Any interest in picking apart Stonewall's latest Report and Accounts?

[DadDadDad]

Some parts of Stonewall's Report and Accounts for year to 31 March 2022 might be of interest, submitted last week. Found here: register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/3992465/accounts-and-annual-returns

Slightly complicated by their changing their accounting year, so the previous period is 18 months. If you scale that previous period, then comparison shows that their income and expenditure have fallen.

The big strand of their income continues to be fees (over £3m), but my eye was caught by grants, which have fallen a fair bit - the details are on page 28 of the report...

If we strip out coronavirus support, their grants in 12 months to March 2022 were half their grants in the 18 months to March 2023 - that's largely due to government support dropping from around £1.5m to £0.4m. Big new grants from "Global Equity Fund" and "Vodafone Foundation".

Interesting, I just had a dig around on the Vodafone Foundation website. They’re not exactly shouting about it. How much did they give?

A little over £200k.

I read that as they are doing a bit better financially this year than last as they have reduced their deficit. Grants have dropped but they are making more money this year off donations and legacies.

I got to this line and stopped reading, this has to win the prize for hyperbole:

“Supported legal work that has over-turned an effective ban on trans children and young people’s access to healthcare.”

I must have missed the bit where someone banned trans children and young people from getting healthcare. How can the auditors put their name to inaccuracy on that level?

I don't understand what they DO with the money. They have loads of the stuff. If they wanted to build trans dedicated rape crisis units they could. If they wanted to train gender medics they could. But no, they just stamp their feet because I don't think that anyone can change sex.

@Forgotthebins - the auditors only give an opinion on the financial statements, but of course the trustees are responsible for approving the final report.

@vivariumvivariumsvivaria - of their roughly £8m annual spend, £1.5m went on fund-raising, a little over £3m on campaigns, policy & research, and £3.5m on employment advice and empowerment programmes (which is offset by the fee income they get for these, I assume).

I think Mermaids must've published theirs too:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/30/transgender-charity-mermaids-reveals-earnings-training-nhs-educators/

"Mermaids, the controversial transgender charity, delivered more than double the number of training sessions to bodies including NHS trusts and schools in 2022, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
The scandal-hit transgender charity put on 329 individual training sessions, reaching more than 5,000 people, for the year ending March 2022 compared with 143 for the same period in 2021.
The income from these courses also increased, jumping from £59,546 to £151,246. In its most recent accounts, Mermaids said it had provided "awareness training to many organisations from the NHS, schools, colleges and universities as well as other public bodies, professionals, and corporate businesses".
In 2020/21, the charity delivered 59 training sessions at schools, 10 at NHS trustss_, 11 at fostering agencies and two to police forces.
No such breakdown was available for 2022."

You'll be shocked to learn that...

"Mermaids was approached for comment on Monday night."

But none forthcoming.

"11 at fostering agencies"

Children in care and isolated from their families have always been a target group for these organisations. Wonder why?

Neither of these organisations should be anywhere near schools, NHS or the police.

0.4 million of tax payers money to an organisation that actively campaigns against women’s rights is shocking.

Yes, you can search for any charity on the Charity Commission website - here's Mermaids, with their Report and Accounts also submitted last week: register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/5054976/accounts-and-annual-returns

Its main income is from donations, around the £1.7m mark in the year to March 2022, fairly unchanged from the previous year. I wonder how that's fared later in 2022?

IIRC it gets a fair chunk from the Welsh government, which outsourced everything LGB and TQ+ to Stonewall years ago.

The next set of accounts will be interesting to see the impact of a charity commission review on donations. The amount they've set aside for restricted funds indicates expenditure overall will be up. Legal fees or broader?

That shows in the figures, @pattihews - of £426k from government sources, £168k is from the Welsh govt, then there's £100k from the Scottish govt (plus £46k from NHS Scotland), and £89k from the Foreign Office.

😭😭😭

Would it be interesting to compare these figures with womens rape crisis charities? See how it compares funding of the most vulnerable against funding for the most abused?

Possibly, I would just say that you'd need to know the numbers that rape crisis can't see, to see what their demand is. As in the numbers they have to put on a waiting list etc.

And then you'd be in the position of SW and co pointing to their spurious "hate crime" figures, which IIRC Maya comprehensively pulled apart a while ago.

Not sure it's comparing like with like. But some kind of analysis must be possible

@ResisterRex that’s really good way. Even identifying how many on the list fall under the T umbrella to say hey! Some money for refuges for them!

but that would be doing their work! 😂😂😡