and to prevent bowel cancer people can reduce the amount of processed meat they eat. The Great British Sarnie Swap encouraged everyone to swap the processed meat in their sandwich for a healthier, cheap alternative once during the week.

Partners secured for the week included Man vs Fat, Clubbercise and talent who leant their name to, and tweeted about the week, included Charlene White, Lisa Riley, Dame Arlene Philips and Gaby Roslin.

Achievements:

A campaign press release resulted in 52 pieces of UK-based editorial, and approximately 176 overall when including global editorial and syndicated radio.

National coverage included 13 media articles, including Metro (print), Daily Express, The Sun, Daily Star and Saturday Times; 14 broadcast mentions, including BBC Radio Oxford; five mentions in lifestyle publications; and 14 broadcast pieces (with WCRF spokespeople).

The quality of the consumer story coverage was high, with good key message delivery. The majority contained a quote from one of our main campaign spokespeople.

Looking ahead

We will continue to develop WCRF’s supporter stories to bring more person-centred stories to help highlight WCRF’s work. We will also seek to deliver a successful Cancer Prevention Action Week in February 2024, built around our Recommendation on physical activity.

– Looking the part ensuring our products are eye catching as well as informative

Branding is a key element of any organisation, WCRF is no different. As well as our products being scientifically accurate and informative, we want them to be easy to read and also pleasing to the eye. During 2021/22, and after a decade since we had last reviewed our look and feel, we carried out an important brand audit and brand review project. This resulted in a refresh of our visual identity with new colours, new fonts, a new approach to our imagery and photography, new illustrations and iconography, along with work to identify key messages and an appropriate tone of voice for each of our major audience groups.

Key goal and achievement

1. Implement a new brand identity for the organisation

Achievement:

During 2022/23, we set about implementing the brand work. On the digital side, this included implementing newly designed templates for our UK website, social media pages and e-newsletters. In terms of print then as and when any new publications, fundraising materials, HI guides and leaflets or corporate collateral for our events were required, these were all produced using our new visual identity.

The switch over to our new look and feel has been slow but sure, and all the feedback from our supporters and partners so far is that our key aims at the start of the process - of being more easily recognisable, of standing out more, and of communicating who we are and what we do more clearly - are being achieved.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Making digital channels work for us

Websites and social media are key information providers and influencers and it’s important that we don’t fall behind in these areas, they give us a platform to disseminate our healthy lifestyles messages, share information on our life saving research and to encourage supporters to give.

Key goals and achievements

1. To re-evaluate our social media channels and evolve regular paid activity in support of our products

Achievements : During the year, we grew our total social media followers to 57,975 – an increase of 3,005, compared with the figure at 30 September 2022, representing a 5% increase. This is despite some streamlining work across two of our platforms and a generally volatile social media landscape.

We made some significant changes to our channels over the past 12 months. In order to improve prioritisation of our communications, we took the decision to merge the Facebook profiles of WCRF and also WCRF International, many of our followers were similar as well as the content, having two of everything only diluted the impact.

Meanwhile, on Instagram and LinkedIn, we have seen both our audiences and engagement increase. Overall, our total impressions (which means the number of people who will have seen our content in their social media feeds) has dropped. However, the number of people who have actively engaged with our content has increased, proving that we’re producing content that is more relevant for the audience. For example our engagement rate is up by 64.4% from last year.

Most platforms saw an increase on engagement except for Twitter which could be due to the shift from Twitter to X. Otherwise Facebook was up by over 56% and LinkedIn by 15%.

We also boosted the amount of product-specific social advertising during 2023 – particularly promoting our interactive email programme Activ8.

As we move into a new financial year, we’re going to focus on using paid social media advertising to promote our key cancer prevention work, with a view to taking more people on a journey to improving their health and, ultimately, supporting and championing our cause.

2. To incorporate refreshed branding on the UK website and look further into merging the UK and International websites

Achievements:

• We successfully incorporated the refreshed branding onto the UK website – giving it a cleaner look and feel

• We introduced a new donation mechanism to drive increased online revenue.

• Carried out two pieces of work to better understand if and how we might want to merge the UK and International websites.

• The UK website had over 479k unique users during the year with over 1m page views and a 65% engagement rate; the international website had 621k unique users with 1.4m page views and a 57% engagement rate.’

Website traffic

It’s been a strong year for website traffic on both sites, compared with the previous year. We’re now measuring the traffic in slightly different ways, because the Google analytics tool changed during 2023, with a greater focus on engagement – meaning we get a better sense of whether visitors to the site are actively using and engaging with the content. A higher rate implies that people actually are interested in what we do.

On the UK site, we’re focussing less on driving what we term as ‘empty’ traffic to some of our health tools, such as the BMI calculator. Very few of those users are interested in our cancer prevention messages – viewing the tool as a means to an end and not paying attention to the reason we host the tool.

A combined website for WCRF and WCRF International?

For some time, we’ve been looking at whether it makes sense to run two separate websites – UK and International -– particularly given that there is overlapping content, in terms of the preventing cancer and cancer types information.

However, rather than make a decision to merge the two into one, we decided to carry out some audience insight work. We partnered with a specialist audience insight agency, The Culture Studio, to carry out some research into user needs, behaviours and expectations from a site, such as World Cancer Research Fund.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

The aim was to understand how to increase the relevance of the WCRF website, in order to drive awareness and engagement with us and our aims. We used an online research hub that – over the course of 5 days – allowed the research participants to give their thoughts on health and wellbeing, in general, working up to how WCRF fits into it.

This piece of work has not only given us some excellent insight into how we might develop the scope and content of the website, but it also reinforced the message that – for most of the general public and health professionals – having two sites is both confusing and unnecessary. Subsequently, we worked with The Culture Studio again on a separate project to help us think about how we might want to order the topics and content, when we combine the two sites.

The focus during 2023-24 will be to move closer towards (and hopefully complete) a combined website that works for all parties.

Looking ahead

We will work towards bringing the UK and International websites together under a single URL. This will require substantial rewriting of our Health Information content, as well as ensuring that our Research and Policy content is represented in a meaningful and helpful way for all stakeholders.

We will embark upon a concerted paid social marketing campaign, to increase engagement and bring people along our supporter journey.

With planned improvements to our internal databases, we will aim to carry out better, targeted email marketing and encourage supporters to interact more.

Engaging and supporting our supporters

With a strategic aim to grow income to £15m by 2030, we know that we must adapt the way we fundraise and work differently to maximise the return of our investment. Throughout 2022/23 we have been working to build our audiences so that more people are aware of, and adopting, our Cancer Prevention Recommendations (Recommendations). We have launched new ways of fundraising this year and are adapting the way we engage with our supporters, so that we are building meaningful two-way relationships based on their motivations for supporting us. This in turn will develop loyalty and make potential advocates and WCRF ambassadors in communities across the UK.

The fundraising landscape remained a challenging one in 2022/23 with the cost-of-living crisis, global conflicts and emergencies affecting how much people can afford to give and the causes they choose to support. However, we have continued to see great generosity from our loyal supporters, and it was wonderful to meet some of them in person at our first Supporter Engagement Event in March 2023.

We are continuously reviewing our fundraising activities and ensure a reasonable return on investment while also adhering to the guidelines set by the Fundraising Regulator.

As always thanks to the incredible generosity of our supporters we have raised £10.7 million this year, 2022 £10.8 million this meaning we have been able to invest 44% into our cancer prevention and survivorship research and health education programmes.

Direct Marketing

We have continued to go from strength to strength over recent years with our Direct Marketing (DM) campaigns, increasing awareness of our Recommendations, raising vital funds for our cause and explaining how donations are used. The wider aim of our DM campaigns is to provide healthy living messages and advice to our supporters and the public, providing cancer prevention information as directly as possible and helping readers to better understand the links between diet, weight, exercise and the risk of cancer.

Key goals and achievements:

1. To grow income from community, events, corporate, trusts and digital

Across Community, Events, Corporate, Trusts and Digital our goal was to raise £536,100.

Achievements:

Despite being a very tough year for Trusts due to increases in demand for funds from across the third sector we saw growth in Corporate fundraising and continued to grow our pipelines of support so that we might benefit moving forward. The London Marathon continues to be a great income generator for us and our new ‘Walk 100 miles in

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

February” product provided a great boost to digital income. Across all of these areas we achieved an income of just over £400,000, an increase of approximately £60,000 on last year.

2. To improve stewardship of our donors to maximise income and develop supporter journeys to ensure we’re maximising their lifetime value.

Achievements:

We held our first face to face event since the Covid19 pandemic and welcomed 82 loyal supporters, corporate partners and Trust prospects to join us for an event in Westminster. This gave us the opportunity to meet and engage with some of our most loyal and long-standing supporters as well as better understand what people know about us and what they think we stand for. Professor John Mathers gave an inspiring presentation demonstrating the impact our Recommendations have on our cancer risk when followed.

We are planning to do more face-to-face events in 2023/24 in London and other areas of England, with the first one planned for April 2024 in Manchester.

In addition to face-to-face activities, our marketing plans and processes have been under constant review. This is to ensure that our supporters receive timely and appropriate information, acknowledging and demonstrating the impact of their support. We will continue to improve and automate our procedures where we can. This will help to improve our fundraising capacity, an example of which is our recent partnership with FundraiseUp which has streamlined our online donation process and made this simpler and easier for the donor.

We have automated our welcome messaging and journeys for supporters, helping to deepen engagement by ensuring they get appropriate, regular communications. We are also working on an upgrade of our internal databases which will enable us to segment our data more effectively based on supporter needs, motivations and behaviour.

3. To create new fundraising products to appeal to new audiences Achievements:

We continue to innovate and develop our existing fundraising products, testing new activities to attract new audiences. In December 2022, we introduced a new digital fundraising product, Walk 100 miles in February. This initiative was developed to raise awareness for WCRF and our Recommendations in a unique and challenging way, encouraging participants to be active while raising vital funds for our research and health information work. The campaign resulted in over 3,000 new leads from which 469 went on to raise £54,750. We are looking forward to building on this success next year.

In June 2023 we ran our Dump the Junk campaign on Facebook and Instagram. We used an agency to manage this campaign directly and in doing so learnt a lot about how to further develop this campaign for next year.

Other key successes:

As a charity we signed up to a number of third-party challenge events during the year in which supporters of ours took part whilst also fundraising for us, including the Berlin Marathon, Vitality 10k and the London Marathon. Our recruitment and stewardship for the London Marathon resulted in 30 participants - some coming from as far afield as Kazakhstan and Australia - who raised an amazing £73,000.

Our Trusts team secured 62 donations during the year. Here are some highlights:

• One grant from PF Charitable Trust was towards the second year of our research at the University of Leeds, which is looking to understand the impact of diet in the response to chemotherapy in women with triple negative breast cancer.

• A £20k grant from the Love Hope Strength Foundation will enable us to develop and pilot a healthy living guide, translated into Bengali, and work to promote excellence in cancer and nutrition research and practice in Africa via our partnership with The International Collaboration on Nutrition in relation to Cancer (ICONIC).

Legacies and in-memory donations are a large part of our annual income, this year was no exception. We raised £2.16m from legacy gifts, £4,965 from donations in response to our legacy stewardship programme, and £56,251 from In-memory donations. We end the year with a legacy pipeline in excess of £1m being brought forward into next year. Legacy receipts and accrued income remained stable and less affected than many others in the sector due to the delays with the probate registry and wider economic problems, especially within the housing market.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

We trialled an In-memory specific direct mail piece at Christmas 2022 which performed well (with an ROI of 1:1.75), and which will allow us to develop our In-memory offering and strategy over future years. This will help to steward supporters through a more bespoke supporter journey and re-define and increase our asks. This was our new ‘Memorial Christmas Bauble Appeal’ which meant our supporters could honour and remember their loved ones while contributing to our life-saving work, and we are excited to see how this initiative develops next year.

57 of our committed supporters told us that they had included a gift in their Will to World Cancer Research Fund. This means we are now stewarding 10,308 people who have enquired about legacy giving, plus a further 3,053 who have told us that they have included a gift. This figure should be noted against a backdrop of an average of 100 people dying per year in the UK leaving a gift (2018-2023).

Corporate partnerships allow us to engage with people who might not always know of us, here are some highlights of our work in that area:

• We are particularly grateful for Tecan raising over £20k for World Cancer Research Fund. Tecan Gives Back is an employee-driven initiative supporting charities that help to improve people’s health and quality of life. The scheme gives employees the opportunity to earn ‘kilometres’ for their chosen charity by engaging in fitness and wellness activities, or by volunteering. These are then pooled and converted into cash donations at the end of the month-long challenge.

• 16 corporate prospect contacts attended our supporter engagement event.

• We were thrilled to receive £24k from the Blackstone Group whose employees raised funds through their “Cycle for Life’ event.

• We are extremely grateful for the £10k gift towards our Junior Cooks Club pilot from Tesco Groundworks’ community engagement programme, where customers vote for their favourite community project, and were invited to attend a celebratory reception at the Houses of Parliament.

Supporting our Supporters

WCRF has a small devoted and friendly Supporter Care team who respond to enquiries and feedback from supporters, the general public and health professionals every day. Their remit is to build meaningful, long-term relationships with our supporters as well as working closely to support other departments with initiatives and on-going projects. They are the ‘voice’ of World Cancer Research Fund on the telephones. This year they answered 8,966 telephone calls and also responded to and followed up on 2,800 queries.

Finally, and as always, thanks to the enormous generosity of our supporters and the ongoing hard work of our staff and volunteers, we raised a total of £10.7 million. This meant that we were able to invest 44% of our income into our cancer prevention research and health information programmes.

Looking ahead

In FY2023/24 and beyond we have the goal of raising £15 million very firmly in our minds. Our plans include increased engagement with supports, a focus on securing longer term, restricted funding and the development of programmes and projects to ensure a sustainable future for WCRF.

In summary

In FY2023/23 WCRF experienced another year of steady progress. We launched a new Grant programme supporting the next generation of researchers, we were also able to fund almost all the grants that our Grant Panel deemed fundable, we met goals from our strategic plans, we kept a sound bottom line, spread the word ever further regarding our key messages, and worked together with WCRF International to ensure our life changing information reached more people.

We thank our staff and our supporters for their tremendous dedication and flexibility and look forward to achieving more successes next year.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Management of risk

The Trustees have approved, implemented and regularly reviewed WCRF’s risk management plan, which is operated by staff on a day-to-day basis. Senior staff, heads of department and Trustees work together to revise the risk management plan annually, identifying emerging risks, prioritising them in terms of potential impact and likelihood of occurrence.

The risk management plan covers governance, financial, operational, IT, and other risks. Internal control procedures are in place to provide assurance against identified risks in order to uphold the integrity and reputation of the charity. These include: a 3-year Strategic Plan reviewed periodically through the year annual operational plans and budgets which are approved by the Trustees; regular review by the Trustees of financial results, variance from budgets and financial targets; risk management, segregation of duties, policies and procedures. Additionally, Trustees are kept up to date with any changes in governance requirements to ensure they are fully informed of best practice.

During the financial year, we identified the potential impact of economic recession as a major risk to WCRF. As a result, we reviewed our annual budget compared to actual performance, strategic plans and the reserves policy during the year to ensure we can maintain our research funding projects over a long-term period. Prompt financial reporting procedures were followed in order to respond to shifts in the economic environment.

Financial Review

Income

Total income in 2022/2023 decreased by £178,133 to £10,639,714 ( 2022: £ 10,817,847). Legacies were £2,156,119 (2022: £ 2,312,783 ) a decrease of £156,664. Donations from individual donors decreased by (£1,557,590) to £5,183,000 ( 2022: £ 6,740,590).

Investment income consists solely of interest earned on cash held in interest-bearing accounts.

Trading activities, if any, represent revenue produced by WCRF’s wholly owned subsidiary, WCRF (Trading) Ltd. Revenue is raised from the rental of WCRF’s donor lists and Christmas card sales. The company did not trade during the year.

Expenditure

In financial year 2022/2023, total expenditures increased by £108,578 to £11,063,894 ( 2022: £ 10,955,316).

Expenditure on raising funds increased by £215,555 to £2,737,997 ( 2022: £2,522,442). Charitable expenditure on research decreased by (£70,646) to £3,863,497 ( 2022: £3,934,143). Charitable expenditure on information and education increased by £4,539 to £4,503,270 ( 2022: £4,498,731).

Net Income

Net movement in funds in 2022/2023 was a loss of £408,583, a decrease of £280,965 (2022: £127,618).

Investment Policy

The policy was developed to assist WCRF to effectively supervise and monitor its investments and achieve the highest return on investments within an acceptable level of risk utilizing a sound investment strategy.

The principal reason for holding investments is to provide funds in case of unexpected shortfalls in fundraising income and to ensure research, educational programmes and operational expenditures are not subject to short-term cuts to the detriment of the long-term vision.

Investments are managed prudently and in full compliance with all policies, applicable laws and regulations and must reflect the philosophy and objectives of the Charity. Any investments held by WCRF are acquired in accordance with powers available to the trustees or by way of legacy. The trustees allow excess cash balances to be invested in UK Treasury Gilts and government insured corporate bonds to maximize investment returns, while maintaining minimal investment risk.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Reserves

WCRF is a dynamic organisation relying almost entirely on voluntary giving. We need to hold adequate reserves to react both to challenging economic shortfalls and unexpected opportunities to fund research and support the educational programmes. A review of the policy and reserves is conducted each year by the trustees to ensure adequate reserves are maintained based on the annual budget and actual results. The Trustees may from time to time spend reserves on additional programme activities based on the reserve policy having been met or exceeded.

In the interest of prudent management, WCRF aims to maintain a minimum reserve at one half the total annual expenditures. By holding a reserve, WCRF would be able to continue its work during periods of reduced income that may result from an economic downturn or a recession. WCRF will maintain its free reserves (free reserves include investments, debtors and cash in the bank less creditors) by providing a goal in the annual budget.

As of 30 September 2023, unrestricted reserves decreased by £270,733 to £5,948,433 (2022: £6,219,166) . Free reserves at 30 September 2023 are £5,597,096 (2022: £5,794,436). This equates to 6 months of the current year's expenditure (2022: 6 months).

In September 2023, the Board of Trustees approved the budget for financial year 2023/2024 which did not include a surplus meaning the total free reserves is planned to remain at £5,978,022. The minimum reserve target of 6 months of the budget year’s expenditure equates to approximately £5.5 million. WCRF UK’s goal of a minimum of 6 months of expenditures in reserve can be met by monitoring expenses if revenue targets fall short. As of 30 September 2023, total reserves were £5,978,022 ( 2022: £6,386,605).

Going Concern

The financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis. The financial position of WCRF, its deficit for the year and cash flows are set out and demonstrate the overall net cash position of WCRF and its reserves position. The Trustees believe that WCRF is well placed to manage the business risks successfully. WCRF was not adversely impacted by residual effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in year 2022/2023. However, management is monitoring current fundraising activities, programme spending, and staff needs and making adjustments as necessary. In addition, the financial forecast for the 2023/2024 financial year and budget planning for the year 2024/2025 take into consideration the possibility of declining revenues due to inflation and/or economic turndown. The Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charitable company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the annual report and accounts.

In summary

Despite continued uncertain economic conditions, WCRF experienced another year of steady progress. WCRF will continue to strive to maximize fundraising opportunities, monitor expenditures and fund our vital work in cancer research to benefit the public.

Disclosure of information to auditor

The Trustees who held office at the date of approval of this Trustees’ Report confirm that so far as they are aware, there is no relevant audit information of which WCRF’s auditor is unaware, and each Trustee has taken all steps that ought to have been taken as Trustee to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditor is aware of that information.

Pursuant to section 487 of the Companies Act 2006, the auditors will be deemed to be reappointed and RSM UK Audit LLP will therefore continue in office.

The Board approves the Trustees’ report and Strategic Report in its capacity as company directors, signed on its behalf by

Roderick Power Trustee

24 June 2024

140 Pentonville Road N1 9FW

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Statement of responsibilities of the Trustees of World Cancer Research Fund

The Trustees (who are also directors of World Cancer Research Fund for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Annual Report and financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and the group and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure of the charitable group for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

• observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;

• make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

• state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the group and the charitable company will continue its activities.

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and the group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The Trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company's website. Legislation in the UK governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180

Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Independent auditor’s report to the members of World Cancer Research Fund

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of World Cancer Research Fund (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 30 September 2023 which comprise the Statement of Financial activities, Statement of financial position, Statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 30 September 2023 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue. Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the Trustees’ report other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the Trustees’ report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

• the information given in the Trustees’ Report, which includes the Directors’ Report and the Strategic Report prepared for the purposes of company law, for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

• the Directors’ Report and the Strategic Report included within the Trustees’ Report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Directors’ Report or the Strategic Report included within the Trustees’ Report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

• the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

• certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities set out on page 22 the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

The extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud

Irregularities are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. The objectives of our audit are to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding compliance with laws and regulations that have a direct effect on the determination of material amounts and disclosures in the financial statements, to perform audit procedures to help identify instances of non-compliance with other laws and regulations that may have a material effect on the financial statements, and to respond appropriately to identified or suspected non-compliance with laws and regulations identified during the audit.

In relation to fraud, the objectives of our audit are to identify and assess the risk of material misstatement of the financial statements due to fraud, to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding the assessed risks of material misstatement due to fraud through designing and implementing appropriate responses and to respond appropriately to fraud or suspected fraud identified during the audit.

However, it is the primary responsibility of management, with the oversight of those charged with governance, to ensure that the entity's operations are conducted in accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations and for the prevention and detection of fraud.

In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud, the audit engagement team:

• obtained an understanding of the nature of the sector, including the legal and regulatory frameworks that the charitable company operates in and how the charitable company is complying with the legal and regulatory frameworks;

• inquired of management, and those charged with governance, about their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities, including any known actual, suspected or alleged instances of fraud;

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

• discussed matters about non-compliance with laws and regulations and how fraud might occur including assessment of how and where the financial statements may be susceptible to fraud.

As a result of these procedures we consider the most significant laws and regulations that have a direct impact on the financial statements are FRS 102, Charities SORP (FRS 102), Companies Act 2006, Charities Act 2011, the charitable company’s governing document, tax legislation and Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016. We performed audit procedures to detect non-compliances which may have a material impact on the financial statements which included reviewing the financial statements including the Trustees’ Report, remaining alert to new or unusual transactions which may not be in accordance with the governing documents and evaluating advice received from internal advisors.

The most significant laws and regulations that have an indirect impact on financial statements are those in relation to the General Data Protection Regulations. We performed audit procedures to inquire of management whether the charitable company is in compliance with these laws and regulations.

The audit engagement team identified the risk of management override of controls as the area where the financial statements were most susceptible to material misstatement due to fraud. Audit procedures performed included but were not limited to testing manual journal entries and other adjustments, evaluating the business rationale in relation to significant, unusual transactions and transactions entered into outside the normal course of business and challenging judgments and estimates.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at http://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

NICHOLAS SLADDEN (Senior Statutory Auditor) For and on behalf of RSM UK AUDIT LLP, Statutory Auditor Chartered Accountants 25 Farringdon Street London EC4A 4AB

Date 26 June 2024

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Statement of Financial Activities (incorporating income and expenditure account) for the year ended 30 September 2023

Income and endowments from: Donations, legacies, grants and other income 3 Investment income 11 Total income Expenditure on: Raising funds 4 Charitable activities 5 Total expenditure Currency gain (Expenditure) Fund balances brought forward at 1 October 2022 Fund balances carried forward at 30 September 2023 20	Unrestricted funds 2023 Total £ 10,388,456 166,942 10,555,398 2,737,997 8,144,602 10,882,599 56,468 (270,733) 6,219,166 5,948,433	Restricted funds 2023 Total £ 84,316 - 84,316 - 222,166 222,166 - (137,850) 167,439 29,589	Total funds 2023 Total £ 10,472,772 166,942 10,639,714 2,737,997 8,366,768 11,104,765 56,468 (408,583) 6,386,605 5,978,022	Total funds 2022 Total £ 10,799,617 18,231
				10,817,848
				2,522,442 8,432,874
				10,955,316 9,850
				(127,618) 6,514,223
				6,386,605

WCRF has not recognised gains or losses other than the net movement of funds in the year.

The notes on pages 29 of 41 form part of these financial statements.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Balance sheet

at 30 September 2023

Fixed assets: Tangible assets 10 Investments 11 Total fixed assets Current assets: Debtors 12 Cash at bank and in hand Total current assets Liabilities: Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 13 Net current assets Total assets less current liabilities Creditors:amounts falling due after one year 14 Total net assets at 30 September The funds of the charity: Unrestricted funds 20 Restricted funds 21 Total funds	2023 £ 351,337 - 351,337 2,313,899 8,423,022 10,736,921 (2,377,107) 8,359,814 8,711,151 (2,733,129) 5,978,022 5,948,433 29,589 5,978,022	2022 £ 424,730 - 424,730 1,065,111 10,216,774 11,281,885 (2,591,244) 8,690,641 9,115,371 (2,728,766) 6,386,605 6,219,166 167,439 6,386,605

The financial statements on pages 26 to 41 were prepared in accordance with the special provision applicable to companies subject to the small companies’ regime and under this exemption a strategic report is not required. These financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees on 24 June 2024 and were signed on its behalf by:

Roderick Power Trustee

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Statement of Cash Flows

For the year ended 30 September 2023

Cash flows from operating activities: Net cash (used)/provided by operating activities A Cash flows from investing activities: Dividends and interest from investments Proceeds from sale of equipment Purchase of equipment Net cash provided by/(used in) investing activities Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period Reconciliation of net expenditure to net cash flow from operating activities Net expenditure for the reporting period Depreciation charges Dividends and interest from investments Loss on sale of fixed assets (Increase)/decrease in debtors (Decrease)/increase in creditors Net cash (used)/provided by operating activities A	2023 £ (1,930,872) 166,921 - (29,801) 137,120 (1,793,752) 10,216,774 8,423,022 (408,583) 102,254 (166,921) 940 (1,248,788) (209,774) (1,930,872)	2022 £ 2,235,146 18,231 400 (33,393)
		(14,762) 2,220,384 7,996,390
		10,216,774
		(127,618) 101,509 (18,231) 225 1,093,976 1,185,285
		2,235,146

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Notes to the financial statements

World Cancer Research Fund (“WCRF”) is a charitable company limited by guarantee, and incorporated in England and Wales, Charity registration number 1000739, Company registration number 2536180. The registered office is 140 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9FW.

1 Accounting policies The following accounting policies have been applied consistently in dealing with items which are considered material in relation to the financial statements of WCRF.

Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost accounting convention in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities (Charities SORP second edition effective 1 January 2019 (FRS 102)) and the Financial Reporting Standard 102 applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Charities Act 2011 and UK Generally Accepted Practice as it applies from 1 January 2019.

Functional and presentation currency

These consolidated financial statements are presented in British Pound, which is the Company’s functional currency. All amounts have been rounded to the nearest pound, unless otherwise indicated.

Going concern

The financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis. The financial position of WCRF, its deficit for the year and cash flows are set out and demonstrate the overall net cash position of WCRF and its reserves position. Due to the charity’s structure, future plans and strong cash position, the Trustees believe that WCRF is well placed to manage the business risks successfully. WCRF was not adversely impacted by any post COVID-19 effects in year 2022/2023. However, management is monitoring current fundraising activities, programme spending, staff needs and making adjustments as necessary. In addition, the financial forecast for the 2022/2023 financial year and budget planning for the year 2023/2024 take into consideration the possibility of declining revenues due to inflation and/or economic turndown. The Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charitable company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the annual report and accounts.

Company status

WCRF is a company limited by guarantee and the Trustees are named on page 3. In the event of WCRF being wound up, the liability in respect of the guarantee is limited to £1 per founding member.

Fund accounting

Unrestricted funds are funds which are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of WCRF and which have not been designated for any other purpose. Restricted funds consist of grants or donations made for specific research and education projects.

Income

Donations

Donations are included in full in the SOFA when WCRF is entitled to the donation, its receipt if probable and the amount is measurable with sufficient reliability.

Gift aid income recognition policy

Gift aid claims are filed approximately every other month and income is recognised in the year the claim is submitted.

Legacy income

Legacies are included in the SOFA when WCRF is legally entitled to the income, it is probable that WCRF will receive the income and the amount can be measured with sufficient reliability. Entitlement is the earlier of notification of a quantifiable impending distribution or the legacy being received.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

1 Accounting policies (continued)

Investment income and interest

Investment income and interest is accrued monthly in the SOFA.

Liabilities

Liabilities are recognised on an accrual basis.

Value added tax

WCRF is not registered for VAT purposes and all costs and expenditure are inclusive of VAT where applicable.

Expenditures

Expenditures are accounted for on an accruals basis and are listed under headings that aggregate all the costs related to that activity. Direct costs are attributed directly to the activities listed. Support costs are allocated on a basis consistent with the use of the resources and include human resources, premises and other costs.

Human resource costs include salaries, payroll taxes, pension, employee benefits and recruitment expenses. Premises costs are office rent, building maintenance, utilities, telephone, and insurance. Other costs include travel, dues & subscriptions, taxes and fees and a contribution to WCRF International (see note 19).

Grants are awarded in line with WCRF’s objectives and policies and are accounted for on a payable basis. Grant expense and the related liability are recognized in the year the recipient is entitled to the irrevocable use of the funds.

Tangible Fixed Assets and Depreciation

Tangible fixed assets with a cost of more than £2,000 are capitalised and included at initially at cost and are depreciated over their estimated useful life. Tangible fixed asset purchases of less than £2,000 are written off to the Statement of Financial Activities.

Depreciation is provided to write-off the cost less the estimated residual value of machinery and equipment, and fixtures and fittings by equal instalments over its estimated useful life of five years, except for computers which are written off over three years. Leasehold improvements are depreciated over the life of the lease, which is ten years.

Cash and liquid resources

Cash, for the purpose of the cash flow statement comprises cash in hand and deposits repayable on demand less overdrafts payable on demand. Liquid resources are current asset investments which are disposable without curtailing or disrupting the business and are either readily convertible into known amounts of cash at or close to their carrying values or traded in an active market.

Financial instruments

WCRF has applied the provisions of Section 11 'Basic Financial Instruments' and Section 12 'Other Financial Instruments issues' of FRS 102 to all its financial instruments. Financial instruments are recognised in the balance sheet when WCRF becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument and are valued at fair value through profit or loss.

Basic financial assets

Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial asset classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

1 Accounting policies (continued)

Basic financial liabilities

Basic financial liabilities, including creditors are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.

Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.

Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods and services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

Foreign currencies

Transactions in foreign currencies are recorded using the rate of exchange ruling at the date of the transaction. Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies are translated using the contracted rate or the rate of exchange ruling at the balance sheet date and the gains or losses on translation are included in the SOFA

Termination benefits

Termination benefits are payable when employment is terminated and recognised when management is committed to incurring these costs.

Pension costs

WCRF operates a defined contribution pension scheme. The assets of the scheme are held separately in an independently administered fund. The amount charged to the SOFA represents the contributions payable to the scheme in respect of the accounting period.

Taxation

WCRF is considered to pass the tests set out in Paragraph 1 Schedule 6 Finance Act 2010 and therefore it meets the definition of a charitable company for UK corporation tax purposes. Accordingly, the charity is potentially exempt from taxation in respect of income or capital gains received within categories covered by Chapter 3 Part 11 Corporation Tax Act 2010 or Section 256 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, to the extent that such income or gains are applied exclusively to charitable purposes. The trading subsidiary, WCRF (Trading) Ltd, ceased trading operations in 2015. If operations resume in the future, the subsidiary will donate its profits by way of gift aid to WCRF. Consequently, WCRF UK has no liability to tax and no deferred tax.

2 Key judgements and estimations

Estimates and judgements are continually evaluated and are based on historical experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances.

Legacy income

The preparation of the financial statements requires judgements, estimations and assumptions to be made that affect the reported values of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses. The nature of estimation and judgement means that actual outcomes could differ from expectation. Significant areas of estimation and judgement include accrued legacy income, which is estimated based on the best information available at the balance sheet date. Management’s estimate is prudent in respect of illiquid asset to be accrued.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

3 Donations, legacies, grants and other income

Donations Legacy income Committed giving Gift Aid Grants from affiliates Grant revenue Other income	Unrestricted Funds £ 5,098,684 2,156,119 1,271,088 773,919 1,030,612 55,816 2,218 10,388,456	Restricted Funds £ 84,316 - - - - - - 84,316	2023 2022 Total Total £ £ 5,183,000 5,446,329 2,156,119 2,312,783 1,271,088 1,293,807 773,919 877,422 1,030,612 674,924 55,816 182,577 2,218 11,775 10,472,772 10,799,617

Restricted income in 2022 was £185,072.

4 Expenditure on raising funds

Fundraising actvities Direct mail fundraising Human resources Premises Other	Direct costs £ 177,074 1,681,069 - - - 1,858,143	Support costs £ - - 614,995 131,439 133,420 879,854	2023 2022 Total Total £ £ 177,074 162,738 1,681,069 1,566,280 614,995 557,589 131,439 129,385 133,420 106,450 2,737,997 2,522,442

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

5 Expenditure on charitable activities Direct costs £ Research: Research grants 2,204,847 Other direct costs 267,260 Human resources - Premises - Other - 2,472,107 Information & education: Programme grants to affiliates 373,051 Publications 2,064,071 Consulting fees 389,890 Other direct costs 290,928 Human resources - Premises - Other - 3,117,940 Total costs of charitable activities 5,590,047 includes grant refunds	Support costs £ - - 976,799 208,126 206,465 1,391,390 - - - - 973,742 208,199 203,390 1,385,331 2,776,721	2023 2022 Total Total £ £ 2,204,847 1,977,475 267,260 126,978 976,799 859,616 208,126 199,469 206,465 770,605 3,863,497 3,934,143 373,051 442,540 2,064,071 2,022,395 389,890 402,161 290,928 345,933 973,742 911,463 208,199 210,251 203,390 163,988 4,503,271 4,498,731 8,366,768 8,432,874

Expenditure on charitable activities was £8,366,768 (2022: £8,432,874) of which £8,144,602 (2022: £8,355,867) was unrestricted and £222,166 (2022: £77,007) was restricted.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

6 Grants and grants payable

The below grants were awarded in the year to 30 September 2023 to institutions:

		2023
		£
	Effect of body composition, metabolic syndrome, physical activity,
University of Birmingham	alcohol and smoking on long-term adverse health outcomes in	349,792
	survivors of childhood cancer
University of Surrey	Optimising prehabilitation exercise to enhance tumour outcomes in advanced oesophageal cancer	348,030
	The impact of obesity on survival outcomes following drug
University of Oxford	treatment for advanced malignancy recorded within the SACT	270,394
	database
Edith Cowan University	Exercise medicine as adjunct therapy during radiation for cancer of the prostate to improve treatment efficacy	299,578
	Integrated balance and cognitive training to improve symptoms,
Neuroscience Research Australia	balance and quality of life in cancer survivors with chemotherapy-	29,981
	induced peripheral neuropathy
The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, USA	Supporting Families of Children with Cancer: DAPHNE, the Conversational Companion for Social Needs and Toxic Stress Reduction	69,700
Health Research Institute of the Balearic Islands	Life S-Can: a novel clinical tool to effectively assess individual needs in cancer survivorship care and improve quality of life in cancer survivors	49,200
University of Ioannina	Investigating the impact of sleep on the development of reproductive system cancers	69,700
University of Southampton	CANDO-3 - Body composition and chemotherapy toxicity in women with early breast cancer	30,000
University of Bristol	How does physical activity lower the risk of cancer?	19,440
IUNS	International Collaboration on Nutrition in relation to Cancer (ICONIC)	14,388
UICC	Partnership for Advocacy Support	41,716
IARC	Cancer Prevention Europe Project	13,370
NIHR	NIHR Cancer and Nutrition Collaboration	70,419
	Total research grants	1,675,708
Imperial College London	Global Cancer Update Programme	533,935
	Grant Refunds	(4,796)
	Total grants	2,204,847

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

6 Grants and grants payable (continued)

7 Support costs Beginning grants payable New grant funding Grant adjustment Grant payments Ending grants payable Due within one year (note 13) Due after one year (note 14) Fundraising Human resources 614,995 Premises 131,439 Other 133,420 879,854	Information & education 973,742 208,199 203,390 1,385,331	Research 976,799 208,126 206,465 1,391,390		2023 2022 £ £ 4,088,982 3,591,512 1,562,790 1,442,813 - 40,869 (1,266,879) (986,212) 4,384,893 4,088,982 1,651,764 1,360,216 2,733,129 2,728,766 2023 2022 £ £ 2,565,536 2,328,668 547,764 539,105 543,275 1,041,044 3,656,575 3,908,817

7 Support costs

Support costs are allocated based upon time spent on each function – fundraising, information & education and research. Each employee’s position is reviewed and job responsibilities are allocated by the amount of time spent on each function.

Governance costs - audit fees of £30,500 (2022: £28,000) include fees in respect of WCRF Trading Ltd of £3,131 (2022: £3,000) and board meeting expenses of £11,535 (2022: £ 4,285 ) are included in Other above.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

8 Operating costs 9 Human resources Net expenditure is stated after charging: Depreciation and other amounts written off tangible fixed assets: Owned Hire of plant and machinery Hire of other assets - operating leases Hire of other assets - lease operating expenses Auditor's remuneration: Audit of these financial statements Audit of financial statements of subsidiaries Salaries Social security costs Pension costs- defined contribution scheme Employee benefits Recruitment

2023 2022 £ £ 100,163 101,509 7,592 14,779 323,062 313,000 38,987 68,656 2023 2022 £ £ 30,700 27,500 3,200 3,000 33,900 30,500 2023 2022 £ £ 2,113,771 1,895,608 234,917 216,960 98,044 86,860 53,703 48,076 41,073 63,110 2,541,508 2,310,614

Salaries in 2022 included £4,080 in termination payments (2023: nil).

The average number of persons employed during the year, analysed by category, was as follows:

	2023	2022
Fundraising	10	12
Research	15	13
Education	15	13
Administration	12	10
	52	48

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

The emoluments in excess of £60,000, excluding pension contributions, of staff employed by the group were within the following ranges:

	2023	2022
£60,000 - £70,000	0	1
£70,000 - £80,000	3	4
£80,000 - £90,000	1	0
£90,000 - £100,000	1	1
£100,000 - £110,000	1	0

In respect to staff paid over £60,000, the pension contribution was £75,735 (2022: £62,384).

The key management personnel of the WCRF are the trustees, the President and the CEO.

The Trustees, whom are considered the key management personnel, received no remuneration (2022 nil). Board meeting expenses include out-of-pocket travel, lodging, meals and room rental. Five Trustees (2022: one) received an out-of-pocket travel reimbursement totalling £7,808 (2022: £2,506) for expenses incurred directly. In 2023 and 2022 there were no related party transactions with the Board of Trustees and WCRF. The President was compensated by affiliate organisations.

10 Tangible fixed assets

Cost At 1 October 2022 Additions Disposals At 30 September 2023 Depreciation At 1 October 2022 Charge for year Disposals At 30 September 2023 Net book value At 30 September 2022 At 30 September 2023	Leasehold improvements £ 482,449 - - 482,449 150,101 49,237 - 199,338 332,348 283,111	Fixtures and fittings £ 64,676 - - 64,676 38,204 11,980 - 50,184 26,472 14,492	Machinery Total and equipment £ £ 199,204 746,329 29,802 29,802 (3,519) (3,519) 225,487 772,612 133,294 321,599 41,037 102,254 (2,577) (2,577) 171,754 421,276 65,910 424,730 53,733 351,336

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

11 Investments There were no investment charges for 2023_(2022: nil)._ 12 Debtors 13 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year Investment in subsidiary Movements during the year At 1 October Additions Disposals Net losses on investments Accrued legacies Amounts owed by affiliates Prepayments Amounts owed by group undertakings Trade debtors Other debtors Trade creditors Grant payable Amounts owed to affiliates* Other creditors Deferred Revenue

2023 2022 £ £ 2 2 2 2 2 2 - - - - - - 2 2 2023 2022 £ £ 1,245,031 107,035 535,525 425,551 274,293 487,517 6,599 6,659 161,251 38,349 91,200 - 2,313,899 1,065,111 2023 2022 £ £ 404,609 461,761 1,651,764 1,360,216 106,732 532,887 205,595 236,380 8,407 - 2,377,107 2,591,244

*amounts owed to affiliates are interest free.

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

14 Creditors: amounts falling due after one year

15 Guarantees and other financial commitments Operating lease commitments - land, building and equipment Grant payable Total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable opereating leases for each of the following periods: -not later than one year -later than one year and not later than five years -later than five years Total	15 Guarantees and other financial commitments Operating lease commitments - land, building and equipment Grant payable Total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable opereating leases for each of the following periods: -not later than one year -later than one year and not later than five years -later than five years Total	2023 2022 £ £ 2,733,129 2,728,766 2023 2022 £ £ 312,000 468,000 1,801,800 2,113,800 386,100 386,100 2,499,900 2,967,900
15 Guarantees and other financial commitments Operating lease commitments - land, building and equipment
Total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable opereating leases for each of the following periods: -not later than one year -later than one year and not later than five years -later than five years Total

15	Guarantees and other financial commitments
	Operating lease commitments - land, building and equipment

• 16 Pension

WCRF operates a defined contribution pension scheme. The pension costs charged for the period represents contributions payable to the scheme and amounted to £75,735 (2022: £86,860).

17 Members WCRF is a company limited by guarantee. The liability of the members of the company is limited to £1 each.

18 Related Parties

WCRF has a wholly owned trading subsidiary, WCRF (Trading) Ltd, which is incorporated in the UK. WCRF (Trading) Ltd ceased operations in 2015. WCRF (Trading) Ltd carried on trading activities to raise net revenues which are contributed to the WCRF UK. The registered address is The Broadgate Tower, Third Floor, 20 Primrose Street, London, EC2A 2RS.

Summary balance sheet is as follows:

Cash Due to WCRF: Beginning balance Net value of transactions Amounts owed by subsidiary Total net assets	2023 2022 £ £ 6,599 6,659 (6,657) (6,750) 60 93 (6,597) (6,657) 2 2

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

19 Affiliated Charities

WCRF is a member of the World Cancer Research Fund global network, which is an international alliance of organisations dedicated to the prevention and control of cancer through healthy diets and lifestyles. The network comprises World Cancer Research Fund International AISBL (WCRF International), an umbrella association and its member organisations - national charities based in different countries. Members operate in the United States of America, American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR); the United Kingdom, World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF); the Netherlands, Stichting Wereld Kanker Onderzoek Fonds (WKOF); and in the Far East, World Cancer Research Fund Limited (WCRF HK).

Linked by a common vision and mission, each member organisation works with the strategic headquarters, WCRF International, to ensure national and global effectiveness and economies through shared analysis, publications, and best practices. With strategically placed member organisations, the WCRF global network is able to raise awareness that cancer is largely preventable, fund innovative scientific research and stimulate new public initiatives for cancer prevention and control throughout the world. WCRF International is funded by contributions and dues from the Charity and its affiliates.

When necessary, WCRF may make sterling payments on behalf of WCRF affiliates. In turn, WCRF affiliates may make payments on behalf of WCRF to creditors requesting payments in other currencies. WCRF is reimbursed and/or will make reimbursements to the respective affiliates for these payments. The affiliate transactions described above are recorded in Amounts owed by affiliates in note 12.

The summary activity in these accounts for the years ended 30 September 2023 and 2022 is as follows:

WCRF Description International Beginning balance £ 382,609 Net value of transactions 109,974 Amounts owed by affiliates £ 492,583			2023
		AICR (532,887) 426,155 (106,732)	WCRF NL - - -	WCRF Hong Kong Totals 42,942 (107,336) - 536,129 42,942 428,793

WCRF Description International Beginning balance £ 212,399 Net value of transactions 170,210 Amounts owed by affiliates £ 382,609			2022
	WCRF International	AICR 192,036 (724,923) (532,887)	WCRF NL 180,653 (180,653) -	WCRF Hong Kong Totals 42,942 628,030 - (735,366) 42,942 (107,336)

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World Cancer Research Fund Registered number 2536180 Trustees’ report, strategic report and financial statements 30 September 2023

Notes to the financial statements (continued)

20 Analysis of Net Assets between Funds

Tangible fixed assets Unrestricted funds £ 351,337 Restricted funds - Total funds £ 351,337		2023
	Investments - - -	Net current assets 8,330,225 29,589 8,359,814	Long term liabilities Totals (2,733,129) 5,948,433 - 29,589 (2,733,129) 5,978,022

Tangible fixed assets Unrestricted funds £ 424,730 Restricted funds - Total funds £ 424,730			2022
		Investments - - -	Net current assets 8,523,202 167,439 8,690,641	Long term liabilities Totals (2,728,766) 6,219,166 - 167,439 (2,728,766) 6,386,605

21 Restricted Donations and Grants

Since financial year 2017/2018, WCRF has received grant payments with a restriction for a specific project. The restricted fund relates to the EC grant, a five-year, €10 million study ‘Confronting Obesity: Co-Creating policies with youth’ – CO-CREATE – focuses on preventing childhood obesity in Europe by actively involving adolescents in the policymaking process. In financial year 2022-2023, an additional grant of £35,316 was received. A portion of that grant was spent (£99,671) and released from restriction. At the end of financial year 2022/2023, the unspent balance of that grant was £14,589. This project was completed in October 2023.

Donations from eight Trusts and Foundations were received in financial year 2022/2023 (£49,000). Of these £27,000 were for research projects at universities around the country, the remaining £22,000 is to be used for health information outreach projects. In financial year 2022/2023, £88,495 from prior year restricted donations.

As of financial year 2022/2023, the restricted fund balance is £29,589 (2022: £167,439).

Balance at 1 Oct 2022 Restricted funds EC Co-Create Grant £ 78,944 Trusts/Foundations 88,495 £ 167,439	Income 35,316 49,000 84,316	Balance at Expenditure 30 Sep 2023 (99,671) 14,589 (122,495) 15,000 (222,166) 29,589

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