October 2026 – Strategic priorities update

| September 16, 2026

Half-yearly finance update 

Investments graph

We finished the half year to 30 June 2026 13% favourable to budget which is encouraging.  

Seventy-three percent of the Society’s revenue in 2026 has been derived from membership, as you would expect in a membership organisation like ours. A lot of the fresh strategic work in 2026 has been focused on membership to strengthen what is our lifeblood. This started with a membership workshop in January 2026 that included wide participation. This workshop represented a significant investment of time and money by staff and volunteers. This work takes time to yield results but there are encouraging signs of strengthening membership, and the Board strongly believes the work undertaken will yield long-term results.  

“ensuring the Society has the right tools to deliver to members” 

Positive changes 

It is reassuring that demand for exams is strong and is 17% above budget. This represents new entrants to the hobby and existing licence holders upgrading their licences. This is an important weathervane as to the strength of our hobby and potential new members of the Society.  

We are seeing improvement in the advertising market, with existing advertisers taking renewals and new advertisers coming onboard. The advertising revenue had been declining in recent years, but this year we have some positive news to report. There are new opportunities with digital advertising within the RSGB App and the ability to link from content in the digital platform to the external websites of advertisers.  

During 2026 we changed the arrangement for the QSL Bureau to offer a more efficient, modern and automated service, as we fully recognise how important the QSL Bureau remains to members. Although we incurred one-off costs in transferring the bureau, we have made useful savings. We anticipate the new service offering long-term savings when compared to the previous service.  

Investment 

We have invested in IT infrastructure in 2026, modernising systems and ensuring the Society’s IT infrastructure is robust. We have also made a significant investment in upgrading our accounting software, as the old software was deemed inadequate to meet our needs and required a lot of manual interventions by the Finance Team. The implementation has gone well, and work continues to derive the maximum benefit from the investment. Whilst these investments are invisible to most members, they are important to ensuring the Society has the right tools to deliver to members.  

The Society holds a portfolio of investments and in the first six months of 2026 these have increased in value by more than £31,000, or 5%, which makes a significant contribution to reducing the deficit. The operational loss was £78,000 but after the investment gain the deficit reduced to £47,000.  

“we are now starting on the 2027 budget process” 

The 2027 budget process 

We are now starting on the 2027 budget process, and it is planned that this will be signed off by the Board in December this year. This is an important process as we consider how the strategy will influence the Society and its finances in the future. The information for the budget is provided by the Board, HQ Staff, Committee Chairs and Honorary Officers. Board Directors liaise with the committees and Honorary Officers, collating their plans and explaining how they link with the RSGB’s strategy. The plans are costed so that the Board can make thoughtful decisions about the Society’s priorities for both activities and funding.  

Our main area of investment is always around the IT landscape. No decisions have been made about investment for 2027 and beyond yet, but the budget process always considers investment closely. The information is given to the Financial Controller who models the information to show what the budget would be like for the following four years, based on that information. The information is then analysed and presented to the Board for consideration in the November Board meeting. After discussions and any changes, the budget is signed off by the Board in December. As the year progresses there is an ongoing process to update the budget into forecasts to reflect changes as they happen though the year. The budget is a significant internal control to the Society in understanding its financial performance over the course of the year.  

Changes and thanks 

On the 31 July 2026 our Financial Controller, Jackie Tite retired after more than eight years with the Society. We thank her for all her hard work over the time she has been with the Society. We wish her happy and healthy retirement.  At the beginning of July 2026, we welcomed Sinead Boniface as the new Financial Controller she had an extensive handover with Jackie and is now settling into to her role.

Chris Wood, GD6TWF 

RSGB Honorary Treasurer 

strategy@rsgb.org.uk 

Category: RSGB Notices, RSGB Strategic Priorities