Mental health charity Mind plans to dip into its reserves and run an operating deficit for one additional year after facing financial challenges.
Mind reported a net financial deficit of £4.2m in the year to March 2025, which was larger than it had expected but a substantial decrease from the deficits of more than £15m it reported in the two previous years.
As a result, its reserves fell from £22.2m at the beginning of 2024-25 to £17.9m at the year’s end, according to its recently filed accounts.
Stevie Spring, Mind chair, said that due to “tough external conditions” the charity will run “one final year of deficit” in 2025-26.
Spring said: “The challenging external environment was reflected in a larger deficit than budgeted in 2024-25.
“The reduction in reserves from £22.2m at the beginning of the year to £17.9m at year end reflects both this challenging environment and planned expenditure from reserves.”
The Mind chair added that the charity had intended 2024-25 to be the final year of spending its reserves accumulated through is Covid pandemic emergency appeal, but financial pressures had prolonged that by a year.
Spring said: “These are difficult times, but this review shows how much we continue to achieve when we take action together.”
Charity grapples with ‘challenging external environment’
Mind’s total income in 2024-25 grew by around £1m to £63.7m in 2024-25 while its expenditure decreased by about £11m to £68.4m.
Of its £63.7m income, about 30% came from donations and legacies, which increased by around £2m on the previous year to £19.6m.
Mind’s charity shops produced a net profit of £4.1m, down on its “record” previous year of £5.6m.
In its accounts, the charity stated: “The challenging external environment means that Mind needs to continue to invest in supporting our federation and beneficiaries and we will therefore run one final year of deficit.
“Trustees and the executive team have a clear plan to deliver surpluses in future years and rebuild reserves.”
Staff costs decline after redundancies made
Mind paid £234,000 in redundancy and termination payments in 2024-25, but this was carried over from the previous financial year. This marked a decline from last year’s amount of £1.58m, when 91 redundancies were made.
The charity confirmed that no redundancies were made across the organisation this financial year.
Mind’s overall staff costs decreased from £39.6m in 2024 to £35.2m in 2024-25, while its average number of employees fell by 74 to 1,020.
The charity’s number of employees earning over £60,000 decreased from 55 to 37 over the same period.
Sarah Hughes, Mind chief executive, had the highest annual salary of £140,000.
