Annual report 2009 - Handicap International

A word fromthe Treasurer2009: a year of rebalancingThanks to the hard work of all Handicap International’semployees and to the loyal support of our donors,2009 was notable as the year in which the Associationrebalanced its fi nancial position. This favourabledevelopment, which led to a US$3.8 million surplus,enabled us to keep up the volume of our operations in thefi eld, which was the priority.It’s worth recalling that the 2009 budget was built againstthe background of the international fi nancial crisis whichstarted in 2008. We feared it would be a particularlydiffi cult year because of the severity of the economicconsequences of this crisis, so most of the structuralrethink initiated in 2008 was put into effect in the fi rst halfof 2009. Systematically seeking savings made it possibleto reduce costs while keeping up the social mission.The programmes contributed to this rebalancing throughtheir sustained efforts with funding organisations toobtain better fi nancial coverage of our operations byinstitutional funds. This responsible approach bore fruit,and even enabled us to signifi cantly increase the volumeof development projects, with the requirement for fundingfrom private sources being lower than initially expected.At the beginning of 2009, the principal unknown was howdonors would behave in the adverse economic climate. Inthe end however their loyalty to Handicap International’swork proved to be beyond our expectations, with a sharpincrease right at the end of the year. It should also benoted that the surplus was achieved in spite of a reductionin our usual efforts to recruit new donors.Of course, in 2010 we will have to redouble our efforts tofi nd new donors throughout the Federation network toavoid any erosion of the donor base.We will also need to stay on our guard, because thereis still much economic uncertainty at the European andinternational levels. In particular, the unforeseeable resultsof speculation in currencies can cause great diffi culties foran association such as ours, whose operations are for themain part run abroad.We therefore need to be prudent to secure the resourceswe need in 2010, and there must be no letup in ouractions as the needs are huge. The 2009 surplus isa bolster for the Association’s fi nancial security andincreases its self-funding capacity. This situation meansthat we can embark upon the launch of the HandicapInternational Federation, an important step in the history ofour movement, from a position of confi dence.Olivier Scalbert, Treasurer.xz Key events of 2009A surplus of US$3.8 millionThe adverse global economic climate, together with a largedefi cit in 2008, led Handicap International to undertakesignifi cant restructuring in the fi rst half of 2009, with thepurpose of reducing its running costs. Public relations andpublic fundraising costs were cut, resulting in substantialsavings. Thanks to this surplus made in 2009, the Associationis in a better position to face up to the uncertainties ofthe economic crisis which is continuing into 2010.An increase in resources from publicfundraisingIn spite of lower investment, fundraising yielded incomeequivalent to that for 2008, producing an additional marginof US$2.9 million in the process. The loyalty of our donorsgoes a long way to explaining this performance, since therewas a considerable slowdown in recruiting new donors in2009.More operations in the fieldIn 2009, targets for the fi nancial coverage of programme activitiesby institutional funding organisations were met, andthe objective of keeping up the Association’s social missionwork under diffi cult circumstances was also achieved. Thevolume of programme activities abroad even increased byUS$2.9 million compared to 2008, rising from US$61.08million to US$63.96 million, with a signifi cant increase in developmentwork.Annual report 2009 ı 19