Stonewall is in financial difficulty

[RoyalCorgi]

Interesting post from Rob Jessel:

https://x.com/robjessel16/status/2008194383301185966

If you can't read it, their return to Companies House shows that last year (ending 31 March 2025) they had a deficit of £906k.

A deficit is for a single year, rather than the overall amount of debt an organisation has (eg you could have a deficit for a single year but still not be in debt).

One startling element is the reduction in reserves. At the end of the previous financial year they had reserves of £998k. At the end of March 2025, that was down to £92k.

That's such a dramatic fall I wonder if I've understood it correctly, so if you have more financial expertise than I do, feel free to correct me.

You can see the Companies House return at: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02412299/filing-history

The levels of funding in the 'trans' organisations vs the 'terf' organisations (apologies for the lazy descriptions) is really interesting isnt it. Almost like those involved on the terf side are doing it because they feel strongly about doing the right thing, even where it is not in their personal interest, rather than a massive grift ...

[Disclaimer: am currently reading Time to Think and am shocked at what I am reading about Mermaids,amongst other things].

Welsh Gov also gave them about £100,000. As did the Welsh Arts Council who are funded by WG and the National Lottery.

How on earth can they be in such dire straits? They had access to the coffers of practically every big organisation in Britain for several years, and charged ridiculous amounts for their resources. What the jeff have they been spending it all on?

Flags, loads of staff, flags, Pride, court cases, and more flags......!

Flags are so expensive!

Yup. They don't have enough there to cover redundancy liabilities never mind any ongoing commitments. Three months running costs should be the minimum.

Excellent work by the Redditor upthread. Heartening to see that many only have 1 year's worth of reserves to cover costs. Although this assumes they can't do a big crowdfunder a la FWS.

They also will have much bigger overheads than the charities mentioned. Many on our side talk about lack of meeting spaces/offices etc and using the kitchen table - proper grass roots stuff. So the GC people can go on for longer and need less money.

The funding dip will really test the TRAs mettle. They turn out with flags, paint, piss and shouting but will they put their hands in their pockets to do without for the cause? And have the cases they have already funded put them off? The GLP doesn't seem shy of wasting their donations on poorly constructed legal arguments...

Will be very interesting to watch as more become aware that they are considered TERFs for believing sex is real and immutable, hence GC potential for donations will go up and the GI side will continue to go down - with 39% of the UK saying they think trans rights have gone too far, it is very unlikely that GI fundraisers will get them out of the mess....

So many flags.......!

Wow yes - I wonder how many staff are jumping ship and finding jobs elsewhere before the redundancies start? Maybe putting the news out there is a way of getting the staff numbers down at no/low cost?

In my head there's an image of a guy who owns a printing business reading this thread and getting really depressed. He was doing so well out of printing all those rainbow flags with the invading trans arrow forcing it's way in from the left.
Don't worry brother, I got you! Switch to printing rainbow flags with the trans invading arrow turned around and now being shoved out off the rainbow flag. You'll make even more money printing those I promise you.

🎻sad times.

FAFO?

A quote from a different poster on that trans Reddit thread:

I had a good natter with the manager of a local LGBT charity that I was once a trustee of and volunteer at.

It's been going since the 80s.

It's a different world from when I was there ten years ago.

They're a much smaller organisation now, mostly due to generally reduced available funds.

This year it has become much worse though.

They used to be able to make extra pennies though LGBT awareness work at local schools. This year, that's basically dried up.

So they've been stopped from spreading their ideology in schools, and taking money from the local education authority? Sad times.

Most charities are experiencing this.

costs, especially salary costs, are rising hugely and income can’t keep up.

most are cutting services and imposing redundancies.

so there nothing unusual about stonewall experiencing the same

These are not Stonewall's "current" accounts. They are for the year 2024, mostly.

Stonewall has seen a catastrophic fall in income, due to the failure of its extortionate (in all senses of the word) "Stonewall Champions" grift.

so there nothing unusual about stonewall experiencing the same

Probably, but Stonewall for years received income from organisations effectively for pats on the head from Stonewall for doing what Stonewall wanted in their organisation. They were paying Stonewall to cheer them on.

“Give us money and we will put you in a league table if you’re worthy enough.”

Most other charities do the work others can’t do or don’t want to do. Companies were paying Stonewall to do what they could do perfectly well without them.

Once organisations cottoned on to the fact they could having a perfectly functioning HR system without Stonewall and that figurative pats on the head were about as worthy as literal pats on the head, they stopped giving them a hell of a lot of money.

People will still give money when they can to worthy charities, and if things pick up then worthy charities will see their incomes increase again, but there’s no chance of Stonewall’s income returning to what it was because the jig is up. Stonewall’s entire model was a form of MLM, a racket, a con and everyone sees it now. Give money to an animal shelter and you can tangibly see where you money goes: shelter, food, staff to care for the animal. Give money to Stonewall now and your money goes….where?

“To fight for LGBT rights.”

Which means…what?

I cannot wait to see them go completely under. They are directly responsible for pushing for the sterilisation of children and for men in women’s spaces. It can’t come soon enough.

Sad times all round.
Poor them.

Agreed, @NotBadConsidering . Also, Stonewall's dodgy advice and ideology started to be a financial and legal liability to companies and organisations.

I'm a trustee of a small local charity. We're currently thriving. I suspect we will see cuts in our government funding in the years to come, which will make things difficult, but currently we are financially solid.

ETA no redundancies, no cuts to services, pressure on us to expand.

Yes, you are correct, an important point. Paying lots of money for poor advice that costs you more money in legal fees in the long run.

Previously Stonewall would have then offered to help with those legal cases, for a fee of course. Get you into trouble for a fee, then offer to try and get you out of the trouble they got you into (and fail) for another fee. That’s the pyramid of the scheme!

It’s amazing how they got away with it for so long.

Lol, are we sure p-t-d isn't one of us? Someone asks where to put some money given this dire situation, and this is his response:

The GLP. We are at a crisis point atm- we need to win binding cases in the courts in the immediate future. Just be a bit wary because they have a history of dropping cases and exaggeration.
Trans supportive unions are also a good shout for the same reason.
Once we have some protection in caselaw we can start pushing advocacy groups to change the statutes.

I mean, great, let them - but isn't this utterly backward? If I were advising them, I wouldn't be pushing for caselaw even with a competent legal organisation, never mind with GLP, because given FWS's clarity I'd expect to lose every case eventually. I'd be doing whatever I could to advocate for changing the law (expecting it to take a while, but look at how the anti-abortionists worked in the US, over the long term).

Lordy, don't say that @fanOfBen , they already think we're a load of far right Christo nutters!!

It can't possibly be that we are women, and they are not. No, there must be something else going on 🙄

Mind you, I'd love some of that supposed dark money from the US, I've got bills coming up 💰

What are TransActual and Translucent if they’re not charities? And is LGBTYS able to have such large reserves because it’s funded by the Scottish govt?

Just looked up LGBTYS and note that in 2023/2024 it had an income over £2m! You’d expect them to be in a better financial position. Though the income of Schools and higher education institutions pay fees ranging from £850 to £2,000 for training, assessments, and accreditation, depending on the number of pupils or staff and the award level (Bronze, Silver, or Gold) might have gone down as what schools have spare cash to waste on this ‘accreditation’ fgs?

Edited to add that if I lived in Scotland with poor public services I’d be enraged my taxpayer money was going to an organisation encouraging children to take harmful medication.

From the article:

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are committed to supporting LGBTQI+ people, including through funding for Stonewall to advance equality for this group. This is particularly important at a time when we are seeing a rise in attacks against the LGBTQI+ community.”

What ‘rise in attacks’? Court cases with legal bills attached perchance?

Oh dear, it's all very sad times over at Stonewall:

The UK used to be a world leader in LGBTQ+ rights. Sadly, that is no longer the case. Whilst as a community we continue to enjoy progress that must be celebrated, the UK and wider world is changing. Globally, the LGBTQ+ movement, along with a whole range of other social justice and human rights issues, is experiencing a period of significant turbulence, with rights and freedoms being contested – particularly for the trans and non-binary communities. There have been significant reductions, in the UK and around the world, in funding for the movement.

Stonewall Annual Report 2024/25 | Stonewall