Like any other organisation, charities have management and administration costs, which ensure their development and effectiveness and in a typical year we would expect to spend between ten and 15 per cent of our general income on governance, management and central support costs, which will include things like finance, human resources, IT, planning and project management. These figures also include costs associated with running the charity in accordance with statutory regulations.

A detailed outline of expenditure can be found in our Trustees' report and accounts.

Summary of income and expenditure for the year ended 31 December 2008:

For more information on how charities spend their money, please visit the Charity Facts website.

This is known as direct mail and is the cheapest way for charities to get donations from large numbers of supporters. It is cost effective and people respond to it. The amount we aim to hope to raise from mailings in 2010 is £10 million.

Even if they don't raise money from everyone, mailings still raise awareness. Not everyone will be interested in contributing, but some will want to learn more about our work.

If you are receiving too many mailings and would like to receive fewer each year - perhaps just emergency appeals, or our supporters' magazine - or none at all, please let us know by contacting our Supporter Care Line on 0844 87 100 87 or emailing us supportercare@redcross.org.uk.

If you would like to be kept informed about our work by email instead, please sign up to our monthly enewsletter. Please also remember to email us supportercare@redcross.org.uk so that we know not to send you any more paper post.

You can read more about this issue on the Charity Facts website

We don't waste money. We always consider the cost of the gift carefully. We know the inclusion of a gift, such as a pen, increases the level of awareness of our work, as well as the donations we receive. The amount of additional donations raised far outweighs the cost of the gift.

Our directors' salaries form part of our administration costs and are not linked to your donation as they do not work on Performance Related Pay (i.e. their salaries are not a percentage of our income).

Charities are complex organisations with the same need for professionalism and effective management structures as any other organisation in the private or public sector. In order to attract the right calibre of people, it is necessary to pay senior staff at a level commensurate with their responsibilities. However directors of charities are not generally paid at the same rates as most private sector organisations with the same annual turnover. We publish information about our directors' salaries in our annual Trustees' report and accounts.

The choice of head office for any charity is a compromise between costs, skill base and the need to be in an influential position. Office costs in other cities can be just as high as in London. Like other charities, we follow good practice procedures and regularly review our locations and associated costs.