WaterAid income rises by £10m according to most recent set of accounts

24 Nov 2015 News

WaterAid’s latest set of accounts show that the international aid charity’s UK income rose by £10m in the last financial year to £83.6m.

WaterAid’s latest set of accounts show that the international aid charity’s UK income rose by £10m in the last financial year to £83.6m.

WaterAid UK’s account for the year ending 31 March 2015, published in early November, show that its income grew to £83.6m in 2014/15, compared to £73.6m the previous year, an increase of over 13 per cent.

The charity’s spending also grew by 7.3 per cent in the last financial year, from £71.9m in 2013/14 to £77.2m in the last financial year. Of that total spend, WaterAid’s accounts show that £60.1m was spent on its charitable activities.

WaterAid’s income growth was predominantly driven by an increase in grant funding for specific activities as well as an increase in donations from individual supporters. Some £40.7m, or just under half of the charity’s total income for the last year, came from individual supporters.

WaterAid’s accounts also state that for every £1 the charity received, 78p was spent on delivering services, 21p was spent on raising funds and 1p was spent on governance.

In terms of expenditure on international projects, WaterAid spent over £11m in Southern Africa, £10.7m in Western Africa and £9.5m in East Africa.

It also spent £17.2m on water and sanitary projects in Asia, including in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It made 315 total grants to overseas partners at a total cost of £24.6m to the organisation with the biggest individual grant being £857,000 made to Nepal Water for Health.

The charity spent £20.3m on staff in the last financial year, a 1.7 per cent increase in staff costs from the previous year. The organisation also took on an extra 59 full-time equivalent members of staff in 2014/15, rising to 743. According to the accounts that figure has since increased to 806 staff as of 31 March 2015.

22 staff members earned emoluments of £60,000 or more in the last financial year. Barbara Frost, chief executive of WaterAid UK was the organisation’s highest earner last year, earning emoluments of £128,223 for the year.

2014/15 was the end of WaterAid’s 2009-2015 five-year global strategy. In that time, the aid organisation’s income has grown year on year from £45.2m to its current £83.6m total.

As part of its next global strategy, WaterAid has launched ‘Everyone, Everywhere 2030’ campaign which has seen the charity “pledge to advocate for universal access to clean water by 2030”.

Speaking of the last financial year, Barbara Frost said: “During this time [2009-2015 Global Strategy], you helped us reach 9.6 million people with safe water and 13.1 million people with improved sanitation.

"In 2014-15, we reached 2 million people with water, 3.1 million with sanitation, and an estimated 8.2 million with hygiene promotion.

“Moving forward, our overarching goal remains the same: to accelerate change to end extreme poverty and to transform lives through water, sanitation and hygiene."

More on