Tearfund has reported a record total income of £85.4m, a rise of 7% on the previous year, despite a large increase in its redundancy and severance costs.
According to newly filed accounts for the financial year ending March 2023, the charity’s redundancy and severance costs rose from £61,000 to £461,000.
Tearfund told Civil Society that these payments were made to 34 people as part of a restructuring of its communications functions. Seven staff that received payments were UK-based while the remaining 27 were regional.
The purpose of the restructure was to place more emphasis on the charity’s digital outreach, the charity said.
In 2020, Civil Society reported that Tearfund had made severance payments worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to employees since 2017.
General reserves at the charity were “below the lower end of the target range” as expenditure rose, and a growing percentage of its income was restricted for responding to particular crises.
Emergency appeal income increased by almost 50%
The charity’s income from emergency appeals rose by 45%, from £9.1m to £13.2m this financial year. This included £4.2m of Disasters Emergency Committee funding, up from £2.4m the previous year.
Most of the funding was received for its Afghanistan, Ukraine, Pakistan floods and Syria earthquake appeals.
As such, the countries that Tearfund awarded the most grants to in the year were Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Chair of Tearfund, Anna Laszlo, said in her introduction to the accounts: “With crisis after crisis, the past few years have felt unrelenting, and 2022 was no different. But once again, the church has stepped up and been at the centre of our response.”
Increase in government grants
General donations accounted for more than half of the charity’s overall income at £45.6m. This is a slight fall from the previous year when Tearfund received £46.2m in general donations.
Government grants to the charity also increased by £1.9m to £25.8m for the year.
After a rise in donations to emergency appeals, which are restricted funds, the accounts state that the charity understands this had led to a drop in unrestricted funds and donations. However, this excludes donations and legacies.
Indeed, gifts in wills to Tearfund increased from £5.76m to £6.65m this financial year.
Expenditure rises by almost 20%
Total expenditure at Tearfund rose by 17% on the previous year, to £90.3m. The charity put the increase down to costs incurred on restricted charitable activities, with a 19% increase on meeting emergency needs (£3.6m).
Tearfund received 346 complaints about its fundraising for the financial year, down from 403 complaints the previous year. The charity said it was not aware of any complaints that were escalated to the Fundraising Regulator.
The charity’s general fund of reserves sat at £6.5m for the year, a drop from £11.5m.
A Tearfund spokesperson told Civil Society: “Reserves income comes from and is related to general funds. Tearfund’s supporters are incredibly generous, and actually this last financial year has been a record year of income. However, with so many crises and emergency appeals – like the Syria / Turkey earthquake, the East Africa hunger crisis and the Pakistan floods, it means a growing percentage of our income is restricted for responding to a particular crisis.
“That’s vital – but we also need what’s called unrestricted or flexible income, to respond to the needs of people living in poverty who never hit the headlines. At the end of 2022-23, our general fund stands at £6.5m (2021-22: £11.5m), which is below the lower end of the target range.”
Staff costs rise by £5m
Staff costs for the charity rose from £31.7m to £36.9m this financial year. Wages and salaries accounted for the majority of the increase, rising by £4.4m to £32.1m, despite overall headcount decreasing from 1,088 in 2022 to 1,057 this year.
Nine more people were reported to be earning £60,001 - £70,000 than the year before and the members of the executive team earned a total of £705,000 compared to £669,000 in 2022. This included pensions and national insurance.
Trustees received no remuneration for their roles but incurred £8,850 more in travel and subsistence expenses than the previous year.
The highest earner at Tearfund made between £140,001 - £150,000 for the year.
