"Follow the money" is what they say in the movies. So, I did. I took a close look at the accounts for the Soul61 charity, the one the operates the Mike Pilavachi intern programme. This is what I found.
They spent at least £352,295 on the Mike Pilavachi interns between 2011 and 2020.
That's £14,092 per intern.
At its highest, the 2014-2015 financial year, it was £18,038 per intern.
What do you think of those numbers?
For me, two aspects stand out. Firstly, it seems a lot, given the way the interns work:
Mike Pilavachi invites these individuals to shadow him on his speaking engagements for a year.
(Source:2017-2017 Trustees report, page 3)
I wonder: was this money well-spent?
Spending more than £14k of charitable funds for someone to shadow a speaker for a year seems like a lot. Some of this money will be donations from people at Soul Survivor Watford, and attendees of the Soul Survivor events.
Secondly, imagine you're an organisation the believes in female leaders. You give seminars advocating for female leadership without the restrictions that some churches have. You take female trainees onto The Leadership Course, because you encourage and support female leaders.
Meanwhile, the intern programme is conspicuous in its maleness. I've heard 10-15 different people mention interns on Twitter. I've seen now-deleted photos of interns on Mike Pilavachi's Twitter feed.
I've yet to hear of a female intern.
If the interns were all male, then this begs the question - is it fair to charge young female leaders £3k, £5k, £7k, to take part in one area of the Soul61 work, and then to pay more than £14k to people in another part Soul61, which only accepts men?
Is the money well-spent?
Is the money fairly spent?
If you know of any female interns - do let me know and I'll correct this post.
How did I calculate these numbers?
Soul61, the charity they set up to hold for this work, are obliged to file annual reports via Companies House. In 2011-2020 these reports give an itemised breakdown of the spending.
The reports have a number of lines that mention 'intern'. For example, in the filing for the financial year up to 31 August 2018:
- Intern allowance -£13,425
- International travel and subsistence for interns - £53,571
Earlier in the report (page 5) they list that 4 interns participated that financial year.
Remember, this spending is different from the spending on the gap year students. Both areas of work are part of the Soul61 charity.
If we add up the numbers for all of the 2011-2020 period, we get:
| Year | Explicit spending on interns |
|---|---|
| 2011/2012 | £5,631 |
| 2012/2013 | £19,720 |
| 2013/2014 | £43,892 |
| 2014/2015 | £36,076 |
| 2015/2016 | £69,599 |
| 2016/2017 | £27,072 |
| 2017/2018 | £66,996 |
| 2018/2019 | £31,853 |
| 2019/2020 | £51,456 |
In total the spend on interns is £352,295. Sadly, in 2020/2021 the report is less detailed so we don't have figures for the amount spent on Mike Pilavachi interns.
The intern numbers fluctuate each year, as follows:
| Year | Number of interns |
|---|---|
| 2011/2012 | 2 |
| 2012/2013 | 2 |
| 2013/2014 | 3 |
| 2014/2015 | 2 |
| 2015/2016 | 4 |
| 2016/2017 | 2 |
| 2017/2018 | 4 |
| 2018/2019 | 2 |
| 2019/2020 | 4 |
In total, there were 25 interns.
Total spending, divided by total interns = 352295 / 25 = 14091.80 per intern = £14,092 to the nearest pound.
At least?
I say 'at least' earlier in this post. Why it that?
The reason is that the annual reports for Soul61 contain phrases like:
When they are in Watford, the interns also share accommodation with the Soul61's [sic], and attend the same teaching.
(Source: 2016-2017 Trustees report, page 3)
So, shouldn't we also include a portion of the money that's being spend on accommodation in these figures?
In the 2016/2017 financial year £104,669 was spent on:
Student housing costs, including general maintenance
This was split between 28 adults - 26 gap year students and 2 interns. If we divide the housing costs 28 ways, we get £3,738 per adult (to the nearest pound).
If we add that amount to the explicit spending number in the table from earlier, the spending on interns in 2016/2017 rises to £34,548, or £17,274 per intern.
One snag: not all of the reports are this clear about interns sharing accommodation with the gap-year students. This might have happened every year, or just in some years. So I've been cautious and excluded this from the headline numbers at the top of this post.
I can confidently save those figures are a minimum. And I haven't tried to split the teaching costs in the same way.
