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2024-03-31-accounts

Company no. 03277032 Charity no. 1076346

mySociety Report and Audited Financial Statements 31 March 2024

mySociety

Reference and administrative details

For theyear ended 31 March 2024 For theyear ended 31 March 2024
Company number 03277032
Charity number 1076346
Registered office and 483 Green Lanes
operational address London
N13 4BS
Trustees Trustees, who are also directors under company law, who served during
the year and up to the date of this report were as follows:
A Adewunmi
A Brown
C Brown resigned 6 July 2023
A J H Burton
F Mainoo resigned 21 October 2023
G Maitland Hudson appointed 6 July 2023
D O'Shaughnessy
R Rank
C Ross resigned 8 December 2023
S Skelton
J Thornton
Chief Executive Officer L Crow
Bankers Lloyds Bank
27-31 White Hart Street
High Wycombe
HP11 2HL
Auditors Godfrey Wilson Limited
Chartered accountants and statutory auditors
5th Floor Mariner House
62 Prince Street
Bristol
BS1 4QD

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mySociety

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2024

Reference and administrative information set out on page 1 forms part of this report. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the Memorandum and Articles of Association and the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities (effective from January 2019).

Structure, governance and management

mySociety is incorporated as a company limited by guarantee under a Memorandum & Articles of Association, and is registered as a charity in England and Wales (registered charity no. 1076346).

mySociety is governed by a board of volunteer trustees. Trustees serve four-year terms, and may be reappointed for one further four-year term after completion of their first. Trustees are generally recruited through an open call for applications, or may occasionally be directly appointed following a period of service as an observer of one of the board’s committees. Following their appointment trustees participate in a series of briefings with key staff and fellow trustees as part of their induction; which includes briefings on financial procedures, our priority areas of work, ongoing strategy and organisational setup.

mySociety operates a number of civic and democratic websites, and has a wholly owned commercial subsidiary, SocietyWorks Ltd, governed by its own board of directors comprising a combination of trustees from mySociety, executive directors and independent non-executive directors. Trustees and non-executive directors are not remunerated.

Day-to-day management of mySociety and its subsidiaries is delegated to the Chief Executive except for the following matters which are reserved to the trustees:

At any one time, mySociety typically employs around 30 permanent members of staff and a small additional number on temporary contracts. SocietyWorks Ltd employs no staff directly, but buys in labour as required from mySociety.

There is an annual review of pay for all staff members, encompassing two elements:

The Chief Executive makes recommendations to the board of trustees based on performance, affordability and the financial health of mySociety, and changes in averages of salaries for comparable roles except for the Chief Executive’s own pay and that of the Managing Director of SocietyWorks Ltd, which is discussed by the board of trustees alone. The board of trustees either accepts or amends the recommendations, and makes the revised pay offer to the staff.

Salary ranges for new roles are set using both industry benchmarks and salaries of staff members already employed by the organisation in similar roles.

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mySociety

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2024

Objectives and activities

Aims and goals

The objectives of mySociety are “to conduct and promote research into the use and effects of information and communication technologies in the context of the operation of any body or bodies which has or have an electorate, and to disseminate the useful results of such research for the benefit of the public”.

mySociety uses its UK websites and the international websites it supports to undertake active research to explore what is effective in delivering on this mission. Our ambition is to repower democracy: using our digital and data skills to put more power in more people's hands.

2023/24 was our first year of working towards a number of five-year goals that we believe will enable us to realise our ambition to significantly and sustainably grow the positive impact our UK services have for citizens:

Headline goals

  1. Reach more, and more kinds of people with our services, focusing on those underserved by democracy and by our services.

  2. Get democratic institutions to meet citizens’ needs, using insights from our services and support from the communities that use them.

  3. Help drive the democratic transition we need in response to the climate crisis by developing new services or service changes across our core areas of work.

Supporting goals

  1. Build UK partnerships targeting citizen reach or specific institutional change to which we can uniquely contribute through our services.

  2. Use our research, international network and events to inform and share our practices.

  3. Create and sustain supporter and volunteering programmes to build capacity and strengthen our connection to our wider UK community.

Public benefit

We have referred to the guidance in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aims and objectives and in planning our future activities. In particular, the trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives they have set.

Social investment policies

mySociety's ongoing provision of services via its subsidiary trading company, SocietyWorks Ltd, represents a social investment; projects are chosen based on alignment with the charity’s purposes, as well as with the aim of achieving a financial return.

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mySociety

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2024

Achievements and performance

Our work is organised under four interlinked practice areas, all underpinned by research and sectorbuilding: Democracy, Transparency, Climate, Community. Our communications, fundraising, events and administrative personnel support the activities of these practice areas.

In 2023/24, mySociety’s 35 permanent UK staff continued to help citizens in the UK and around the world to meaningfully engage with their government and within their communities - through the running of our services FixMyStreet, TheyWorkForYou, WhatDoTheyKnow, WriteToThem, CAPE and Local Intelligence Hub; by supporting the work of local organisations in over 40 countries worldwide; and by researching the efficacy and impact of digital tools on government accountability, transparency and citizen engagement. Our sites are used regularly by a vast number of people - they were used over 31 million times in the UK in 2023.

Our 20th anniversary awards in November 2023 were an opportunity to highlight the work of citizens who have used our services to drive impactful change, accelerate climate action, expose truth and campaign for justice. For example, we presented Eleanor Shaikh with the ‘Campaigning for Justice’ award for using our WhatDoTheyKnow service to fight for justice for the wrongly accused Post Office subpostmasters - a scandal that has been cited as the greatest miscarriage of justice in the UK’s history.

Democracy

Our UK parliamentary monitoring site TheyWorkForYou had over 4.8 million visits in 2023/24, while our WriteToThem service, enabling people to contact their elected representatives, saw 2 million sessions.

TheyWorkForYou’s goal is to make the UK’s Parliaments more transparent and accessible to citizens and civil society, so that high quality information about our elected representatives isn’t only available to insiders or those who can pay. This year we have been working to make TheyWorkForYou even more inclusive, and as of July 2023 it now includes debates and a list of all Members of the Welsh Senedd, in both English and Welsh. It is the only source that brings together the proceedings of all the UK’s parliaments. Through the regular publication of debates, plus TheyWorkForYou’s search and alert functions, we aim to support citizens and civil society across the UK to play an active part in democracy.

TheyWorkForYou's voting record summaries are summaries of how individual MPs have voted. This year we have sharpened the focus in our approach, working on developments to ensure we present clear and accurate summaries of how individual MPs have voted for use by the public, in the context of parties and wider policies, with a focus on votes that use the powers of Parliament. Our new approach also makes updates more practical with less resources. We have also refreshed our explanation of Parliamentary voting.

Another key piece of work this year was in preparation for the upcoming general election. The current set of parliamentary constituencies is being replaced for the next election and no-one officially produces a single dataset of all the new constituencies covering the whole UK, so in 2023 mySociety developed and released a number of resources including maps, postcode lookups and cross referencing tools to make the boundaries easier to navigate for the upcoming election.

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mySociety

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2024

An impact story from our WriteToThem service this year was in the campaign ‘Zero Hour’ which aims to provide a pathway to getting cross-party support for a legislative solution that will ensure that the UK delivers a science-led, people-powered plan on biodiversity and climate. The campaign relied on getting Zero Hour’s supporters to contact their representatives and ask them for their backing, so they integrated our WriteToThem tool into their website to ensure that supporters could contact the MP where they live with the click of a button. The campaign was incredibly effective, with thousands of our supporters asking their MPs to support the Climate and Ecology Bill.

Transparency

Our Freedom of Information (FOI) service, WhatDoTheyKnow, makes it easier for people to access information from public authorities in the UK. In 2023/24 around 120,000 FOI requests were sent via the site - a 3% increase on the previous year.

We recognise that too often marginalised communities are disengaged from civic participation, so a key focus of mySociety’s work is to bring our tools to those who feel voiceless and disenfranchised. Throughout 2023 we conducted research and outreach into marginalised groups’ usage of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. We spoke to organisations working on the frontlines of marginalisation in the UK and produced a report which uncovered the challenges that organisations embedded in marginalised communities face when gathering data held by public bodies to advocate for positive social change. Informed by our research findings, we have both made service improvements to make FOI more accessible, and launched a training programme to empower disadvantaged communities with the knowledge and skills to engage meaningfully in a way that affects change.

Supported by the Wellcome Data Prize in Mental Health, mySociety also provided technical support to an organisation, Black Thrive, whose work addresses the inequalities that negatively impact the mental health and wellbeing of Black people. Together we built an interactive ‘stop and search’ dashboard to help understand whether the disproportionate use of police stop and search impacts the mental health of young Black people.

Our Access To Information (ATI) Europe project continued this year, in partnership with Access Info Europe and Open Knowledge Foundation Germany. In the first half of the year, mySociety conducted one-to-one interviews with almost all of the active ATI sites in Europe to better understand the goals, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for each organisation. From this we created both a series of Action Learning Skills Shares for the network to benefit from each other's expertise, and a mentorship programme devised to allow for deeper learning for a smaller set of organisations. The mentorship programme is supported by subgrants from the Isocrates foundation to allow all participants to be able to take the time to participate fully in the programme.

As an example of the ATI network in action, MaDada in France have created a data explorer dashboard which they use on their version of Alaveteli, our Access to Information platform, with some support from mySociety. The dashboard has already been ported into the Belgian Alaveteli Transparencia.be, and SPOON in the Netherlands are keen to use it — a positive demonstration of technical collaboration and distribution through the network. With the introduction of two new platforms in Slovenia and Kosovo, and the closure (albeit temporarily) of Mimes Bronn in Norway and La Statul Intrebari in Romania, we currently have 17 operational ATI platforms in Europe.

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mySociety

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2024

Climate

With support from Quadrature Climate Foundation and the National Lottery Community Fund, we’re working to help communities, civil society and local councils tackle the climate emergency. As a solution to challenges uncovered by our prototyping weeks held in 2022/23, we have launched the Local Intelligence Hub — a climate data sharing platform, built with The Climate Coalition and softlaunched to their members in April 2023, then to the public in February 2024. This interactive map with comprehensive data and filter functions enables targeted searches, and resourcing campaigners with local information at the touch of a button, which early users have described as ‘game changing’ for their climate campaigning. We have also developed an ‘alpha’ version of our community retrofitting platform, Neighbourhood Warmth, and have been working on developing partnerships to roll this service out in the coming year.

Throughout this year we have continued our partnership with Climate Emergency UK, supporting their work on the second round of the Council Climate Action Scorecards - assessing the climate action being undertaken by local authorities. The second iteration of the Scorecards, which launched in October 2023, is much bigger and more ambitious in scope than the last: it scores not the plans, but the climate actions of every local authority in the UK. This level of oversight has not previously been possible; as with so much about the Scorecards project, it is allowing councils to take more informed action on climate, and enabling individuals and communities to clearly understand what is being done.

In 2023 we employed a Policy and Advocacy Manager who promotes the recommendations that come from our research and digital services, with the aim of improving the information ecosystem available to citizens, especially around climate. This year mySociety also joined the Blueprint Coalition – an influential group of local government organisations, environmental groups, and research institutions working together to deliver local climate action with a joined-up approach.

Community

Our FixMyStreet platform provides a simple way for citizens to report faults to authorities responsible for getting them fixed. FixMyStreet is a particularly useful tool for making Britain’s streets more accessible, with wheelchair users and blind people utilising it to report issues that were making roads unsafe or inaccessible. In 2023/24 FixMyStreet saw 6 million sessions. Thanks to translation work we have done on FixMyStreet this year, place-based issues in Wales can now be reported to the correct authority by citizens in Welsh as well as in English.

The FixMyStreet codebase is open source, meaning that anyone with the required technical knowhow can pick it up, tweak it for their local context, and create an issue-reporting website for their own country, for free. This year, another FixMyStreet site has launched in an international location - Croatia, adding to the number of citizens across the world who can enjoy keeping their neighbourhoods safe and clean with the codebase’s simple functionality.

TICTeC

Our TICTeC conference is about sharing research, knowledge and experiences to examine and improve the impacts of civic technology, in order to strengthen democracy, public participation, transparency, and accountability across the world. With support from the National Endowment for Democracy we launched a two year project in partnership with the Civic Tech Field Guide to promote learning, knowledge exchange, and collaboration among civic technology organisations. During this year we developed our outreach and communications strategy to engage global civic tech initiatives with our TICTeC Communities of Practice, particularly targeting those based in the Global South.

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mySociety

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2024

Financial review

Total group income in 2023/24 was £3.093m, an increase of 24% from the £2.487m recognised in 2022/23. Restricted grant income of £1.645m (2022/23: £1.049m) represents a material increase of 57% on the previous financial year. A significant proportion of this relates to the final phases of multiyear grants that will not be repeated in 2024/25. Unrestricted grant income has dropped from £0.165m in 2022/23 to £0.095m in 2023/24.

Income from other trading activities increased by 8% to £1.302m (2022/23: £1.202m) representing growth in core SocietyWorks business.

Total expenditure of £2.558m (2022/23: £2.250m) represents a year on year increase of 14%. Expenditure has been closely managed in a challenging economic climate with inflationary pressures evident in the rising costs of services.

2023/24 saw a net surplus outturn of £0.535m (2022/23: £0.237m), much of this relating to timing on income receipts from multi-year restricted funds received within the financial year but with expenditure planned in 2024/25, and profits from SocietyWorks contributing towards an increase in unrestricted funds. Total funds at the year end were £1.206m (2022/23: £0.671m) made up of unrestricted funds of £0.649m (2022/23: £0.527m) and restricted funds of £0.557m (2022/23: £0.144m).

mySociety’s major charitable supporters in 2023/24 have included:

We are also grateful to all the individuals and small private foundations who provide one-off or recurring donations to support mySociety’s work.

mySociety’s commercial subsidiary, SocietyWorks Ltd, provides sustainable commercial income streams within each of our practice areas, building on and related to the work we do charitably. In particular, our FixMyStreet Pro commercial contracts generate substantial multi-year income streams aligned with our overall mySociety mission and work with local authorities. Profits made from trading activity are distributed to the charity, with income and expenditure from trading activity consolidated in the group accounts as unrestricted funds.

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mySociety

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2024

On the consolidated statement of financial activities, income from other trading activities and expenditure on raising funds: trading activities, relate wholly to SocietyWorks Ltd. Profit margins for the commercial subsidiary are considered reasonable in comparison to contextually similar SMEs operating in the Software as a Service (SaaS) industry. The financial year ending 31 March 2025 will see the first year of implementation of SocietyWorks Ltd’s three year growth strategy where we expect to deliver year on year profit growth, providing mySociety with more certainty on future multiyear income.

In 2023/24, SocietyWorks Ltd generated a net profit of £0.159m (2022/23: £0.208m) which has contributed to delivering an unrestricted surplus in mySociety.

Going concern

The trustees consider that the charity will continue as a going concern for a period of at least 12 months from the date on which these financial statements are approved for the following reasons:

The trustees therefore consider it appropriate to adopt the going concern basis of preparation of the accounts, as detailed in note 1(c) to the financial statements.

Principal risks and uncertainties

mySociety operates a comprehensive risk management framework that supports informed decision making around the risks that threaten our ability to achieve our goals. Our risk register is reviewed regularly by the Senior Management Team, with formal review by the Board of Trustees at least biannually. Risks are categorised by type, and assessed by probability and impact creating a gross risk score. Mitigations are reviewed and identified as relevant to deliver a net risk score that is within acceptable risk tolerance thresholds of the Board of Trustees. Contingencies are also identified if mitigations were to fail. Our approach to risk management is designed to manage, rather than eliminate, the risks to delivering our goals.

The key risks, alongside impact, mitigation, and contingency strategies for the organisation are as follows:

  1. Risk: Failure to acquire sufficient future funding to sustain the organisation. Impact: Failure to deliver mission impact. Mitigation: Charity funding is a primary focus for the organisation; the SocietyWorks team is focused on growing sustainable profits from commercial activity; quarterly financial forecasts are prepared to ensure timely information is available to support critical decision making; relevant consideration will be given to any reductions to the cost base. Contingency: Reduce the cost base to ensure the charity remains solvent.

  2. Risk: Insufficient free cash to meet financial obligations. Impact: Failure to meet financial and operational commitments and deliver to mission. Mitigation: Long-term forward financial planning to enable any failure to be addressed by future cost reductions in a timely manner and ensure the organisation remains solvent; cash flow forecasting; robust credit control processes. Contingency: Reduce the cost base to ensure the charity remains solvent.

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mySociety

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2024

  1. Risk: Cyber attack

  2. Impact: Failure to meet data protection standards; negative impact to reputation; operational sustainability at risk; failure to meet contractual commitments. Mitigation: Strong password policies; access to servers limited; encrypted hard drives; hosting with suppliers experienced in dealing with DOS attacks; project work underway to segregate systems more comprehensively to prevent potential contagion. Contingency: identify source of access, close security hole, consider restoration of site from most recent backup and public disclosure.

  3. Risk: Loss of key staff and volunteers Impact: Failure to meet commitments and our ambitions for impact due to lack of capacity; loss of critical institutional knowledge for sustaining services.

  4. Mitigation: Skill sharing across teams to ensure that there is no organisational dependency on a single individual; close line management to identify and address staff concerns; open culture, focus on limiting working hours, and flexible approach to working; Health, Safety & Wellbeing policies and practises implemented and monitored; process mapping and documentation of key knowledge; Service Manager focused on maintaining a healthy culture between staff and volunteer team; funding and resource allocation to reduce the administrative burden on WhatDoTheyKnow; clear guidelines on ways of working. Contingency: Backfilling functions with remaining staff; recruiting replacement.

  5. Risk: Capacity planning in our server infrastructure is inadequate Impact: If we fail to adequately plan for growth, we may not be able to keep up with demand on our services. The scale of the service and data for WhatDoTheyKnow risks problems for availability and redundancy, which could result in data loss.

  6. Mitigation: maintenance of multiple server instances and deployment automation allowing quick movement and load balancing of services to manage sudden changes in capacity; monitoring alerts to sudden changes that impact availability, helping to diagnose and manage trends; extensive performance monitoring.

  7. Contingency: Add capacity using on-demand virtual machines; redistribute services to better utilise capacity.

Reserves policy

In 2023/24, the Board of Trustees undertook a comprehensive review of mySociety’s reserves policy.

In order to responsibly and effectively manage the Group finances, mySociety holds reserves to manage the financial impact of organisational risk, including working capital commitments. We aim to ensure that our work is protected from the risk of disruption at short notice due to a lack of funds, whilst at the same time ensuring that income is spent appropriately on activities to deliver strategic impact and is not retained for longer than it should be. We operate a tiered approach to financial risk management for monitoring reserves that layers our aims for monthly operating cost cover, cessation costs for mySociety and SocietyWorks, and opportunity reserves.

The charity defines free reserves as unrestricted net current assets. At a minimum, the charity aims to hold a minimum of three months operating costs plus earmarked cessation costs as free reserves (£0.4m). At a maximum, the charity aims to hold six months operating costs across the group, earmarked cessation costs across the group, as well as an opportunity reserves fund that may be designated to support strategic programmes (£1.4m).

As at 31 March 2024, mySociety held free reserves of £0.583m, which covers five months of operating costs plus earmarked cessation costs in the charity.

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mySociety

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2024

Under its previous reserves policy, mySociety operated a separate designated cash reserves fund earmarked for use if a worst case scenario emerged and the charity had to be closed down. These funds were set aside in a ring-fenced bank account. The new reserves policy monitors mySociety’s free reserves position in line with generally accepted charity accounting practice, and in 2023/24, the Board of Trustees approved the un-designation of the cash reserves fund.

Plans for future periods

In 2024/25 we’ll be working to make progress against each of the five-year goals set out on page 3 of this report. To further our aim of reaching people and communities who are underrepresented in our democratic system and our services, we’ll be conducting seminars, training, outreach and user research to build our understanding of needs of underserved communities and to improve their understanding of how our services can make change. We’ll also be delivering service improvements across our transparency and democracy services, including explorations of how to combine human and machine learning and AI, to better enable people from all walks of life to understand and engage in democratic processes.

We’ll run a crowdsourcing campaign aiming to give citizens and civil society better tools to understand MP’s financial interests. This will promote better quality information, centering the public’s role in setting standards, and encouraging better alignment between public values and representative’s behaviour, leading over time to increased public trust. We’ll work with volunteers to collect and check information, and engage the public in supporting this work as a tangible step we can take together towards a transparent and trustworthy political system.

In our Climate programme, we’ll be conducting a local pilot of our Neighbourhood Warmth service, which supports collective action on home energy improvements, and continue our partnership with Climate Emergency UK to deliver the Climate Action Scorecards, which will deliver the first iteration which allows action from local authorities to be tracked across time in 2025. We’ll also continue to improve the Local Intelligence Hub, all with a goal of supporting a faster, more informed and effective democratic response to the climate crisis in the UK.

Beyond the UK, our hybrid TICTeC conference will bring together practitioners, researchers, and funders to examine civic tech’s impact, and ask what is needed to make it more successful and impactful on a global scale in the current context; while in our Transparency programme we’ll continue working with partners to strengthen the capacity and sustainability of the network of ATI platforms across Europe.

Fundraising

mySociety solicits donations from the public via its websites, and does not engage in any follow-up activity with individual donors unless consent has been given for further contact. We do not employ outside fundraisers, and are not bound by any voluntary scheme for regulating fundraising, but will keep this under review as our fundraising work develops. No complaints have been received about our fundraising activity.

Statement of responsibilities of the trustees

The trustees (who are also directors of the charity for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the trustees' report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

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mySociety

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2024

The trustees are required to prepare financial statements for each financial year, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and the group and the incoming resources and application of resources, including the net income or expenditure, of the charity and the group for the year. In preparing those financial statements the trustees are required to:

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and the group and which enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. The trustees are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and the group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

In so far as the trustees are aware:

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Members of the charity guarantee to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 to the assets of the charity in the event of winding up. The trustees are members of the charity but this entitles them only to voting rights. The trustees have no beneficial interest in the charity.

Auditors

Godfrey Wilson Limited were re-appointed as auditors to the group and parent charity during the year and have expressed their willingness to continue in that capacity.

Approved by the trustees on 20 June 2024 and signed on their behalf by

Amanda Brown GE Maitland Hudson A. Brown G. Maitland Hudson Trustee Chair

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Independent auditors' report

To the members of

mySociety

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of mySociety (the 'parent charity') and its subsidiary (the 'group') for the year ended 31 March 2024 which comprise the consolidated statement of financial activities, consolidated and parent charity balance sheets, consolidated statement of cash flows and the related notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the group and parent charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the group and parent charity financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the group and parent charity financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

12

Independent auditors' report

To the members of

mySociety

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinion on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and the parent charity and their environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the trustees’ report. We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Responsibilities of the trustees

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out in the trustees’ report, the trustees are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as they determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charity or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

13

Independent auditors' report

To the members of

mySociety

Our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The procedures we carried out and the extent to which they are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, are detailed below:

(1) We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the charity operates in, and assessed the risk of non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Throughout the audit, we remained alert to possible indications of non-compliance.

(2) We reviewed the charity’s policies and procedures in relation to:

(3) We inspected the minutes of trustee meetings.

(4) We enquired about any non-routine communication with regulators and reviewed any reports made to them.

(5) We reviewed the financial statement disclosures and assessed their compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

(6) We performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected transactions or balances that may indicate a risk of material fraud or error.

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. Irregularities that arise due to fraud can be even harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.

14

Independent auditors' report

To the members of

mySociety

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charityʼs members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charityʼs members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditorʼs report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charityʼs members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Alison Godfrey

Date: 21 June 2024

Alison Godfrey FCA (Senior Statutory Auditor)

For and on behalf of:

GODFREY WILSON LIMITED

Chartered accountants and statutory auditors 5th Floor Mariner House 62 Prince Street Bristol BS1 4QD

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mySociety

Consolidated statement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account)

For the year ended 31 March 2024

Restricted
Unrestricted
Note
£
£
Income from:
Donations
3
1,645,320
142,836
Other trading activities
4
-
1,302,272
Investments
-
2,562
Total income
1,645,320
1,447,670
Expenditure on:
Raising funds: raising charitable donations
-
95,247
Raising funds: trading activity
-
1,142,810
Charitable activities
1,231,674
88,012
Total expenditure
6
1,231,674
1,326,069
8
413,646
121,601
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds brought forward
143,712
527,155
Total funds carried forward
557,358
648,756
Net income and net
movement in funds		 2024
Total
£
1,788,156
1,302,272
2,562
3,092,990
95,247
1,142,810
1,319,686
2,557,743
535,247
670,867
1,206,114		 2023
Total
£
1,283,946
1,202,431
470
2,486,847
84,017
994,863
1,171,132
2,250,012
236,835
434,032
670,867

All of the above results are derived from continuing activities. There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. Movements in funds are disclosed in note 20 to the accounts.

16

mySociety

Consolidated balance sheets

As at 31 March 2024

Note
Fixed assets
Tangible assets
11
Intangible assets
12
Investments
13
Current assets
Debtors
16
Cash at bank and in hand
Liabilities
Creditors: amounts falling due within 1 year 17
Net current assets
Net assets
19
Funds
20
Restricted funds
Unrestricted funds
Designated funds
General funds
Total charity funds		 The group
2024
£
21,765
43,264
-
65,029
355,923
1,691,360
2,047,283
(906,198)
1,141,085
1,206,114
557,358
-
648,756
1,206,114		 The group The charity
2023
2024
£
£
21,237
21,765
83,382
-
-
1
104,619
21,766
428,979
278,643
801,747
994,933
1,230,726
1,273,576
(664,478)
(91,983)
566,248
1,181,593
670,867
1,203,359
143,712
557,358
240,482
-
286,673
646,001
670,867
1,203,359		 The charity
2023
£
21,237
-
1
21,238
346,436
322,152
668,588
(21,714)
646,874
668,112
143,712
240,482
283,918
668,112

These accounts have been prepared in accordance with the special provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies' regime.

Approved by the trustees on 20 June 2024 and signed on their behalf by

Amanda Brown

GE Maitland Hudson

A. Brown Trustee

G. Maitland Hudson Chair

17

mySociety

Consolidated statement of cash flows

For the year ended 31 March 2024

Cash used in operating activities:
Net movement in funds
Adjustments for:
Depreciation charges
Amortisation charges
Dividends, interest and rents from investments
Loss on the sale of fixed assets
Decrease / (increase) in debtors
Increase in creditors
Net cash provided by / (used in) operating activities
Cash flows from investing activities:
Dividends, interest and rents from investments
Proceeds from the sale of property, plant and equipment
Purchase of tangible fixed assets
Recognition of intangible fixed assets
Net cash provided by / (used in) investing activities
Increase / (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents in the year
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year		 2024
£
535,247
6,670
56,427
(2,562)
1,530
73,056
241,720
912,088
2,562
-
(8,728)
(16,309)
(22,475)
889,613
801,747
1,691,360		 2023
£
236,835
6,234
47,796
(470)
662
(208,688)
147,566
229,935
470
840
(6,669)
(25,298)
(30,657)
199,278
602,469
801,747

The charity has not provided an analysis of changes in net debt as it does not have any long term financing arrangements.

18

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

1. Accounting policies

a) Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities in preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019) - (Charities SORP (FRS 102)), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

mySociety meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note.

b) Group accounts

These financial statements consolidate the results of the charitable company and its whollyowned (controlled) subsidiary on a line by line basis. Transactions and balances between the charitable company and its subsidiary have been eliminated from the consolidated financial statements. Balances between the two companies are disclosed in the notes of the charitable company's balance sheet. A separate statement of financial activities, or income and expenditure account, for the charitable company itself is not presented because the charitable company has taken advantage of the exemptions afforded by section 408 of the Companies Act 2006.

c) Going concern basis of accounting

The accounts have been prepared on the assumption that the charity is able to continue as a going concern. The trustees have considered the charitable company’s current and future financial position and the level of unrestricted, general reserves held at 31 March 2025. The charity also has significant confirmed unrestricted funding for the year ended 31 March 2025. Given the above, the trustees consider that the charitable company has sufficient cash reserves to continue as a going concern for a period of at least 12 months from the date on which these financial statements are approved.

d) Income

Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the item of income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.

Income from the government and other grants, whether 'capital' grants or 'revenue' grants, is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably and is not deferred.

Income received in advance of provision of invoiced consultancy and software services is deferred until criteria for income recognition are met.

Recharges of staff costs between the charitable company and its subsidiary SocietyWorks Ltd have not been recognised as income in the charitable company's statement of financial activities, and are instead netted off against expenditure. This has no impact upon the consolidated figures, in which intercompany transactions are eliminated.

19

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

1. Accounting policies (continued)

e) Donated services and facilities

Donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item, any conditions associated with the donated item have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item, is probable and the economic benefit can be measured reliably. In accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), general volunteer time is not recognised.

On receipt, donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.

f) Interest receivable

Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity: this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the bank.

g) Funds accounting

Unrestricted funds are available to spend on activities that further any of the purposes of the charity. Designated funds are unrestricted funds of the charity which the trustees have decided at their discretion to set aside to use for a specific purpose. Restricted funds are donations which the donor has specified are to be solely used for particular areas of the charity's work or for specific projects being undertaken by the charity.

h) Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.

Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred.

i) Grants payable

Grants payable are recognised as expenditure on the earlier of a) when the charity has a present obligation to transfer resources; and b) when the charity ceases to control the resource (e.g. via transfering funds to the grant recipient).

j) Allocation of support and governance costs

Support costs are those functions that assist the work of the charity but do not directly undertake charitable activities. Governance costs are the costs associated with the governance arrangements of the charity, including the costs of complying with constitutional and statutory requirements and any costs associated with the strategic management of the charity’s activities. These costs have been allocated between cost of raising funds and expenditure on charitable activities on the basis of direct costs, as follows:

2024 2023
Raising funds: raising charitable donations 6.7% 6.7%
Charitable activities 93.3% 93.3%

20

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

1. Accounting policies (continued)

k) Tangible fixed assets

Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write down the cost of each asset to its estimated residual value over its expected useful life. The depreciation rates in use are as follows:

Computer equipment

3 - 5 years straight line basis

l) Intangible fixed assets

Product development expenditure is capitalised only if the expenditure can be measured reliably, the product or process is technically feasible, future economic benefits are probable and the company intends to and has sufficient resources to complete development and to use or sell the asset. Otherwise, it is recognised in the profit and loss account as incurred. Subsequent to initial recognition, product development is measured at cost less accumulated amortisation and any accumulated impairment losses.

Amortisation is provided at rates calculated to write down the cost of intangible assets over the estimated period that economic benefit attributable to the asset is expected to flow to the company. The amortisation rates in use are as follows:

Software development

3 years straight line basis

m) Investments

Investments in subsidiaries are held at cost less impairment.

n) Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

o) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.

p) Creditors

Creditors and provisions are recognised where there is a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.

q) Financial instruments

The charitable company only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans which are subsequently recognised at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

r) Pension costs

The charitable company operates a defined contribution pension scheme for its employees. There are no further liabilities other than that already recognised in the SOFA.

21

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

1. Accounting policies (continued) s) Foreign currency transactions

Transactions in foreign currencies are translated at rates prevailing at the date of the transaction. Balances denominated in foreign currencies are translated at the rate of exchange prevailing at the year end.

t) Accounting estimates and key judgements

In the application of the charity's accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and underlying assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised if the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods if the revision affects both current and future periods.

The key sources of estimation uncertainty that have a significant effect on the amounts recognised in the financial statements are described below.

Depreciation

As described in note 1k to the financial statements, depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write down the cost of each asset to its estimated residual value over its expected useful life.

Amortisation

As described in note 1l to the financial statements, amortisation is provided at rates calculated to write down the cost of each asset to its estimated residual value over its expected useful life.

22

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

2. Prior period comparatives: statement of financial activities

Income from:
Donations
Other trading activities
Investments
Total income
Expenditure on:
Raising funds: raising charitable donations
Raising funds: trading activity
Charitable activities
Total expenditure
3.
Income from donations
Quadrature
Swedish Postcode Foundation
The National Lottery Community Fund
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
Adessium Foundation
National Endowment for Democracy
J and H Cross
Patrick J McGovern Foundation
Global Black Thrive CIC
The Climate Coallition
Isocrates Foundation
The Aurora Trust
Porticus
Other donations
Total income from donations
Net income and net movement in funds		 Restricted
£
£
1,074,077
209,869
-
1,202,431
-
470
1,074,077
1,412,770
-
84,017
-
994,863
964,226
206,906
964,226
1,285,786
109,851
126,984
Restricted
£
£
570,000
30,000
82,883
-
196,480
-
64,532
-
85,835
-
105,422
-
-
10,000
237,633
45,980
-
45,000
-
161,555
-
50,000
-
-
65,000
-
37,836
1,645,320
142,836
Unrestricted
Unrestricted		 2023
Total
£
1,283,946
1,202,431
470
2,486,847
84,017
994,863
1,171,132
2,250,012
236,835
2024
Total
£
600,000
82,883
196,480
64,532
85,835
105,422
10,000
237,633
45,980
45,000
161,555
50,000
65,000
37,836
1,788,156

23

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

3. Income from donations (continued) Prior period comparative

Quadrature
Swedish Postcode Foundation
The National Lottery Community Fund
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
Adessium Foundation
National Endowment for Democracy
J and H Cross
Newby Trust
Porticus
Other donations
Total income from donations		 Restricted
£
£
470,000
30,000
85,041
-
210,875
-
58,080
-
85,150
-
129,931
-
25,000
-
10,000
-
-
135,000
-
44,869
1,074,077
209,869
Unrestricted		 2023
Total
£
500,000
85,041
210,875
58,080
85,150
129,931
25,000
10,000
135,000
44,869
1,283,946

4. Income from other trading activities

Sale of software and IT consultancy 2024
Total
£
1,302,272		 2023
Total
£
1,202,431

All income from other trading activities in the current and prior period was unrestricted.

5. Government grants

The charitable company receives a government grant, defined as funding from The National Lottery Community Fund to fund charitable activities. The total value of such grants in the year ending 31 March 2024 was £196,480 (2023: £210,875). There are no unfulfilled conditions or contingencies attaching to these grants in the current or prior year.

24

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

6. Total expenditure

£
£
Staff costs (note 9)
69,417
950,391
Servers and subscriptions
-
37,524
Team meetings and retreats
-
17,348
Legal, financial and insurance
-
11,995
General administration costs
-
7,979
Partner payments (note 7)
-
-
UK travel and subsistence
-
10,971
Desk rentals and meeting rooms
-
15,230
Amortisation
-
56,427
Depreciation
-
-
Training
-
-
Loss on disposal of fixed assets
-
-
Marketing
12,077
34,945
Sub-total
81,494
1,142,810
13,753
-
Total expenditure
95,247
1,142,810
Raising funds:
trading activity
Allocation of support and governance costs
Raising
funds: raising
charitable
donations		 Charitable
activities
£
868,469
31,433
-
-
-
229,218
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1,129,120
190,566
1,319,686		 Support and
governance
costs
£
108,035
-
18,420
30,336
11,944
-
9,791
12,999
-
6,670
4,594
1,530
-
204,319
(204,319)
-		 2024 Total
£
1,996,312
68,957
35,768
42,331
19,923
229,218
20,762
28,229
56,427
6,670
4,594
1,530
47,022
2,557,743
-
2,557,743

Total governance costs were £12,852 (2023: £12,840).

25

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

6. Total expenditure (continued) Prior period comparative:

Prior period comparative:
£
£
Staff costs (note 9)
62,717
832,974
Servers and subscriptions
-
38,481
Team meetings and retreats
-
14,332
Legal, financial and insurance
-
10,659
General administration costs
-
5,306
Partner payments (note 7)
-
-
UK travel and subsistence
-
7,780
Desk rentals and meeting rooms
-
13,588
Amortisation
-
47,796
Depreciation
-
-
Training
-
-
Loss on disposal of fixed assets
-
-
Marketing
8,105
23,947
Sub-total
70,822
994,863
13,195
-
Total expenditure
84,017
994,863
Raising funds:
trading activity
Allocation of support and governance costs
Raising
funds: raising
charitable
donations		 Charitable
activities
£
773,778
38,219
-
-
-
175,201
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
987,198
183,934
1,171,132		 Support and
governance
costs
£
126,133
-
14,077
19,921
8,331
-
7,212
9,782
-
6,234
4,777
662
-
197,129
(197,129)
-		 2023 Total
£
1,795,602
76,700
28,409
30,580
13,637
175,201
14,992
23,370
47,796
6,234
4,777
662
32,052
2,250,012
-
2,250,012

26

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

7. Grants payable

Included within 'partner payments' in note 7 are sub-grant 'partner payments' made to the following institutions:

Access Info Europe
Climate Emergency UK Ltd
Im23 Ltd
Lynsted Community Kitchen Garden
Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland
Public Association Lawyers for Human Rights
The 10:10 Foundation (working name Possible)
Superbloom Design
Vouliwatch
10 (2023: 7) grants payable <£5,000		 2024
£
71,285
50,000
-
-
47,226
8,294
-
8,251
16,305
27,857
229,218		 2023
£
53,266
40,000
5,000
5,000
47,570
-
5,000
-
-
19,365
175,201

No grants were paid to individuals in the current or prior period, and no support costs have been allocated to grant-making activities.

8. Net movement in funds
This is stated after charging: 2024 2023
£ £
Amortisation 56,427 47,796
Depreciation 6,670 6,234
Loss on disposal of fixed assets 1,530 662
Trustees' remuneration Nil Nil
Trustees' reimbursed expenses Nil 289
Foreign exchange gains / (losses) 3,750 1,854
Auditors' remuneration (excluding VAT):
Statutory audit 10,360 10,000
Other services 350 300

In the prior year, trustees' reimbursed expenses comprised payments to 3 trustees for travel costs.

27

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

9. Staff costs and numbers

Staff costs were as follows:
Salaries and wages
Social security costs
Pension costs
Contractors
Less: capitalised product development within SocietyWorks Ltd		 2024
£
1,760,746
199,403
37,852
14,620
(16,309)
1,996,312		 2023
£
1,558,101
186,097
35,199
41,504
(25,299)
1,795,602

The number of employees whose annual emoluments were £60,000 or more were:

£60,001 to £65,000
£65,001 to £70,000
£75,001 to £80,000
£80,001 to £85,000
£85,001 to £90,000
£90,001 to £95,000		 2024
No.
1
7
-
1
1
1		 2023
No.
5
1
1
-
1
1

The key management personnel of the charitable company comprise the Trustees and the Chief Executive Officer. The total employee benefits of the key management personnel were £104,762 (2023: £105,424).

Average number of employees (full-time equivalent) 2024
No.
35		 2023
No.
33

Redundancy and termination payments of £7,370 were paid during the year and included within staff costs above. There were no redundancy and termination costs in 2023.

10. Taxation

The charity is exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes. The charity's trading subsidiary, SocietyWorks Ltd, has gift aided its available profits to the charity.

28

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

11. Tangible fixed assets (Group and Charity)
Computer
equipment
£
Cost
At 1 April 2023 35,326
Additions in year 8,728
Disposals in year (8,114)
At 31 March 2024 35,940
Depreciation
At 1 April 2023 14,089
Charge for the year 6,670
On disposal (6,584)
At 31 March 2024 14,175
Net book value
At 31 March 2024 21,765
At 31 March 2023 21,237
12. Intangible fixed assets (Group)
Software
development
£
Cost
At 1 April 2023 165,200
Additions in year 16,309
At 31 March 2024 181,509
Amortisation
At 1 April 2023 81,818
Charge for the year 56,427
At 31 March 2024 138,245
Net book value
At 31 March 2024 43,264
At 31 March 2023 83,382

All intangible assets are held within the trading subsidiary, SocietyWorks Ltd.

29

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

13. Investments

Investment in subsidiary company 2024
2023
£
£
-
-
The group		 2024
2023
£
£
1
1
The charity

The investment represents 100% of the ordinary share capital of SocietyWorks Ltd, whose principal activity is to carry out trading activities in support of the charity. A summary of the financial results and position of SocietyWorks Ltd is given below (see note 14).

14. Subsidiary undertakings

SocietyWorks Ltd

SocietyWorks Ltd (company number 05798215) is a wholly owned trading subsidiary of mySociety. It trades in software and IT consultancy.

Turnover
Cost of sales
Gross profit
Administrative expenses
Profit on ordinary activities
Corporation tax
Profit for financial year after taxation
Changes in equity
Total retained profit brought forward
Total comprehensive income for the year
Gift aid distribution to parent charity
Total retained profit carried forward
The aggregate of the assets, liabilities and funds was:
Assets
Liabilities
Funds		 2024
£
1,302,272
(707,362)
594,910
(435,448)
159,462
-
159,462
2,755
159,462
(159,462)
2,755
2024
£
1,062,903
(1,060,147)
2,756		 2023
£
1,202,431
(599,380)
603,051
(395,483)
207,568
-
207,568
2,755
207,568
(207,568)
2,755
2023
£
929,696
(926,940)
2,756

30

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

15. Parent charity

The parent charity's gross income and results for the year are disclosed as follows:

Gross income
Results for the year
16.
Debtors
Trade debtors
Accrued Income
Prepayments
Amounts owing by group undertakings
Other debtors		 2024
2023
£
£
307,365
353,090
-
30,660
46,064
26,378
-
-
2,494
18,851
355,923
428,979
The group		 2024
2023
£
£
1,950,180
1,491,984
535,247
236,835
2024
2023
£
£
4,000
-
-
30,660
26,218
12,748
245,931
284,177
2,494
18,851
278,643
346,436
The charity		 2023
£
1,491,984
236,835
346,436

17. Creditors : amounts due within 1 year

Trade creditors
Accruals
Other taxation and social security
Grants payable
Other creditors
Deferred income (see note 18)		 2024
2023
£
£
1,870
4,705
11,360
17,360
155,277
108,809
15,581
-
10,237
5,130
711,873
528,474
906,198
664,478
The group		 2024
2023
£
£
1,571
2,724
7,560
13,860
57,034
-
15,581
-
10,237
5,130
-
-
91,983
21,714
The charity		 2024
2023
£
£
1,571
2,724
7,560
13,860
57,034
-
15,581
-
10,237
5,130
-
-
91,983
21,714
The charity
21,714

31

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

18. Deferred income

At 1 April 2023
Deferred during the year
Released during the year
At 31 March 2024		 2024
2023
£
£
528,474
321,426
711,873
528,474
(528,474)
(321,426)
711,873
528,474
The group		 2024
2023
£
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
The charity		 2024
2023
£
£
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
The charity
-

Deferred income relates to contract income invoiced by SocietyWorks Ltd in advance of provision of services.

19.
Analysis of group net assets between funds
Tangible fixed assets
Intangible fixed assets
Current assets
Current liabilities
Net assets at 31 March 2024
Prior period comparative:
£
Tangible fixed assets
-
Intangible fixed assets
-
Current assets
144,387
Current liabilities
(675)
Net assets at 31 March 2023
143,712
Restricted
funds		 £
-
-
572,939
(15,581)
557,358
Designated
funds
£
-
-
240,482
-
240,482
Restricted
funds		 £
21,765
43,264
1,474,344
(890,617)
648,756
£
21,237
83,382
845,857
(663,803)
286,673
General
funds
General
funds		 Total
funds
£
21,765
43,264
2,047,283
(906,198)
1,206,114
Total
funds
£
21,237
83,382
1,230,726
(664,478)
670,867

32

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

20. Movements in funds

Movements in funds
Restricted funds
ATI in Europe
Alaveteli
Aurora Trust
Black Thrive CIC
The Climate Coallition
NED - TicTec Communities
NED - TicTec Labs
Patrick J McGovern
Total restricted funds
_Designated fund:_Reserve fund
General funds
Total unrestricted funds
Total funds
Quadrature / National Lottery
Community Foundation
Unrestricted funds
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable
Trust		 At 1 April
2023
£
37,856
25,000
-
-
-
17,247
-
8,956
-
54,653
143,712
240,482
286,673
527,155
670,867		 Income
£
330,273
-
50,000
45,980
45,000
64,532
84,863
20,559
237,633
766,480
1,645,320
-
1,447,670
1,447,670
3,092,990		 £
(250,736)
(25,000)
-
(45,980)
(45,000)
(86,017)
(75,560)
(29,515)
-
(673,866)
(1,231,674)
-
(1,326,069)
(1,326,069)
(2,557,743)
Expenditure		 £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
(240,482)
240,482
-
-
Transfers
between
funds		 £
117,393
-
50,000
-
-
(4,238)
9,303
-
237,633
147,267
At 31
March
2024
557,358
-
648,756
648,756
1,206,114

Purposes of restricted funds ATI in Europe A

A project co-funded by grants from Adessium Foundation, Swedish Postcode Foundation and Isocrates Foundation. The project aims to build a cohesive, wide and activated community that is working to strengthen the right of access to information across the European region, so that Access to Information (ATI) delivers the information needed for democratic debate and accountability.

Alaveteli

Grant from a private donor and it is restricted for use on developments, projects and initiatives forming part of mySociety's Transparency programme anywhere in the world.

Aurora Trust

Grant towards mySociety’s Neighbourhood Warmth programme.

Black Thrive CIC

Sub-grant for mySociety’s Transparency work on a project that investigates and communicates the extent to which disproportional use of police stop and search impacts the mental health of young Black people in England and Wales.

The Climate Coalition

Funding towards mySociety’s Climate work on the Local Intelligence Hub.

33

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

20. Movements in funds (continued)

Purposes of restricted funds (continued)

The Joseph Rowntree A grant that funds mySociety’s Transparency programme, ensuring the right to Charitable information can be used by all.

National Endowment Grant to promote learning, knowledge exchange, and collaboration among civic for Democracy (NED) - technology organisations to undertake effective, evidence-based, impactful TICTeC Communities work enhancing public participation, transparency, and accountability worldwide via TICTeC Surgeries and Action Labs.

National Endowment Grant to promote learning, knowledge exchange, and collaboration among civic for Democracy (NED) - technology organisations to undertake effective, evidence-based, impactful TICTeC Labs work enhancing public participation. This fund was previously called National Endowment for Democracy and the name changed to separate the new restricted grant received from the same funder above.

Patrick J McGovern Grant to enhance the Local Intelligence Hub and amplify public data collaboration for scalable solutions.

Quadrature / National Grants to accelerate local climate action through data and digital services. Lottery Community Foundation

Transfers between funds

Reserve fund A target level of unrestricted funds to enable mySociety to: cover emergency cash flow shortfalls; respond to an extraordinary event, campaign or project; or wind down the organisation in an orderly fashion should this become necessary. This was transferred to general funds in the year to reflect the new reserves policy.

Funds in deficit

The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust is in deficit at year end, funding will be received in April 2024 for the next instalment of the grant.

34

mySociety

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2024

20. Movements in funds (continued)

Prior period comparative
Restricted funds
Alaveteli
Columbia University
National Endowment for Democracy
Newby Trust
Total restricted funds
_Designated fund:_Reserve fund
General funds
Total unrestricted funds
Total funds
ATI in Europe
Unrestricted funds
Quadrature / National Lottery
Community Foundation
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable
Trust		 At 1 April
2022
£
-
25,000
229
-
(1,560)
-
10,192
33,861
240,021
160,150
400,171
434,032		 Income
£
170,191
25,000
-
58,080
129,931
10,000
680,875
1,074,077
-
1,412,770
1,412,770
2,486,847		 £
(132,335)
(25,000)
(229)
(40,833)
(119,415)
(10,000)
(636,414)
(964,226)
-
(1,285,786)
(1,285,786)
(2,250,012)
Expenditure		 £
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
461
(461)
-
-
Transfers
between
funds		 £
37,856
25,000
-
-
17,247
8,956
-
-
54,653
At 31
March
2023
143,712
240,482
286,673
527,155
670,867

21. Related party transactions

mySociety has a wholly owned subsidiary SocietyWorks Ltd, a company limited by shares (company no. 05798215). At 31 March 2024, SocietyWorks Ltd owed mySociety £245,931 (2023: £284,177).

There were no other related party transactions in the current or prior reporting period.

35