Stonewall Annual Accounts

[TheAbbotOfUnreason]

Stonewall accounts are now up on Companies House.

From a quick skim (bearing in mind that these accounts cover 18 months and the previous accounts in 2019 covered 12 months):

More than 900 employers are on the Workplace Champions scheme.

Annualised income down by £617k compared to previous period.

No Dept for Education grant (this had been £299k in 2019).

Foreign Office grant up from £145k to £765k.

£50k grant from Government Equalities office.

£742k claimed from Government covid funding.

Scottish Government grant £150k, Welsh Government grant £236k.

Big donation (£125k) from the BT Supporters Club (which funds sport), this fund was being wound up in autumn 2020.

Foreign Office grant up from £145k to £765k

Why? What is this for? Serious question need to be asked about this.

And these:

£50k grant from Government Equalities office.

£742k claimed from Government covid funding.

Scottish Government grant £150k, Welsh Government grant £236k.

I thought they charge for their training and membership programmes? Why do they need so much funding? Do they have an enormous work force? It's usually next to impossible to fundraise for things like salaries. (For other charities anyway).

Presumably the Foreign office's shameful increase is one of the reasons why Stonewall are currently removing women's rights to safety in India?

vaishnavisundar.com/ezine/indian-ezine-gender-ideology/

Oh, and reasons given for decline in income include:

“Economic climate and change in political landscape leading to loss of income” (I wonder if they could have just shortened that to “Liz Truss”)

And:

“Increase in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in the media, politics and the wider public sphere” (I think they mean that people are waking up to the activism of the TQ+ rather than the LGB).

All the grants need an explanation but this one is eye-popping:

Foreign Office grant up from £145k to £765k.

What exactly did they do for/in Afghanistan? We've really no idea but this is one of the things they've tweeted about.

There would be good reasons for not revealing detail that would lead to evacuees being identified. Against that, we know they don't run frontline services, so what did they do to help? How could they have assisted?

Wow hope someone is preparing a FOI to the foreign office on that increase

That Foreign Office grant needs an investigative journalist on the case. I mean how can that be justified when people cant work out how to pay their gas bills in the coming months. What's going on? What's the real story? They are propping up a failing charity. Who signed off that eye watering amount of money.

I think the FCO has funded Stonewall in the past in order that SW can do work overseas. I believe the funds are restricted. However, wasn't Liz Truss furious that the FCO had gone ahead despite her views. I am more interested in next years accounts. They certainly aren't flush. I also think there is a bit of a re-think about the west shipping their views out across the globe and expecting other cultures to just role over. Change is in the air and next years accounts may be more interesting. I don't want SW to fold, I just want them to be a good, honest champion of gay rights and I would back, wholeheartedly a third space campaign.

I read that they make 7 million pa from the champion scheme, fundraising and selling rainbow lanyards etc.

So, why do they need so much funding?

And, what on earth do they do with all the money?

Because, if they wanted to help trans people they could have build refuges, services, trained health care professionals, funded research and provided networks of actual experts who have actual skills.

Instead of which they just seem to have done a lot of whining about why I'm a terrible person for wanting to keep the rights earned by my grandmothers.

How many staff do they have? And what do they earn?

IT's a racket. An absolute racket.

@Mollyollydolly

That Foreign Office grant needs an investigative journalist on the case. I mean how can that be justified when people cant work out how to pay their gas bills in the coming months. What's going on? What's the real story? They are propping up a failing charity. Who signed off that eye watering amount of money.

And/or it needs MPs to submit written questions.

Any investigation of the FO will discover the same issues that were revealed at the DfE when their lavish funding of Stonewall was revealed and uncritical promotion of them (and Mermaids etc) to children in schools became evident. All in clear defiance of the Nolan principles and the actual law about political impartiality in schools.
They'll find some very self interested individuals (probably in receipt of lavish wining and dining from Stonewall as with the DfE) pushing their personal beliefs along with unthinking "allies" seeking to educate "foreigners" without using any critical thinking about what this should look like.

3/4 of a million £££ to Stonewall's coffers is massive.

@delurkasaurus

All the grants need an explanation but this one is eye-popping:

Foreign Office grant up from £145k to £765k.

What exactly did they do for/in Afghanistan? We've really no idea but this is one of the things they've tweeted about.

There would be good reasons for not revealing detail that would lead to evacuees being identified. Against that, we know they don't run frontline services, so what did they do to help? How could they have assisted?

The FCDO has just responded to this FOI from September:

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/charity_stonewall_involvement_in#incoming-1945843

They provide a link to this information:
www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-government-helps-lgbt-afghans-start-new-life-in-britain

All the other information they hold is witheld under various exemptions.

Thank you @OldCrone. I've seen the gov.uk press release they refer to. It doesn't tell you much. It doesn't answer 1 or 2 in that FOI.

I think this needs questions from MPs.

Presumably Stonewall will be able to provide the receipts detailing their expenditure for their 3/4 million ££ work done in Afghanistan? This is precisely what I would expect a charity to be involved in so hopefully the receipts will forthcoming shortly.

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/01/06/stonewall-gets-12m-taxpayer-cash-foreign-office-accused-propping/

It's not going down terribly well with the DM readers:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10377245/Stonewalls-1-25m-taxpayer-Foreign-Secretary-Liz-Truss-questioned-value.html

Poking about on Stonewall's website, bit surprised to find they've shuffled the pack and dropped the 'g' for this international venture:

'We aim to address human rights violations faced by lesbians, bi women and trans people (LBT+) worldwide.'

'This project will be rolled out globally in over 23 countries.'

outofthemargins.org.uk/

[quote ArabellaScott]It's not going down terribly well with the DM readers:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10377245/Stonewalls-1-25m-taxpayer-Foreign-Secretary-Liz-Truss-questioned-value.html[/quote]
Not surprised, public facing tax rises, energy price rise, inflation rising and then they read that their tax payer cash is being handed over to a Lobby Group.

Political Lobby Groups should not be funded with tax payer cash.

The money the Government has given to Stonewall should be detailed and broken down and published, there should be absolute transparency when spending tax payer monies.

Government is moaning about not having enough money and yet they have enough to spend on political Lobby Groups, they shouldn't be doing that in the first place but in these times that should have been the first funding to be stopped.

The amounts will be publicly available in the FCDO expenditure data
Will look

I can’t look now but amounts should appear here somewhere

www.gov.uk/government/publications/fco-spending-over-500-august-2020

www.gov.uk/government/collections/foreign-office-procurement-card-data#2020

There is month by month data

That’s procurement cards but other expenditure will be on that site somewhere

@VestofAbsurdity

Government is moaning about not having enough money and yet they have enough to spend on political Lobby Groups, they shouldn't be doing that in the first place but in these times that should have been the first funding to be stopped.

Wasn;t there a question of whether Stonewall should have charitable status as it is more of a political lobby group?

Wow, £750,000 from the foreign office. Even with the adjustment for the longer period of time that's a massive increase. I wonder what the rationale for that was.