The Trustees present their report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2019.
The Trustees (who are also directors of the charity for the purposes of the Companies Act) present their annual report together with the audited financial statements of The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (the company) for the year ended 31 December 2019. The Trustees confirm that the annual report and financial statements of the company comply with the current statutory requirements, the requirements of the company's governing document and the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP), applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019).
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
Constitution
The company is registered as a charitable company limited by guarantee (registered charity number 1141069) and was set up by a Memorandum of Association on 30 April 2008.
The charity is constituted under a Memorandum of Association and is a registered charity.
Organisational Structure and Decision Making
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) has a Board of Trustees that meets twice a year. The management of the company is the responsibility of the Trustees who are elected and co-opted under the terms of the Articles of Association. There is a Chairman of the Board and Treasurer. The Institute also has an active Finance Committee, made up of the Chairman and Treasurer, which meets regularly and works closely with the CEO and Deputy Director with responsibility for Operations & Finance .
Responsibility for day-to-day management matters and the implementation of policy is delegated to the Chief Executive Officer, within a clearly understood framework of strategic control. The Chief Executive Officer is supported by a leadership team and senior management team responsible for the execution of the organisational objectives. All Trustees and Staff are required to report any potential or actual conflicts of interest immediately to the Chair and / or CEO.
Risk Management
The Trustees have assessed the major risks to which the company is exposed, in particular those related to the operations and finances of the company, and are satisfied that systems and procedures are in place to mitigate exposure to the major risks.
Public Benefit
The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 4 of the Charities Act 2006 to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit, ‘Charities and Public Benefit’. All of the activities that are undertaken by the charity are for the advancement of the objectives and the activities that are undertaken by the charity to further its charitable purposes are for the public benefit.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) is an independent ‘think and do tank’ that pioneers policy and operational responses to the rising challenges of hate, polarisation and extremism. Combining research and analysis of disinformation, hate and extremism with government advisory work, training, capacity building and educational programmes, ISD has been at the forefront of forging real-world, evidence-based responses to the challenges of disinformation, extremism and polarisation. ISD enjoys strong strategic partnerships with a range of organisations on projects, research and events. Meetings are also regularly co-organised with governments and staff are regularly asked to speak at and chair international conferences.
The principal objects of the company are:
The advancement of the education of the public in the UK and elsewhere in relation to government, economics, politics, law, administration and social services;
The advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation or the promotion of religious or racial harmony or equality and diversity;
Such other charitable purposes as the Trustees shall from time to time think fit.
STRATEGIES & ACTIVITIES FOR ACHIEVING OBJECTIVES
The following demonstrates the types of activity that ISD engages in:
RESEARCH: ISD’s Digital Analysis Unit has been at the forefront of analysing audiences, networks and content to accurately interpret the threat of disinformation, hate and extremism online. This, combined with ISD’s ongoing anthropological research and in-depth expertise in global extremist movements, has ensured that ISD has consistently been ahead of the curve in predicting developments at the nexus of disinformation and extremism and informing responses to emerging challenges. Our research has shaped policy-makers’ and the public’s understand of evolving threats for nearly fifteen years.
POLICY ADVISORY: ISD provides strategic advice, policy support and training to governments and cities worldwide, providing expertise and best practice to policy-makers and practitioners to optimise counter-extremism and integration policies and programming. ISD also provides high-level digital policy input to the tech sector to harmonise efforts with governments and civil society.
EDUCATION: ISD’s global education programmes and resources build the resilience of young people to hate speech, misinformation and extremism through the development of vital online and offline skills. Our research has shown that education plays a critical role in undermining the appeal of propaganda, hate and extremist ideologies, disrupting their impact at the roots.
GRASSROOTS NETWORKS: Extremism is a global phenomenon that is ill-served by top-down approaches. We work to empower and facilitate civil society, fostering networks of community groups and influencers to take the lead, applying their granular expertise and credibility in a way that delivers impact at scale.
COMMUNICATION & TECHNOLOGY: ISD has pioneered the application of data, technology and marketing tactics to mount a proportional response to extremist messaging. Our programmes seek to innovate and build the technology and communications infrastructure to empower civic response to the ever more sophisticated communications machineries of those that seek to divid e.
At a time when polarisation, hate, extremism and misinformation have proliferated at scale, and with the emergence of what we term 'cumulative mainstreaming extremism’, ISD’s work has never felt more vital. In 2019, our worked focused on the following areas of programming:
Research
In 2019, ISD launched, built and consolidated its research tools and capabilities within our Digital Analysis Unit. Our ‘full stack’ of digital research capabilities utilises sector-leading bespoke tools and methods to identify and track the influence operations of bad actors (state and non-state) online. Combined with ISD’s ethnographic monitoring in ‘dark social’ closed and encrypted groups, ISD is in a position to provide in-depth insights into covert and overt extremist and hostile state actor mobilisation online. Armed with these capabilities, ISD researchers used 2019 to identify and respond to coordinated disinformation; expose the internationalisation of the ‘alt-right’ and efforts to mainstream its ideology; and track ISIS supporter networks spreading their propaganda online.
Disinformation and threats to democracy: Building on two years of elections and disinformation analysis, ISD launched the Elections Analysis Unit, a new model for combining data analysis, strategy and network coordination to identify and respond to disinformation. Operational across six countries in the run up to the European Parliamentary, ISD’s Elections Analysis Unit exposed disinformation campaigns in Italy, Spain, Germany and Poland, which generated media coverage across the globe including in El Pais , The Guardian , Politico, The Mirror and The Sunday Times . Beyond research insights, the project enabled real-time response to the malign activities conducted by a host of international far-right networks. To help protect the integrity of the elections, ISD’s team informed relevant government, media and policy partners of ongoing or emerging threats to the information space, feeding insights into media partners in all six countries as well as national law enforcement, EU rapid response teams and technology companies for immediate action. In partnership with Sky News , ISD’s Election Analysis Unit monitored the UK elections to identify disinformation across the political spectrum.
Mainstreaming of the far-right : In 2019 ISD’s Digital Analysis Unit monitored and analysed the mainstreaming and internationalisation of the Extreme Right. To shine a light on the ideologies that motivated the Christchurch and other far right attacks in 2019, ISD published The Great Replacement: The Violent Consequences of Mainstreamed Extremism exploring the origins of the ‘Great Replacement’ theory and the dynamics and platforms that have allowed these ideas to spread, which was covered in TIME , The Observer and on the BBC .
The future of Islamist extremism : ISD published a series of briefings papers exposing the persistence of Islamist extremist content online and some of the tactics that supporters of ISIS are using to evade content detection, which has been covered in VICE and NPR. In the course of monitoring an ISIS ‘bot-net’ in the wake of al-Baghdadi’s death, ISD discovered a large cache of ISIS documents totalling over one terabyte of data which will be analysed in 2020.
International Hate Observatory: The mainstreaming of far-right extremism happens through far-right campaigns making their way from fringe chat forums to mainstream platforms and media outlets. In 2019, ISD partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Civic Media Lab to adapt its Media Cloud software to include fringe ‘alt-tech’ platforms frequented by extremists and enable the capture of extremist content through inclusion of extremist lexicon drawn from ISD’s research. The resulting software, The International Hate Observatory, will enable ISD to track how extreme content, memes and narratives travel across the media ecosystem.
ISD’s Hate Speech Mapper and Data Dashboard: With partners CASM Technology (the University of Sussex’s Centre for Analysis of Social Media), ISD has built a bespoke tool for identifying and analysing hate speech online at speed and scale. Utilising a capability to geo-locate online content, ISD’s Hate Mapping Dashboard provides a real-time picture of the nature and scale of online hate, the drivers of online hate speech, user profiles and demographics, and correlations with offline data including hate crimes. In 2019, we delivered this work in Australia, the UK, France and the Balkans.
Far-Right Interventions Research: With extreme right ideologies on the rise, Google’s think tank Jigsaw approached ISD to undertake a review of existing intervention practices. Drawing on interviews with practitioners throughout ISD’s networks in Belgium, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, the UK and the USA, ISD’s An Imprecise Science: Assessing Interventions For The Prevention, Disengagement And De-Radicalisation Of Left And Right-Wing Extremists exposes the lack of investment for interventions both online and offline, an area that ISD has pioneered.
Islamist Women and Girls Interventions Research : ISD has been at the forefront of understanding the role of women and girls in extremist movements. 2019 saw concerns heighten with the return of women and girls from former ISIS-held territories. To help build capacity of practitioners to deal with this cohort, ISD received support from the Ministry of Justice in The Netherlands to produce Women, Girls & Islamist Extremism: A Toolkit for Intervention Practitioners in English and Dutch. Drawn from the expertise of British and Dutch intervention providers who have worked with over 250 females, the toolkit highlights effective practices for intervention provision with women and girls, existing policy frameworks and practical tools available for those involved in these cases.
Policy Advisory
Throughout 2019, international organisations, national governments, cities and the private sector looked to ISD for policy recommendations and thought leadership. ISD strengthened partnerships with the United Nations Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (UNCTED), the World Economic Forum, the Global Counter Terrorism Forum (GCTF), and the Global Internet Forum for Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). ISD supported the New Zealand and French governments in launching the Christchurch Call to Action, providing input to Jacinda Ardern and her team over the course of the year, while significantly deepening ISD’s impact with policymakers in France, the UK and Germany on digital policy. ISD’s Strong Cities Network consolidated its status as the go-to network for local mayors and practitioners seeking solutions to hate, polarisation and extremism. Finally, ISD continued its role as a critical friend to the social media companies, mounting a programme of digital policy advocacy work designed to achieve greater transparency in relation to the companies’ advertising, algorithmic and content moderation processes. The intention of this work is to address ways in which the technological architecture of the platforms inorganically amplifies extreme messaging and enables the proliferation of disinformation.
Strong Cities Network : In 2019, ISD secured £7 million for new programming to take place across the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans and Southeast Asia. SCN’s membership now includes over 136 cities from more than 40 countries representing every major global region. ISD continued to expand the provision of the SCN online Hub and training modules, now available in English, French, Arabic and Serbian-Croat, alongside on-the-ground training modules on establishing local prevention networks, youth engagement, and public private partnerships. This includes in-depth work in North Macedonia, Kenya and Bangladesh in particular, with co-pilot cities in neighbouring countries expected to be identified. The SCN remained focused on mobilising the private sector to support cities and received funding from the London Mayor’s Office to build public private partnerships to tackle hate, polarisation and extremism across London.
SCN Lebanon: In the Middle East, ISD’s SCN programme continued to operate through Local Prevention Networks in Lebanon. These networks represent the first attempt in the MENA region to create a locally-owned coordination model for non-law enforcement prevention efforts. The project, supported until June 2019 by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has developed, trained and supported the first scalable, locally-led model for bottom-up prevention approaches in the Middle East and serves as a model for similar activities the SCN and its partners are now delivering across other regions, including East Africa and the Balkans.
SCN Kenya : ISD began a multi-phased programme in Kenya in 2019 which uses the Local Prevention Network model to enable local multi-sectoral community teams to deliver targeted prevention efforts. The project will support existing Kenyan structures to develop interventions frameworks; operationalise the County Action Plans; conduct community driven research; fund community-based interventions initiatives; disseminate new training materials; and identify key stakeholders to participate in targeted training. The project stands to make a vital impact at local levels across the country and set a precedent for human rights-based approaches to extremism and radicalisation. The project will work to support individuals identified in their communities as potentially vulnerable to recruitment to Al-Shabaab, ISIS and Al-Qaeda affiliates as well as to gangs and youth violence.
Policy Planners Network: The 24 th Policy Planners Network (PPN) meeting took place in Berlin in February 2019, with a session entitled “The Impact of Misinformation on Polarisation and Extremism: Implications for Digital Policy”. The meeting was planned and delivered by ISD in partnership with the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection and was attended by representatives from Canada, the UK, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and the European Strategic Communications Network. The meeting was opened by Secretary of State Gerd Billen of the BMJV, and included four sessions covering ISD’s findings from the Bavarian Elections emerging trends and threats in disinformation from across Europe, potential policy responses, and best practices in protecting the credibility of elections.
Canadian policy engagement: In March 2019, ISD co-hosted a series of events in Ottawa with Public Safety Canada focusing on a range of online challenges. The first event was on how cutting-edge online tools can be used to map indicators of harm at a local level and can inform responses to hate speech, hate incidents and/or hate crimes through offline prevention and interventions. The second event brought together researchers to present recent studies on misinformation and its impact on elections, incidents of terrorism and violent extremism, and other prominent socio-political events or issues. The final event brought together a broad range of representatives from across the Government of Canada, as well as the US Department of Homeland Security, to discuss digital policy responses to online harms and encourage cross-government and cross-border cooperation.
ISD’s Response to the UK Online Harms White Paper: In response to the UK Government’s Online Harms White Paper, ISD convened a range of leading organisations on digital policy, including Mozilla Foundation, Privacy International, Avaaz and Demos in order to develop and submit a coordinated response. ISD’s submission focused on securing greater transparency from the companies in terms of (1) content and communications, (2) advertising, (3) complaints and redress, and (4) algorithms. ISD has since advised the governments of France, Germany, and New Zealand, among others, as well as the companies in the GIFCT to help achieve a consensus and momentum for securing these critical policy changes.
Global Counter Terrorism Forum: With the support of the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum (GCTF) and the Governments of Australia, Switzerland and the UK, ISD published a Policy Toolkit to operationalise the Zurich-London Recommendations on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Terrorism Online. Available in English, Arabic and French, the toolkit provides a user-friendly guide for policy-makers on good practices and existing international and regional initiatives in preventing and countering violent extremism and terrorism online.
Networks
ISD’s global civil society and community networks have deepened and expanded their work to nearly every global region. In 2019, ISD harnessed its established programmes to broaden and mainstream its civil society networks in order to confront the mainstreaming efforts of extremist groups.
YouthCAN: ISD’s Youth Civil Activism Network (YouthCAN) is a global network for young activists that was created to understand, encourage and amplify positive grassroots efforts against violent extremism and hate speech. Entering its fifth phase of programming, with support from the Norwegian Ministry of Children and Family, ISD’s YouthCAN is an industry-leading youth empowerment programme that works directly with young grassroots activists to increase their capacity as positive actors for peace. In 2019, YouthCAN launched its first programme in Pakistan and grew its global network of over 1,600 activists.
Young Cities: As joint project of YouthCAN and the Strong Cities Network, Young Cities works in partnership with both young people and local government to enhance and support youth-led solutions to community challenges such as hate, polarisation, extremism and violence. The programme catalyses local youth-led initiatives to build community resilience and aims at building understanding between municipalities and their youth populations through a series of trainings, grants and tailored support, all based on in-depth field research, expert analysis and mapping of local youth issues. In 2019, Young Cities worked with six municipalities across Kenya, Senegal and Lebanon to train 148 young people and 50 municipal leaders, and supported over 20 local initiatives. The programme also supported the launch of eight youth-led initiatives in Kenya’s coastal region, tackling issues such as youth gangs, police discrimination, and lack of civic education and engagement. In West Africa, Young Cities began delivery in Dakar, Senegal, leading to the launch of four youth-led initiatives, including an online campaign that promotes civic education, including responsible social media engagement; a youth-led research project focussing on bridging the gap between local youth and police; a cultural arts project that tackles gender-based violence through rap music; and the production of a documentary by a group of former youth convicts, which aims to support reintegration of youth ex-convicts by breaking down stigmatisation within their local communities and immediate families.
European Social Impact Summit: Funded by the U.S. Embassy in Brussels, the European Social Impact Summit was a 12-month project to build a replicable model for professionalising the work of young activists in Europe and increasing the amount of civil society-led strategic online communication campaigns. ISD trained 57 youth activists from 13 European countries, and facilitated the creation of three youth-led campaigns including more than 20 pieces of original content and engaging with thousands of young Europeans throughout the campaigns.
Communications and Technology
ISD’s work on technology and extremism aims to understand and respond to the ways in which extremists use the Internet, social media and new technologies to spread propaganda. Through this work, ISD builds the capacity of frontline networks to counter the messaging of extremists, providing data insights, training, and marketing and communications support to civil society actors to enable them to disrupt and undermine extremist messaging online. ISD’s communications and technology work remains central to a strategic response to hate, polarisation and extremism and, in 2019, ISD continued its partnerships with Microsoft, Google and Facebook to help mount a proportional soft power response that matches the quantity and quality of extremist output.
The Google Impact Challenge: Following the success of ISD and Google’s Innovation Fund in the UK, Google partnered with ISD to scale this approach across Europe. The result is the Google.org Impact Challenge on Safety, a €10 million fund to support organisations that are challenging hate and extremism, and child safety, on and offline. ISD received and reviewed over 830 applications, selecting over 30 applicants to trial and deliver work across 23 European countries.
The Online Civil Courage Initiative (OCCI): With funding from Facebook, the Online Civil Courage Initiative (OCCI) is designed to upskill and upscale civil society’s response to hate speech and extremism online. In 2019, the OCCI team applied ISD’s Hate Mapper techniques to research online hate in France. Leveraging ISD’s range of social listening tools, the team conducted in-depth analysis of 11 different types of online hate, including misogynistic, anti-Arab, anti-LGBTQ and ableist hate. The subsequent report, Mapping hate in France , is the most comprehensive report of its kind. Also in 2019, the OCCI team continued to support civil society-led counter speech efforts and delivered four training seminars for civil society representatives, training over 120 practitioners.
The Campaign Toolkit : Funded by the founding members of the Global Internet Forum to Counterterrorism, the Campaign Toolkit is a free resource that immerses users in the journey of designing campaign plans for social good. The Toolkit is designed to function globally, on desktop, mobile and tablet, in five languages – English, Arabic, German, French and Urdu. Since its launch at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019, the Campaign Toolkit has received notable traffic – with over 1,000 hits from over 70 countries.
Education
ISD’s education programme works internationally to empower the next generation to challenge the influences of polarisation and extremism. Having designed a series of evidence-based education models, ISD has now started to scale these projects and advocate for the sectoral policy changes required to effectively undermine the impact of disinformation, propaganda, hateful and extremist ideologies on young people. ISD’s work seeks to arm practitioners with the tools they need to effectively equip young people with these skills and safeguard young people on and offline.
Be Internet Citizens : Be Internet Citizens (BIC) is ISD’s flagship digital citizenship and resilience programme, delivered in partnership with, and funded by, Google UK. In 2019, the BIC team trained over 300 teachers and youth workers and delivered a dozen school workshops, reaching an estimated 47,500 young people. Local MPs attended all but two of the workshops, including Damian Collins MP (then Chair of the DCMS Select Committee) and Diane Abbott MP (then Shadow Home Secretary). The BIC joint impact report outlines the findings of this work, namely significant increases in students’ confidence around key digital citizenship concepts and a high retention of knowledge three months following the programme. This includes 81% of participants being able to correctly define hate speech and 71% being able to identify fake news.
Young Digital Leaders: Young Digital Leaders (YDL) is a Europe-wide education project, empowering students through media literacy, critical thinking and digital activism, funded by Google Brussels and Google.org. Following a successful pilot phase in Italy, Romania and Sweden, further funding from Google.org in 2019 enabled the scale-up of activity across Romania, plus the build-out of new work in Bulgaria and Greece. From March to November 2019, this model reached over 10,000 students (both directly and indirectly), 232 parents, and 516 educators.
OPERATIONS
ISD continued to grow and extend its international reach in 2019. In addition to the ‘business as usual’ work of managing the organisation’s finances, operations, HR, grants and project management and security, key operational highlights of the year include:
Establishing the Institute for Strategic Dialogue gGmbH, a German public-interest limited liability company (gemeinnützige Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung) with its registered office in Berlin .
Improving www.isdglobal.org and launch ing ISD’s German-language website .
Completing an ambitious Organisational Improvement Plan intended to increase transparency, efficiency and staff support mechanisms across the organisation.
Expanding the ISD team with over fifteen new roles covering policy, communications, research and programme delivery.
Increasing cybersecurity for the organisation and invested in IT upgrades .
Mov ing office to a larger, more secure premises in Central London .
FUTURE PLANS
In 2020, ISD will focus on increasing the proportion of its funding received from trusts, foundations and philanthropists. We will invest in a new role – a Head of Development – to drive this work, and will refresh our communications and marketing material to support this effort. The organisational structure will be enhanced by building out the senior leadership team and reviewing ISD’s strategy, organisational design and systems. ISD hopes to open its first office in Germany by the end of 2020, and will review and refresh the composition of the Board as part of a governance review in the second half of the year.
The results for the year show that there were net expenditure of £3 96 , 411 (201 8: net income of £ 547,480 ). The total incoming resources for the year were £ 4,614,728 (201 8 : £ 5 ,6 27 , 512 ).
The charity has been able to achieve its objectives as reserves have been maintained to enable it to do so.
At 31 December 201 9 , the unrestricted reserves amounted to £ 409 , 142 and restricted reserves amounted to £9 01,504 .
Reserves Policy
The Trustees closely monitor the level of free reserves available to ensure there is sufficient financial flexibility in place. It is the Trustees’ policy to accumulate reserves for future activities. The free reserves (net of restricted funds) available as at 31 st December 201 9 were £ 409,142 (201 8 : £ 740,516 ) - providing in excess of 3 months’ administration costs in the following financial year at projected expenditure levels.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the Charity has adequate resources to support the current level of expenditure and to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. The Trustees have, however, recognised that, due to the impact of COVID - 19, there has been a significant impact on the activities of the charity. The Trustees are committed to supporting the charity and will continue to evaluate the situation on an ongoing basis and to develop plans for the charity to manage the financial impact going forward.
Going Concern
After making appropriate enquiries, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.
Other financial policies
ISD reviews all of its financial and accounting policies annually to ensure that they are still fit for purpose and applicable to an organisation of ISD’s size. Recent review has led the financial team of ISD to make the following changes to its our policies:
Contracts: Taking into account Sayer Vincent guidance on the treatment of contract income, ISD now recognises surplus funds against contracts as unrestricted designated income.
Deferred income: Income received for multi-year projects will be treated as deferred income when: (i) the amount exceeds £500k, (ii) the amount relates to work to be carried out beyond the next financial year or (iii) the amount is due to be returned to funder (e.g. in the case of underspend).
The Trustees, who are also the directors of Institute for Strategic Dialogue for the purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
Company Law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.
In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to:
- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
- observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
- state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the company will continue in operation.
The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
The Trustees r eport was approved by the Board of Trustees.
Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of Institute for Strategic Dialogue (the ‘company’) for the year ended 31 December 2019 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows and the 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 Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
In our opinion, the financial statements:
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 company 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.
the Trustees use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is not appropriate; or
the Trustees have not disclosed in the financial statements any identified material uncertainties that may cast significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting for a period of at least twelve months from the date when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Other information
The Trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.
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.
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 require us to report to you if, in our opinion:
the information given in the financial statements is inconsistent in any material respect with the Trustees r eport; or
sufficient accounting records have not been kept; or
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records; or
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.
As explained more fully in the s tatement of Trustees r esponsibilities, the Trustees, who are also the directors of the company for the purpose of company law, 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 the Trustees 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 company’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 charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
We have been appointed as auditor under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and report in accordance with the Act and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.
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.
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: http://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 charity’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity's trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditors' 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 charity and the charity’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.
All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Institute for Strategic Dialogue is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is PO Box 75769, London, SW1P 9ER.The members of the company are the Trustees named on legal and adminstrative page. In the event of the charity being wound up, the liability in respect of the guarantee is limited to £1 per member of the charity.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2016). The company is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling , which is the functional currency of the company. Monetary a mounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, modified to include certain financial instruments at fair value. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
Consolidation
No consolidated accounts have been prepared incorporating the results of this subsidiary undertaking . The trustees consider that the inclusion of the subsidiary undertaking's results is not material for the purposes of giving a true and fair view.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the Charity has adequate resources to support the current level of expenditure and to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future.
The Trustees have, however, recognised that, due to the impact of COVID-19, there has been a significant impact on the activities of the charity.
The Trustees are committed to supporting the charity and will continue to evaluate the situation on an ongoing basis and to develop plans for the charity to manage the financial impact going forward.
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.
Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one activity and support costs which are not attributable to a single activity are apportioned between those activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of time spent, and depreciation charges allocated on the portion of the asset’s use. |
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Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.
Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in net income/(expenditure) for the year.
Fixed asset investments are initially measured at transaction price excluding transaction costs, and are subsequently measured at fair value at each reporting date. Changes in fair value are recognised in net income/(expenditure) for the year . Transaction costs are expensed as incurred.
At each reporting end date, the company reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any ) .
Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.
The company has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.
Financial instruments are recognised in the company's balance sheet when the company becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.
Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future p aymen ts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.
Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Financial liabilities are derecognised when the company’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.
The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.
Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the company is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.
In the application of the company’s accounting policies, the Trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated 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 where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
Programme s
Core
O ther incom e
UK travel and hospitality
Travel costs ( staff)
Travel costs (participants)
Occupancy costs and room rental
Outside professional services
Communications and technology
Overhead recovery
Grants and awards to other organisations
Direct Costs include the following:
Outside Professional Services : Includes technical and specialist consultants and suppliers such as filmmakers, content producers. educational resource specialists, trainers, researchers and translation services.
Communications and Technology : Includes telecommunications equipment, telephone calls, IT hardware, software, webhosting, social media and digital costs.
UK travel and hospitality
Travel costs (staff)
Travel costs ( participants)
Occupancy costs and room rental
Outside professional services
Office costs and communications
Overhead recovery
Exchange loss/(gain)
Depreciation
In respect of the year ended 31 December 2019, of the total Exchange loss/(gain) of £37,717, £28,570 is attributable to unrestricted funds and £9,147 is attributable to restricted funds.
Outside professional services costs include £19,910 (2018: £22,721) in respect of auditor's remuneration.
The analysis of auditor's remuneration is as follows:
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
Responsibility for day-to-day management matters and the implementation of policy is delegated to the Chief Executive Officer. Remuneration paid to the key management personnel of the charity in 201 9 was £133,396 (2018: £12 9,038) .
Of the employees whose emoluments exceed £60,000, 4 have retirement benefits accruing under defined benefit pension schemes , totalling £18,031 (2018: £ 12, 2 17) .
Other investments
T he fixed asset investment is held in Germany – comprising the entire issued share capital, of 25,000 ordinary share s of 1.00 euro each , of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue gGmbH (a subsidiary company incorporated in 2019 that was dormant as at 31 December 2019) .
The restricted funds, totalling £23,349, are no longer of direct relevance to the activities of Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the conditions applicable to the maintenance of the restricted funds have ceased to apply. These funds have, therefore, been transferred to unrestricted funds.
Unrestricted funds
Restricted funds
Unrestricted funds
Restricted funds
At the reporting end date the company had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases, which fall due as follows:
After the year end, Institute for Strategic Dialogue has been directly impacted by the effects of the global COVID - 19 pandemic.
The charity has taken steps to secure access to all relevant government funding support schemes in respect of this pandemic.
In light of the information that was available as at 2019 year-end, the C OVID- 19 outbreak is considered to be a non-adjusting event in the financial statements for the year ended 31 st December 2019.
Since 31 st December 2019, the spread of COVID-19 has severely impacted many local economies around the globe. In many countries, businesses are being forced to cease or limit operations for long or indefinite periods of time. Measures have been taken to contain the spread of the virus, including travel bans, quarantines, social distancing, and closures of non-essential services. As a consequence of disruptions and border closures, the charity has experienced significant obstacles to carrying out its charitable objectives.
The Trustees have determined that these events are non-adjusting subsequent events.
Accordingly, the financial position and results of operations for the year ended 31 st December 2019 have not been adjusted to reflect their impact. The duration and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the effectiveness of government and central bank responses, remains unclear at this time. It is not possible to reliably estimate the duration and severity of these consequences, as well as their impact on the financial position and results of the Company for future periods.
Donations of £ 65,715 (201 9 : £ 96,848) were received during the year from the Trustees and from entities connected with the Trustees.
Details of the company's subsidiaries at 31 December 2019 are as follows:
The company had no debt during the year.