How we spend your money
Our supporters make a lasting impact on the lives of people who are deafblind or living with complex disabilities and their families.
The money that Sense receives through donations, grants and statutory funds goes towards giving people like Chloe, Simon, Chapman the support they need to take part in life.
Meet Simon
For Simon, who has Usher syndrome, changes to his sight left him unable to access the world around him.
With support from Sense, Simon, age 41, learned how to adjust to life as a deafblind man – and now there’s never a dull moment! He found new ways to communicate, new hobbies and renewed self confidence.
Thank you to all our supporters!
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£12.8 million was the total raised by amazing people like you, helping us to do more.
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£3.8 million of that total was gifted to us by 168 generous supporters who remembered Sense in their Will.
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2,100 people got stuck in fundraising activities and helped to build awareness.
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£614,000 came from amazing individual supporters donating to our Children’s Specialist Services at Christmas.
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1 million bags of preloved items were donated to our shops, saving 6,000 tonnes of goods from landfill.
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10 new charity shops were opened across the UK, alongside our first donation station super store!
Here’s how we’ve raised and used funds in the last year.
Sense operates with four key areas of focus:
- Giving children and families the best possible start.
- Offering opportunities to live fully at every stage of life.
- Reducing isolation and loneliness.
- Spreading awareness of deafblindness and complex disabilities.
Sense is an efficient and well-run charity. We manage our finances carefully to have the best possible impact on people who are deafblind or have complex disabilities, and their families.
Find out how Sense spends your donations
For every pound Sense receives, 78p is spent supporting people who are deafblind or have complex disabilities. The other 22p is put back to work to raise the next pound so we can do even more.
We spent £90.23m in 2022/23:
| Type of spend | Spend |
| Our charitable activities | |
| Statutory supported living, residential care, community and day opportunities | £56.6m |
| Statutory specialist education | £2.9m |
| Holidays and short breaks; arts, sport and wellbeing; specialist services for children and young people | £4.4m |
| International programmes | £2.8m |
| Sense TouchBase Pears community hub | £1m |
| Quality and development of services | £0.6m |
| Campaigning, publicity and awareness | £1.7m |
| Fundraising and legacies | £5.6m |
| Sense Trading | £13.9m |
| Other | £0.7m |
| Total | £90.2m |
Read our annual reports and accounts
How we raise money
Sense receives fees for some of our services, in particular our supported living, community, day opportunities and specialist education. But we rely entirely on the generosity of our supporters to sustain and grow the full range of life-changing work we do.
Your life-changing support makes a world of difference.
| Type of income | Income |
| Our charitable activities | |
| Statutory supported living, residential care, community and day opportunities | £53.3m |
| Statutory specialist education | £4.1m |
| Holidays and short breaks; arts, sport and wellbeing; specialist services for children and young people | £0.8m |
| International programmes | £1m |
| Fundraising and legacies | £12.9m |
| Sense Trading | £13.7m |
| Other | £0.7m |
| Total | £86.5m |
We can only continue our life-changing work with the support of amazing people like you. By making a donation, taking part in an event, fundraising for Sense, or volunteering your time, you can help ensure that no one is left out of life.
