National Emergencies Trust (NET) income dropped by nearly £2m last year, according to its accounts for the year to March 2023, as its Covid-19 fundraising appeal closed.
There was a decrease in both income and expenditure in the year, “reflecting the nature of the trust as a ‘pop up’ crisis response charity”. This meant NET was below the threshold for a full audit.
Income decreased from £2.40m to £573,000 as final donations for the charity’s Coronavirus Appeal, which raised nearly £100m overall from its launch in March 2020, were received.
Expenditure similarly decreased from £3.34m to £1.43m, with the charity planning to spend the remaining £182,000 from the appeal fund this financial year.
Building reserves
NET registered as an independent charity in April 2019, and was set up on the recommendation of the Charity Commission after the Grenfell Tower fire and terror attacks in Manchester and London.
Its income swelled to £89.7m in 2020-21 due to its successful Covid-19 appeal, but it has shrunk significantly since then.
Some £1.94m of the charity’s income in 2021-22 was from 18 corporate donors to its appeal.
In 2022-23, the highest paid member of staff was remunerated between £90,000 - £100,000, which remains in the same band as last year.
Staff costs totalled £509,000, compared to £498,000 the year prior, with no remuneration for any trustee for services as a trustee.
Chair of NET, John Barradell, added that insights from its first appeal “are directly informing how we prioritise our work between appeals and achieve better outcomes for those affected by future emergencies.”
The trustees set a target to have two years core operating costs in reserve, which is currently budgeted at £1.66m. The level of unrestricted reserves at year end was £1.06m.
“Trustees plan to put aside further unrestricted income in future years to bring the reserves within the target level and ensure the charity has a strong financial foundation to be able to respond to future emergencies,” the report reads.
The charity has also set aside a designated fund of £200,000 to be ready to commit towards the launch of a new emergency appeal. This fund would be reimbursed from the funds raised from that appeal so it is available again for further appeals.
Learning lessons
The accounts state “grant-making is fundamental” to NET, and “wherever possible, our grant-making capacity will be delivered via existing organisations, including UK Community Foundations (UKCF), London Emergencies Trust and other partners with established track-records in disaster response grant-making”.
Mhairi Sharp, chief executive of NET, said the report “highlights the work the charity is undertaking at speed to learn lessons from the past: both historic UK disasters and its own, inaugural Coronavirus Appeal”.
“Between emergency appeals we never know how long we will have to make progress on the past,” the CEO added in the report forward.
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