UK Charity Number: 1072612

Website: http://www.education-action.org

Stated Aims

UNICEF IS THE WORLD’S LEADING ORGANISATION WORKING FOR CHILDREN AND THEIR RIGHTS. WE WORK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH FAMILIES, LOCAL COMMUNITIES, OTHER ORGANISATIONS AND GOVERNMENTS IN 190 COUNTRIES TO HELP EVERY CHILD REALISE THEIR FULL POTENTIAL. WE SUPPORT CHILDREN BY PROVIDING HEALTH CARE, NUTRITION AND EDUCATION. WE PROTECT CHILDREN AFFECTED BY CRISES INCLUDING WAR, NATURAL DISASTERS AND HIV/AIDS.

Summary

UNICEF is one of the funders of Education Action. It campaigns for the “living wage” and funds various efforts to portray the UK as the worst place to raise children in the developed world.

Details

In 2007, the UK Committee for UNICEF had an income of £41,273,000. Of this, only two public bodies are listed as having give money, but it adds up to 13.2% of the total.

• The Department for Overseas Development (DFID): £5,037,000
• The States of Guernsey & Jersey and the Isle of Man: £417,000
• Total £5,454,000 (13.2% of income)

UK Charity Number: 294344

Website: http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/

Stated Aims

EXTRACT FROM THE MEMORANDUM AND ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION: THE OBJECTS FOR WHICH THE TRUST IS ESTABLISHED ARE TO CONSERVE RESTORE AND RE-ESTABLISH TREES AND IN PARTICULAR BROAD LEAVED TREES, PLANTS AND ALL FORMS OF WILDLIFE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND AND THEREBY TO SECURE AND ENHANCE THE ENJOYMENT BY THE PUBLIC OF THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT OF THOSE TERRITORIES.

Context

"We used to be members of this until we found out. The organisation regularly sends out to members vast volumes of expensively-printed puff which resembles the self-congratulatory output of a government department."

The Woodland Trust is a member of Stop Climate Chaos. Currently campaigns against high speed rail.

Details:

In 2007, it received £2,882,000 in public money, including:

• Forestry Commission: £884,000
• Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs: £51,000
• Local authorities: £192,000
• Environment and Heritage Service, NI: £114,000
• Natural England: £67,000
• Scottish Executive: £3,000
• European Structural Funds: £63,000
• Department for Communities & Local Government: £107,000
• Countryside Council for Wales: £41,000
• Rural Payments Agency: £29,000
• EC Life Nature: £5,000

This represents 12.3% of its total income for 2007.

It received a further £1,383,000 (5.9%) from The Big Lottery Fund

The charity’s total income was £23,380,000 and other major items include:

• Membership subscriptions: £4,733,000
• Legacies: £6,876,000
• Fundraising & appeals: £4,936,000
• Sponsorship income: £2,242,000
• Company donations, Charitable Trusts and Landfill Tax: £2,521,000

As such, the Woodland Trust does raise a substantial percentage of its money from voluntary contributions; however, 18.2% of its income comes from tax and lottery money.

A Rebuttal

We have received a reply from Paul Hetherington at The Woodland Trust.

Regarding your listing of the Woodland Trust, I feel it is importnat to highlight the following points to you which greatly question the veracity of including the Trust on your site.

Monies received direct from public bodies amounts to under 13% of the Woodland Trust’s total annual income and is a very low percentage in sector terms. The Trust believes that the charity sector as a whole should be able to access public funds that are allocated to their areas in order to support activities that are needed and would otherwise not be provided.

All printed materials distributed by the Woodland Trust are produced by ethically sourced printers using either 100% recycled paper or occasionally FSC accredited paper for specialist requirements. The volume of mailings is kept to a minimum and tailored to fit the audience, increasingly our communications to supporters are shifting to electronic formats.

Most of the above information is available from our annual review available on the Woodland Trust website

Website: http://www.alcoholconcern.org

Stated Aims:

ALCOHOL CONCERN’S ACTIVITIES INCLUDE THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ALCOHOL POLICY; RAISING ALCOHOL AWARENESS; PROVIDING QUALITY INFORMATION ON ALCOHOL AND ALCOHOL-RELATED HARM; DEVELOPING THE KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS OF PRACTITIONERS AND OPERATING A SPECIALIST CONSULTANCY SERVICE; AND DELIVERING PROJECTS THAT BUILD THE CAPACITY OF THE SECTOR.

Summary

Created by the British government in 1985, Alcohol Concern wages an incremental campaign against drinkers and the drinks industry.

Details

Alcohol Concern supports banning happy hour, raising the price of alcohol, lowering the drink drive limit, banning glass bottles in pubs, warning labels on cans and bottles and banning TV advertising before 9pm. It described the ban on happy hour promotions as “a step in the right direction” and the introduction of cigarette-style warning labels on bottles as “a very good first step”.

Its 2008/09 accounts show a total income of £1,137,582, of which:

• Department of Health (restricted grant): £142,000
• Department of Health (unrestricted grant): £400,000

• Big Lottery Fund: £127,275
• —
• Total £669,275 (58.8% of all income)

It received just £8,186 in public donations.

UPDATE

October 2011: Alcohol Concern have reported that they have lost their key funding (ie. the Department of Health), leading to the departure of their Chief Executive and their full-time fundraiser. If this excellent news in confirmed when the next accounts appear, we will be happy to remove the ‘charity’ from this site.

Context

Submitted to the site after being mentioned in a typically hysterical Daily Mail article.

Their website states the following…

Stonewall was founded in 1989 by a small group of women and men who had been active in the struggle against Section 28 of the Local Government Act.

Section 28 was an offensive piece of legislation designed to prevent the so-called ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools; as well as stigmatising gay people it also galvanised the gay community.

The aim from the outset was to create a professional lobbying group that would prevent such attacks on lesbians, gay men and bisexuals from ever occurring again. Stonewall has subsequently put the case for equality on the mainstream political agenda by winning support within all the main political parties and now has offices in England, Scotland and Wales.

Current lobbying efforts concentrate on: “Securing equal legal treatment in areas where it doesn’t already exist such as extension of the legal form of marriage to same-sex couples. Influencing the development of public policy in areas such as blood donation, asylum, the workplace and faith-sanctioned discrimination.”

Details

In 2007, Stonewall received a total of £2,883,267, mostly from various other opaque and not-so-opaque charitable trusts and foundations of one sort and another. However, it did receive a good chunk of its funding (23.6%) from the state.

• Department of Trade & Industry: £303,641
• Scottish Executive: £253,845
• The Equal Opportunities Commission: £9,000
• Welsh Assembly Government: £115,382
• —
• Total: £681,868 (23.6% of all income)

In 2009, Stonewall received a total of £3,843,063, including:

• Arts Council England: £3,372
• Awards for All: £5,000
• Big Lottery Fund: £94,973
• Department of Health: £4,995
• Edinburgh Community Safety Partnership: £4,000
• Equality and Human Rights Commission: £96,904
• Greater London Authority: £12,000
• Russell Commission: £60,830
• Scottish Government VAF: £190,921
• Wales Council for Voluntary Action: £21,040
• Welsh Assembly Government: £109,996
• Total: at least £603,679 (15.7%) came from public bodies; probably more.

Context

NSPCC is paid by statutory bodies (which its annual report explains are “are government agencies or departments”) for providing:

• Child protection and preventative services and helplines
• Influencing and public education
• Child protection training and consultancy

Some credit should perhaps be given for spelling this out, even admitting that it is paid for “influencing”, even if only in a footnote to its accounts.

The NSPCC’s website has a page dedicated to their lobbying activity, saying: “We campaign for changes to legislation, policy and practice to ensure they best protect children, both at a local and national level… We lobby at both a local, regional, and national level.” Current campaigns include a ban on parents physically disciplining their children. They also want to “make the internet safer for children.”

Details

2010 accounts show:

• Income from service level agreements (SLAs) with statutory bodies: £5.7 million
• Grants and one-off fees from statutory bodies: £13.4 million
• —
• Total: £19 million (12.5% of income)

Context

St Dunstan’s Annual Report for 2009/10, its 95th anniversary year, shows no sign at all of state funding:

Key areas that saw development were community fundraising in the Brighton area and the establishment of Blind Heroes Week. The supporter base grew by a further 61,000 as direct marketing continued to attract new supporters. Legacy income…of £10.1 million was achieved.

Details

No state funding.

Context

Oxfam’s Annual Report & Accounts for 2009/10 includes the word ‘lobby’ on its front page as one of the keywords in the graphic, and campaigning is one of the three areas in the ‘What we do’ section of the report. Although Oxfam lobbies private companies in addition to governments, a quarter of its income comes from government sources. In a summary of its five aims, it says it spends 8% of its income on:

The right to be heard…raising people’s awareness of their rights and helping them lobby their government and other decision-makers.

Details

Oxfam’s latest accounts are for the 11 months to March 31, 2010. In the reported income from government they include income from other organisations, such as other members of Oxfam International, so the total here is less than the total in their accounts. The biggest identified government sources include the Department for International Development (DFID):

• European Union: £42.5 million
• United Nations: £13.4 million
• Non-UK governments: £16 million
• UK Government (mostly DFID): £11.9 million
  —
• Total: £83.8 (26% of all income)

Context

This is the charity partner of The Big Issue Company, the company that produces the The Big Issue magazine sold by homeless and vulnerably housed people. The charity supports the magazine vendors directly and through a huge range of partnerships with other organisations.

Details

The 2009/10 accounts show that this charity is 99% funded by donations and legacies. It received a lottery grant of £13,000, a little over 1% of the charity’s total income.

Context

ECPAT carries out research, provides training and advocacy, campaigns, lobbies the government, and is involved with government agencies and public bodies in a variety of ways.

About half its income in 2009/10 came from The Body Shop, and it reports an important partnership with ABTA (“The Travel Association”) without disclosing the financial details. It also acknowledges the support of several other grant-making charities, particularly for its parliamentary and campaigning work.

Details

Although ECPAT’s accounts are not as clearly set out as they could be, although it does acknowledge the support of the former Department for Children, Schools and Families (now the Department for Education), and although future European Commission funding is mentioned as a possibility, there is no evidence of state funding in the accounts that are currently available.

Context

Butterfly Conservation’s accounts for 2009/10 estimate that:

…volunteers contributed work worth over £9 million…

If that figure were actually in the accounts as income, then the charity’s state funding would fall just below our 10% threshold (but still be above the £1 million threshold). As it is, the charity receives more than a third of its income from the state, income that it maintains by lobbying.

Recently it declared its support for one of its state donors, the Forestry Commission, which has been widely criticised for policies that harm wildlife. The money was apparently more important.

Details

The charity’s accounts for 2009/10 list grant income from dozens of sources including several local councils. Here are some of the larger amounts:

• DEFRA via Natural England: £384,000
• Lottery: £309,000
• Landfill Communities Fund via Grantscape & SITA: £210,000
• Scottish Natural Heritage: £123,000
• Countryside Council for Wales: £ 119,000
• Forestry Commission: £36,000
• N.I. Environment Agency: £55,000
  —
• Total: £1.2 million (38% of all income)