Mermaids

[Cismyfatarse]

Just seen on Twitter that Mermaids accounts suggest they made a loss this year.

register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/5054976/accounts-and-annual-returns

E-Mail breach was expensive too.

I am no accountant but links there if anyone is interested.

Speaking of, what happened re: the data breach investigation? I don't know if I just missed it or the story disappeared off the face of the earth.

twitter.com/neverfallingfo1/status/1348401299969204225?s=21

Mentioned here.

Where did all the dosh raised by the internet dude go?

And what about Emma Watson's contributions?

All gobbled up with trips to WPATH etc?

That's a lot of staff costs.

259k on legal governance? Assuming 158k of this is the email issue, what about the remaining 100k? Is this for Twitter dissenters?

The Lottery money was supposed to fund setting up “local support groups”, which are mentioned in the Annual Report, but they were also fundraising locally to set them up. I thought that was odd as it seemed to be duplicating donations. The impression given by local fundraising advertising was that services depended on local fundraising.

It might be something or nothing, just lack of clarity, but it annoyed me at the time as they had also just got over £1/4 million from the Donkey Kong Gamer fundraising by HbomberGuy. Who later confessed that he didn’t even know who Mermaids were or what they did but just did it because he didn’t like Glinner and wanted to piss him off

I haven’t read the full report and accounts yet but something I would be interested in is if there is a record of income from “local fundraising” for the “local support services”. If it is not there then I would assume that those funds would be held locally.

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-46961883

Blimey.

Is that the first Yr this has happened?

They were talking about mini clinics or something at one point weren't they ? With the lottery grant?

With all the training stuff they had been asked to do by schools etc surely that would have brought in a fair whack?

Wheres it all gone ?

I'd be really interested to know if they are meeting the obligations placed on them by the lottery people.

You can report concerns about how lottery funding is actually being spent compared to the stated aims.

www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/about/contact-us#item-6

I've done it once before and they did investigate.

Alot of us on here write to big lottery fund ..they were ok with their donation...

I think the Hbomber donation would have come under the previous years accounts as it was Jan 2019 so in the 2018/19 financial year and they actually had higher income the following year from donations but less from grant making orgs (restricted funds). Their charitable activities costs even before the legal breach is higher than their income. Which is generally not sustainable. Income from donations has dropped off massively across the sector for the 2020/21 year due to covid 19.

Lottery funding will usually only fund core activity once with the expectation that the service become self sustaining during the funded period.

I would also think the KB case would impact some corporate donations, especially the article in the Times yesterday. They would be better focusing their work on good quality advice lines but working within proper guidelines. Their faults are many but I can't help but feel a good quality line for young people having difficulties coming to terms with puberty is a good thing

Yes, you can see the Hbomberguy donation in the 2018/19 accounts, see the end of page 7 and the chart on page 13*.

My impression is that the financials aren't a disaster at the moment but this is based on an expanded 2018/19 income arriving in an "everything about trans is great" climate based on which Mermaids have allowed their costs, particularly staff costs, to rise considerably. They're very dependent on government and institutional support which could be killed off by the emerging puberty blockers scandal.

I'm wondering whether Mermaids saw 2018/19 as the arrival of a new order with the Hbomberguy event heralding a very large increase in donations when it was in fact a high water mark.

• register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search?p_p_id=uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet&p_p_lifecycle=2&p_p_state=maximized&p_p_mode=view&p_p_resource_id=%2Faccounts-resource&p_p_cacheability=cacheLevelPage&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_fileName=0001160575_AC_20190331_E_C.pdf&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_objectiveId=A9839377&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_priv_r_p_mvcRenderCommandName=%2Faccounts-and-annual-returns&_uk_gov_ccew_onereg_charitydetails_web_portlet_CharityDetailsPortlet_priv_r_p_organisationNumber=5054976

also just got over £1/4 million from the Donkey Kong Gamer fundraising by HbomberGuy. Who later confessed that he didn’t even know who Mermaids were or what they did but just did it because he didn’t like Glinner and wanted to piss him off confused

Yes what a twit. That really deserves to come back and bite him on the arse. It's not charity if you're doing it for spiteful reasons imo. I think he wanted the publicity more than anything.

This is all pretty concerning from Mermaids. What is going on??

Such huge sums of money. What do they actually do? Funnel people to GenderGP? Run a web forum?

It will be interesting to see this play out over this year and next. Lots of charities will be in difficulties but whether they recover or not would depend on their foundations remaining stable and I'm not sure Mermaids will be, given the shifting sands

In their 'plans for the future' section they say:

We believe that transgender rights are the human rights issue of our time. Mermaids, and other organisations that support
transgender people, are facing a backlash against the rights of this vulnerable minority, in much the same way that gay people were
targeted a couple of decades ago. Many of the headlines are reminiscent of the moral outrage of the rhetoric used against gay
people, when framed within the acceptance and celebration of transgender rights. Our work is at the forefront, which attracts a
level of hostility towards us, and any visible members of our team

This seems an odd place to go into rhetoric like this -- your accounts.

They seem to be shifting from children (their original focus) to trans ppl of all ages

Oh they can fuck right off with that hyperbole.

The accounts show Charitable donations from Leathersellers £10,000 and Henry Smith 31,200.
When you go to Henry Smith website it says they were awarded £180,00 it seems to have been one of Henry Smith's largest donations that year.

Grant funders will usually award a grant payable over multiple years - so £180,000 will be the total amount payable in instalments over 3-5 years

The Lottery money was supposed to fund setting up “local support groups”, which are mentioned in the Annual Report, but they were also fundraising locally to set them up. I thought that was odd as it seemed to be duplicating donations. The impression given by local fundraising advertising was that services depended on local fundraising

It may be that the Lottery paid for the workers to set up and support the groups, but that the groups need to find money for their own costs, the Lottery now does encourage applicants to income generate (or at least it did before covid, not sure whether it's the same now in a different financial climate).

@Xoxoxoxoxoxox

The accounts show Charitable donations from Leathersellers £10,000 and Henry Smith 31,200. When you go to Henry Smith website it says they were awarded £180,00 it seems to have been one of Henry Smith's largest donations that year.

Edward Lord is a Freeman of Leathersellers

democracy.cityoflondon.gov.uk/mgDeclarationSubmissionPrintView.aspx?nobdr=1&UID=292&HID=2508&FID=0&HPID=0

My first thought when I saw "Leathersellers" was to be reminded of James Makings of the NSPCC.

Edward Lord was a trustee of bisexual charity BiCon Continuity and research and activist group BiUK. In July 2018, it was reported in the Sunday Times that Lord now identifies as non-binary and uses the pronoun 'they'. (Wikki quote)

The duplication of fundraising is because lottery funding is match funded. That's not an issue, it's fundamental to getting the money.

But you do have to show you spent the money on exactly what you said you would.