So, those big gifts. The ones with the contradictions in the Soul61 annual reports. What did the money get used for?
I've been hunting through the annual reports, and have some things to share.
Some caveats...
This is imperfect. The reports are based on what the trustees decided to share. They may have played up some things and played down other things. But some of these filings have been audited, which should give us some level of confidence in some of the information.
My purpose here is to follow the money. I'm aware this means I give little space to many worthwhile activities these organisations do such as worshipping Jesus, caring for each other and serving the wider community.
2016
It's 2016. There are four connected charities in the Soul Survivor world:
- K & J M Morgan Trust
- Soul Survivor
- Soul 61
- Soul Survivor International
And one company:
- Soul Survivor Trading Ltd
There are a couple of new entries since I last made a list like this. Let me explain.
K & J M Morgan Trust - This is the charity that was used to found Soul Survivor Watford Church. It's where they bank their regular giving. It's where most of the money for salaries comes from. Yes, it has a weird name.
Soul Survivor Trading Ltd - This is the company that makes money from sales of coffee, books, merchandise, etc. It's owned by the Soul Survivor charity.
There's a strange thing about these five organisations: they use different financial years:
Soul Survivor and Soul Survivor Trading Ltd: January to December
D & J M Morgan Trust and Soul Survivor International: April to March
Soul61: September to August
When I first came across this, I thought this arrangement was a way to spread the work of the financial year-end. Or to handle the differing cash flows in these different orgs. Others have pointed out that this could be designed to make it harder for trustees, or others, to see what's happening.
Anyway, it's 2016. In the wider world, this was the year the UK voted to leave the European Union.
Mike Pilavachi is joint Executive Director of Soul Survivor with Duncan Layzell.
Graham Cray, also a trustee of Soul Survivor, is listed as director of Soul Survivor Trading Ltd.
Pilavachi and Andy Croft are both Senior Pastors of the Watford church.
Soul61 is led by Andy Croft, at least on paper.
Soul Survivor International is led by Mike Pilavachi, Liz Biddulph, Lambert Dekkers and Matthew Gelding.
Let's begin with the Soul Survivor charity. They ran 5 major events in 2016: Momentum (aimed at 20s and 30s), Soul Survivor weeks A, B, C and Soul Survivor Scotland (with Scripture Union Scotland).
The annual report this year contains a disturbing phrase I've never seen in a charity report:
"There is ongoing two-way communication, whereby the trustees listen to and take feedback from the executive directors"
(Source: 'Group of companies' accounts made up to 31 December 2016', Soul Survivor filings at Companies House, page 3)
This seems like an attempt to remove power from trustees. Thankfully, Soul Survivor don't make the laws of the UK, but it's a striking indicator of the way this charity operates. I would not be a trustee of a charity that said this in their filings.
There were also a number of smaller events they ran such as the Loud and Clear Conference and the Naturally Supernatural event in the winter. Interestingly, that event is jointly run by the church and by the Soul Survivor charity.
A shift is underway in 2016. Croft and Pilavachi had their book Everyday Supernatural published. I imagine that will have been several years in the planning.
Attendance of Soul Survivor Scotland jumped significantly: 23% to 914. Attendance of Weeks B & C of the summer festival declined slightly: 3% and 8% down. Momentum had a big drop: 41% down to 2,252 full-time attendees. The report speaks of interest within the charity in doing something around Naturally Supernatural in the summer, in future.
Soul Survivor's total income in 2016 was £3,020,669. Their total expenditure was £3,207,759. So, the charity lost £187,090 this year.
Their 2016 report lists 18 employees, with a salary bill of £618,415 One of these staff is listed as having a salary between £60,000 and £70,000. I assume this is Pilavachi, due to the length of his tenure and his public prominence, but I could be wrong.
Soul Survivor Trading had sales of £360,174 in 2016. Their expenditure was £305,690. So they made a profit of £53,484. These figures are included in the total income figure I mentioned for Soul Survivor earlier.
We should note that Soul Survivor said this about their trading entity:
"Profitability is not the primary objective, although the subsidiary is operated with the aim of at least breakeven, after allowing a fair allocation of overheads. If the subsidiary does make a profit, this may then be gifted to the parent charity to contribute to the overall work of the group subject to the restrictions in force as the time"
(Source: Group of companies' accounts made up to 31 December 2016, Soul Survivor filings at Companies House, page 8)
Meanwhile, in the April 2016-March 2017 filings for K & J M Morgan Trust, we see the church doing activities that are typical for churches in the UK. They run Sunday services, and small groups, and youth work, and social justice initiatives.
Some differences exist. This church runs regular Saturday celebrations that draw people from a wider area. They say over 1,000 go to those. They also host some conferences, such as the 3-day Naturally Supernatural event in early 2017, which had over 500 attendees.
These aspects might be common in large churches. Most of my experience is with smaller churches: those in the 50-200 size.
Mike Pilavachi travelled regularly overseas to speak at events in 2016, accompanied by his interns. Other people sometimes travel with them.
The church gives grants to other organisations. Some of these I applaud, for example a gift to Charis.
Others raise an eyebrow: their donations to Soul61 are listed here. Sure, that's a separate charity, but Soul61 is run by the same group of people, using the same premises, often serving the other related charities.
In April 2016-March 2017 the church had an income of £986,232. They spent £832,227.
They employed 21 staff (at least 7 were part-time). The cost for these employees was £443,891.
None were paid more than £60,000. However, we should note that Pilavachi also had a salary from the Soul Survivor charity during this time. I don't see other income sources for Croft.
An interesting discovery: Bob Wallington held a dual role, described in this way:
"Assistant pastor, (Youth 50% / Soul61 Leadership 50%, funded by Soul61 Trust)"
This entry underlines how labelling the funds given to Soul61 'grants' is misleading.
Speaking of Soul61, in November 2016, they took on a new cohort of 26 gap year students. Between then and the following August two interns also joined Pilavachi as he travelled.
In their Sept 2016- August 2017 financial year Soul61 recorded one employee, and a salary bill of £18,046.
Staff of the other charities also did work for Soul61, and their employers charged Soul61 for this time. This seems like a sensible way to handle a small charity that can't afford multiple posts. In this financial year the amount they charged Soul61 was: £26,398. There isn't a breakdown of the amount each charity received.
As normal, both Soul Survivor and Soul Survivor Watford donated to Soul61, and money also came from collections taken at both places.
Soul Survivor International had a much quieter year. The annual report was filed, but there is no incoming or outgoing money listed. That state of affairs continues for the next few years.
2017
And then, in January 2017, the first big gift arrived: £100,000.
In a detail that nods towards the weird way they handled this gift, I found this date from the Soul Survivor annual report, rather than the Soul61 annual report. As discussed before, this seems a strange destination for a gift like this. And there are contradictions in the Soul61 report regarding this donation.
By cross-referencing the reports from Soul Survivor and Soul61, we find that sometime before the end of August they spend most of the donated money:
They move £75,000 to the Soul Survivor charity for 'filming '.
This is followed by a further £3,000 in the autumn.
If we look at the Soul Survivor report we learn more:
"A second notable donation received in the year was a £78,000 donation from Soul61, to be used to create broadcast quality footage of NSN and Soul Survivor B. This is in pursuit of our goal of making Christian resources freely available and encouraging young people in their spiritual lives."
(Source: Group of companies' accounts made up to 31 December 2017, Soul Survivor filings at Companies House, page 27)
Later in the same report we read this:
"Funds of £78,000 were allocated to Soul Survivor during 2017 to be used to record content at Naturally Supernatural and Week B and edit them into broadcast quality programming. Since the year-end the programmes have been broadcast on TBN, and subsequently made available on our YouTube channel. The main purpose is to provide teaching and worship resources for people unable to attend the events. Side benefits include documenting what happens at the event, and providing content for marketing the events."
(Source: page 42)
If we jump across to the Soul61 annual report we learn a little more:
"This project created a large quantity of media resources, in the format of teaching during worship meetings and 'edited programmes"
(Source: Total exemption full accounts made up to 31 August 2017, Soul61 filings at Companies House, page 14)
I can't find a record of how, specifically, this money was spent. It could have been some, or all, of the following:
- Camera equipment
- Sound recording equipment
- Editing equipment
- Freelance camera operators
- Freelance sound mixers
- Freelance video editors
I find the TBN connection strange. They don't seem to have a particular affinity with the teenage audience Soul Survivor has typically targeted. But then I guess, Momentum in the last decade was a departure from that, and the Naturally Supernatural event was a further move towards an all-age audience.
It's a lot of money to invest in broadcast quality that you don't need for YouTube or website use. What did they gain from that investment? There's no information given about the TBN audience and the benefits in reaching them this way.
You know who does gain? The speakers on these videos. They get to add 'TV presenting' to their CV. Their fame grows, to some degree.
Sadly there's no record of what actually went out on TBN. It could have been one video or 20 videos.
On the Soul Survivor website we find a section of filmed material that dates after this time. Perhaps these assets are the result of the investment?
Can we note that one of the events they chose to film was brand-new this year: Naturally Supernatural. That event replaced Momentum, and ran for 6 days. It was pitched at "the whole church family".
I'm surprised. Wouldn't you pick an event you had a lot of experience running? Perhaps there were other considerations in play.
And now we get to something rather strange.
If you look up the quoted section above in the report, you'll find this money listed in the 'Restricted funds' section.
Say what?
A restricted gift is when a donor gives money to a specific part of your mission. For example, you might donate to the Breast Cancer research that Cancer Research UK do. Your gift is specifically for Breast Cancer, you're less interested in funding Lung Cancer research.
So, how was this money restricted?
I have two ideas. Let me know if you can see any others and I may add them to this post.
Idea 1
The restriction was that the gift was to be used for whatever Mike Pilavachi decided. This condition was noted in some places in the Soul61 report, and contradicted in others. If this it the case then it raises questions like:
- What happens if he retires before the money is used?
- Why put the money into the Soul61 charity, as it's the organisation Pilavachi has least formal power over?
Idea 2
The restriction was that the gift was for the purpose of filming. This was a restriction that the original donor never specified. Adding such a restriction may break Charity Commission rules.
This is an intriguing idea. Why would they do that?
Control.
Maybe the donation was routed via Soul61 to gain control of the funds for this group of Soul61 people:
- Andy Croft (Director)
- Mike Pilavachi
- Ali Martin
- David Saunderson
- Liz Biddulph
and remove control of the funds from this group of Soul Survivor people:
- Mike Pilavachi (Executive director)
- Duncan Layzell (Executive director)
- Graham Cray
- David Westlake
- Keith Johnson
- Christopher Lane
- Jessica Jones
- Tim Hughes
The latter group would be obliged by Charity Commission rules to spend the money in line with the restriction in these circumstances.
I'm not sure which idea is more credible. Soul Survivor staff or trustees would know the truth here.
How did the Soul Survivor charity fare this year? They had a lot of bookings for Week B of their festival. So many that they decided to run two main venues on the site and use a video link between them. This year they also moved location from Somerset to Cambridgeshire which must have added to the work in running the event.
Total income was £3,210,997. Some of that will be the funding for the filming project. Total expenditure was £3,270,137. Another year of making a loss for Soul Survivor.
They list 19 staff in 2017, with a total salary bill of £615,825.
The salary of two staff members fell in the £60,000-£70,000 bracket. I assume this is Pilavachi and Layzell.
Meanwhile, Soul Survivor Trading took £425,801 from sales in 2017. Their costs were £496,091. So they lost £71,290. These figures are included in the total income and expenditure of Soul Survivor listed above.
Let's move focus and talk about the buildings of Soul Survivor Watford. They have two on an industrial estate: Number 5 and Number 7. Number 5 is the large space they use for the services. Number 7 is composed of smaller spaces that are also used by other local charities.
Space seems to preoccupy the church during the financial year that starts in April 2017. They say they're seeing 15% growth in their Sunday service. Sometime in this period they engage an architect to draw up plans for how this would work. The effort is titled 'Making room for more'.
The income of K & J M Morgan Trust was £933,764 this year. They spent £840,315.
They reported 18 employees in this period, 3 less than the previous year. Again, none earned over £60,000.
In September the Soul61 financial year begins. In November, 23 young adults come on board to learn and serve on the gap-year programme. Between now and the following August we have 4 interns listed who shadowed Mike Pilavachi.
And then, of course, the second large gift arrives.
£100,000
At this point we have £25,000 left from the original gift to Soul61. So £125,00 in total.
£3,000 goes to the Soul Survivor charity to finish the filming project. We can see from their filings that this is all spent before the end of 2017.
£40,000 goes to the church to be 'used towards the reconstruction of the Watford church'.
Perhaps this gets used to pay for the architect's work to develop plans. Or, to begin project managing the building work?
Lastly, £3,539 goes to "support potential leaders' travel to Soul Survivor events"
To be continued
There's a lot going on here, I'm sure you'll agree. And we're just getting started.
Next in the series: Following the money - part 2: the decision to stop the festivals and Mike Pilavachi's two jobs
Sources
This blog draws extensively from the annual reports of the charities. There are too many references to footnote, but you can find the whole reports here:
Soul61 filings at Companies House
Soul Survivor filings at Companies House
Soul Survivor International filings at Companies House
Soul Survivor Trading Limited filings at Companies House
K & J M Morgan Trust report from 2015-2016
K & J M Morgan Trust report from 2016-2017
K & J M Morgan Trust report from 2017-2018
