BYM reserves grow thanks to legacies
The financial surplus was ‘against expectations’, said BYM in its statement.
Britain Yearly Meetings (BYM) reserves increased by nearly seven per cent in 2020, according to the annual report released last week. The figures show that BYM’s reserves grew from £86 million to £92 million, despite a seventy per cent loss of revenue from its trading company the Quiet Company, due to the closure of Friends House and Swarthmoor Hall during the pandemic. For the first time in history, the Quiet Company has reported a net loss, it said. Trustees said they are confident that it will return to profitability after the pandemic is over.
The financial surplus was ‘against expectations’, said BYM in its statement. The figure includes restricted reserves of £6.8 million (compared to £6.6 million in 2019); unrestricted reserves of £79 million (£73 million in 2019) and endowment reserves of £6.4 million (£6 million in 2019).
‘Contributions from Friends and meetings were higher than usual,’ wrote treasurer Linda Batten. ‘This year we received £8.0 million in legacies (£7.4 million in 2019). Included in the £8.0 million received this year is a gift of £6.0 million, of which 75% has been designated by the trustees to be spent in accordance with the legator’s wishes,’ she said.
Although the £6 million legacy from Catharine Anne Maeve Marsh is not restricted, BYM said it is aware of the wishes of the donor ‘to create an educational fund… to be used for the granting and awarding of scholarships and bursaries for gifted children (with particular emphasis on girls) attending Friends schools’ and they ‘hope to follow the spirit of the gift’. Twenty-five per cent will be appointed to general reserves (with the hope it will support BYM programmes in ‘education in the widest sense’). Seventy per cent will go to foster the gifts of children (particularly of girls) including overseas.
With the total income for the year at £16.1 million, a decrease of six per cent compared to the previous year (£17.2 million in 2019), the year saw an increase in total contributions of thirty-six per cent, compared to 2019, bringing the amount to £3 million. BYM is still consulting on its cost-cutting and restructuring programme as it moves to create a ‘Simpler Church’ and install Local Development Workers (LDWs) within reach of every Quaker community within five years.
Thirty-one members of Friends House staff opted to take voluntary redundancy in October 2020 after a consultation period to consider how BYM could meet the financial challenges of the pandemic and the shift towards more local working.
