MSI Reproductive Choices (MSI) almost doubled its total unrestricted reserves after receiving a legacy donation of £81.9m, its 2023 annual report shows.
The cash boost raised the sexual health charity’s total annual income to £414m – a record amount – compared with £323m in 2022 and swelled its unrestricted reserves to £200m, from £103m the previous year.
A MSI spokesperson told Civil Society: “MSI is humbled and grateful to receive this extraordinary gift, which reminds us of the power of philanthropy and will help us to continue standing up for choice at a time of intense uncertainty for many global health organisations.”
Aside from the £81.9m windfall from the Ballard Legacy Fund, MSI’s income grew by 3% to £332m from 2022 to 2023 amid a funding environment that remains challenging, the report said.
Donations fell by more than a third to £6.1m from £9.7m the previous year, while grant income increased marginally to £147.5m.
But service income increased by 7%, from £143.5m to £153.5m. MSI said this was testament to it focusing on growing earned income within its clinics and via social marketing channels, as it continues strategic efforts to diversify income streams.
Following a pattern from previous years, the charity handed its chief executive Simon Cooke a performance-related bonus that almost doubled his £245,000 salary.
Ongoing uncertainty
MSI’s annual report warned that funding for women’s health remains precarious, pointing to the ongoing impact of economic instability and conflict.
“MSI teams who focus on providing services to women and girls in some of the hardest to reach communities – for example in Sierra Leone, Madagascar, and Afghanistan – are at risk of closure,” it said.
The difficult backdrop made the Ballard Legacy Fund money all the more important, Cooke wrote in his foreword.
“At a time of intense funding uncertainty for many global health organisations, this gift reminds me of the immense power of philanthropy,” he said. “It gives me cause for optimism.”
The report said the legacy, which has helped raise MSI’s operating surplus to £102m from £18.9m, would be held in a designated reserve.
It added that MSI’s board has agreed to outline uses for the funds, “which will be substantially deployed over the next five years”.
For 2023, the charity’s total expenditure increased by 4% from the previous year, to £314m.
£239,000 bonus for CEO
Of this total, spending on wages and salaries grew to £141m, from £140m in 2022, despite the average number of staff employed falling slightly to 8,830 from 8,993.
The number of top earners pulling in more than £200,000 a year annually at MSI increased from five in 2022 to seven in 2023 – all of whom were global management personnel and, with the exception of Cooke, received less than £280,000.
The chief executive’s base salary was £245,000, on top of which he also gained a performance-related bonus of £239,000. For comparison, in 2022 he received £233,000 plus an identically sized bonus.
The Charity Commission previously criticised MSI for the way its trustees decided on the charity’s chief executive pay package and issued it with formal advice.
In response to the latest pay figures, a Commission spokesperson said: “The Charity Commission is not a pay regulator, but we expect decisions about pay to be made carefully, mindfully and in a way that ultimately serves the charity’s beneficiaries into the future.
“We expect charities to undertake benchmarking exercises to set appropriate salaries for senior positions. If charities are unable to explain very high pay packets, they risk denting public confidence.
“We engaged with the trustees of MSI Reproductive Choices on this issue in 2019 and we have not seen any evidence that they are not acting upon the advice given at that time.”
Gender pay gap increase
Among London-based office staff who support MSI’s global operations, 2023 saw a marked increase in the median gender pay gap recorded – from -5.6% in 2022 to 14% in 2023.
The charity has said in a separate report that this is down to a restructure last year. This saw a number of roles held by men in lower pay bands shifted from its London support office into MSI’s wider UK structure, bringing down the median gender pay gap on that side of the organisation from 32.8% to 28.8%.
MSI has said that this still-significant disparity reflects structural imbalances in clinical positions across the healthcare workforce.
“We continue to take positive action wherever possible to attract and retain talented women in these roles,” the charity’s annual report reads.
Civil Society has approached MSI for further comment.
Related Articles
