How my Work is Resourced
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Ethic of Accountability 

This page is provided for public accountability in how my work is funded - see Table below. Some of my activist work has been controversial, so I think it important to be transparent about income and the larger or potentially controversial sources of my funding. The table below covers the period 1998 to present. Further information on some of this work is on the full or short versions of my CV.

My work is entirely self-employed and resourced from writing, speaking and contract teaching. Much of what I do is unfunded and it can therefore help greatly to hear from potential benefactors or be pointed towards new funding sources. The Centre for Human Ecology (which has registered charitable status) is particularly in need of funding to sustain the independence of its radical teaching programme in partnership with Strathclyde University. If anybody reading this has suggestions to make, I can be contacted on mail@AlastairMcIntosh.com.

 

How I Do or Don't Charge for Doing Events

People often ask what I charge for giving presentations. I have no fixed fee as I try to do what seems important rather than merely what pays well. As such, I ask groups to pay what they can afford, if they can afford it. This varies from the going commercial rate, down to zero.

I do ask groups to factor in travel time and to remember, for example, that a train journey to the far south of England involves the best part of 2 day's energy to/from Scotland. Also, to remember that being self-employed, I have to cover all my own overheads and that for each day's work that I do for an organisation there may be several days that go in to the research, preparation and background that make for a distinctive contribution. As such, with commercial and governmental organisations I have no compunction about requesting top "going rates". These cross-subsidise the ones that can't pay.

I do fly where I consider it necessary, but for obvious environmental reasons I try to avoid it. However, in working often with international issues it does entail some long distance travel. My first question to organisations inviting me from far away has to be, "Can you justify the carbon footprint?" I don't want to discourage invitations, but i do invite discernment over them. I'm also aware that the primary focus of my work needs to remain locally based.

As will be clear from my itinerary, my schedule is demanding, and to reduce wear-and-tear and to be on good form on arrival and departure, I am no longer as willing to rough it as was once the case! That doesn't mean first class or 4-star, but it does mean that when I go places I need somewhere with reasonable peace and quiet to relax and keep going with my other work, and, preferably, free wireless internet access.

Groups that want me to speak to them should make contact by email in the first instance - but do telephone if you get tangled in my spam checker and haven't had a reply within reasonable time. My itinerary gives approximate dates when I'm otherwise engaged, but as this does not include most personal events it should be taken as a rough guide only. My contact details are here.

 

 

Table of Financial Accountablity
 

1998 - March 2007
April 2007 to March 2008 This will be updated properly when I do my annual accounts over the summer. But gross taxable turnover is higher than in the previous year, with work including consultancy and training for WWF UK and International, the Scottish Government, the ESRC and, interestingly, a lecture to managers at Shell on a no-holds-barred basis about corporate responsibility, that paid a commercial rate of €2,000.
   
April 2006 to March 2007 Gross taxable turnover this year was only £12,007 due to not taking on engagements in the New Year because of Ossian's loss, and to working on climate change book. Business expenses allowable by the Inland Revenue were £5,875, leaving a net taxable income for the year of £6,132. This included:

 

bullet£4,635 from Strathclyde University / Centre for Human Ecology for teaching.
bullet£1,200 teaching fees from Gibson Institute, University of Belfast.
bullet£100 expenses from Lafarge for service on their Sustainability Stakeholders' Panel. No fee was received for this work which continues as aftermath of the Harris superquarry campaign.
 April 2005 to March 2006  My gross turnover was £18,664, with business expenses allowable by the Inland Revenue of £8,385, leaving a net taxable income for the year of £10,280. This included:

 

bullet£5,600 for consultancy with the GalGael Trust beyond the remit of normal voluntary Board duties, in accordance with Article 30 of the constitution. This was for management and accountancy services. 
bullet£5342 for teaching from the Centre for Human Ecology / Strathclyde University. 
bullet£385 was received from Lafarge as expenses reimbursement for service on their Sustainability Stakeholders' Panel. No fee was received for this work which continues as aftermath of the Harris superquarry campaign.
bullet£900 in speaking fees plus travel expenses were received from the Ministry for Defence for lecturing on nonviolence at ATR Bassingbourne, and twice at the Joint Services Command & Staff College (see note below).
bullet$1,000 from the Garrison Institute in the USA, £500 from the Russell Trust and £400 from Pollard & Dickson Trust for N. America lectures as part of bringing back the summit of Mt. Roineabhal.
April 2004 to March 2005

My gross turnover (before deduction of expenses allowable by the Inland Revenue) for this year has been £14,575.70, the main components of which were £3023 in speaking fees, £6,000 in consultancy, £4450 in teaching fees, and the rest for writing, royalties, etc..

After deduction of £8,997.77 of expenses for running my office, travel, etc., my net income for the past year was £4,314.82. This figure has been accepted by the Inland Revenue. Our family finances balance because of gifts from benefactors, Verene's earnings and the fact that we have no debts. 

Receipts exceeding £500 were:

 
bullet£500 from the Anglican Diocese of Liverpool for Clergy training.
bullet£3,000 from the Centre for Human Ecology for teaching on the Field Trip and Spiritual Activism module.
bullet£500 plus travel from WWF International for a lecture in Switzerland.
bullet£600 plus travel expenses from the Ministry of Defence for lecturing (on nonviolence) on the Intermediate and Advanced Command & Staff Courses.
bullet£742.98 in expenses claimed against receipts from Lafarge for work connected with their Sustainability Stakeholders' Panel. I do not take payment for this work, which is part of laying down the Harris superquarry campaign. However, Lafarge staff did arrange for me to be a speaker at a conference on CSR at the INSEAD European Business School, and I accepted a speaking fee of €500 (£317) from the School for this, plus travel expenses and accommodation. 
bullet£777 from Jersey Education Dept & College for speaking/travel.
bullet£6,000 from the GalGael Trust, Govan, for consultancy mainly on establishing and fundraising for our new £400,000 premises at Fairley Street. This work was in excess of normal unpaid Board duties as the Treasurer, and was agreed in advance by the Board, notified to our auditors, and paid in accordance with Article 30 of our constitution, which the Inland Revenue have approved and which permits such payments. 
April 2003 - March 2004

Gross income for the financial year 2003-04 was £10,212, expenses were £6,938, leaving a net taxable income as agreed with the Inland Revenue of £3,274.

My main work was preparing course materials for the Open University accredited master's module in Spiritual Activism that I am developing and teaching at the Centre for Human Ecology in Edinburgh. This received full accreditation from the Open University Validation Unit. I also undertook broadcasting work - especially the 4-part BBC Radio Scotland "Voices for Peace" series. Payments received in excess of £500 during the financial year were £591 from the BBC, £667 for management training with Groupe Credit Mutuel, £700 for postgraduate thesis supervision from the Faculty of Science & Engineering in the University of Edinburgh, £2,800 for module teaching and field trip organisation with the CHE, and a grant of £1,870 from the Network for Social Change to help with the work being undertaken with Lafarge withdrawing from the Harris superquarry.

2002 to March 2003 Gross income for the financial year 2002-03 was £10,980, expenses were £6,156, leaving a net taxable income of £4,824.

Verene and I have got by mainly from bits of consultancy work and earnings from writing, speaking, broadcasting teaching etc. - comprising about £5,000 for each of us, our personal resources bolstered by friend and family benefactors. Payments received in excess of £500 during the financial year were £1,615 for thesis supervision and teaching at the CHE, £600 for an article on St Andrew and feminism for the Daily Mail, and £1,765 remaining advance from Aurum Press on Soil and Soul. As of September 2002 Verene has procured 2 year's funding for her work, now called the "Community Programme", which she is managing at the CHE. This involves undertaking Training for Transformation with black and minority ethnic communities in Scotland. I advise on this programme, and help especially with fundraising for it and with looking at aspects of Scottish identity vis-a-vis ethnicity, but I am not employed by it. Her salary, however, helps to support the work of us both. Payments received by me in excess of £500 during the financial year were £2,650 for thesis supervision, module teaching and field trip organisation at the CHE, £2,500 for senior management training at Groupe Credit Mutuel, and £500 from the Francis Camfield Charitable Trust for community activism training.

April - Dec 2001 Gross income for the financial year 2001-02 was £8,752, expenses were £4,372, leaving a net taxable income of £4,379.

Verene and I were supported by funding from a private benefactor for her work, and from a £5,000 transitional grant that Rowntree gave to me and which the Inland Revenue kindly agreed could be classed as a tax-free redundancy payment (Ah, that's what I like - "redundant" social activists!). This indirectly, but crucially, enabled my primary activity that year being to step back in temporarily and serve as Executive Director of the Centre for Human Ecology in an unpaid capacity, whilst sorting out certain organisational problems and procuring funding for the appointment of a permanent Executive Director. I did not apply for this post, and for various reasons, I am delighted that Osbert Lancaster has been appointed and is making such a good job of things on a horribly tight budget - see www.che.ac.uk . Payments received in excess of £500 during the financial year were £1,000 for teaching at the CHE and £640 for teaching at Edinburgh University.

The 3 years 1998 - March 2001 

Action for Transformation is the name that my wife, Vérène Nicolas, and I, gave to our work when I was funded with an annual grant of £23,000 including expenses by the Quaker Concerns budget of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust for the three years ending March 2001. Over that period we both lived mainly from this. 

Many of the outputs of this programme will be found listed in the publications section of this website. It involved community empowerment work with such issues as land reform, environmental protection, urban deprivation and issues of identity, belonging and ethnicity. Examples include:

 
bulletHaving co-founded the Isle of Eigg Trust, and followed this through with action contributing to Scotland's land reform legislation in the new Parliament.
bulletPlaying a key role in blocking development in a National Scenic Area of the proposed Isle of Harris superquarry.
bulletWorking with Glasgow Mosque on combating Islamophobia, and other anti-racism initiatives, particularly our Embracing Multicultural Scotland project and follow-up studies.
bulletWorking with the head of the Department of Economics in the Russian Academy of Sciences and with the Russian Orthodox Church on the relationship between religion and economics.
bulletUndertaking a national values discernment process - People and Parliament.
bulletCo-founding and providing regular management advice to the GalGael Trust - a group of marginalised urban youth in Glasgow who are reclaiming their culture and traditional boatbuilding skills as an antidote to despair.
bulletWorking for the removal of nuclear weapons from Scottish soil, including addressing some 400 senior officers for each of the past 5 years at military staff college, and being arrested (but found "not guilty") for participating in a mass blockade at the Faslane submarine base.
bulletWriting Soil and Soul and other publications, to suggest where wellsprings of hope can be found.

Vérène's work, also based at the Centre for Human Ecology where she too is a Fellow, has involved working with marginalised women in Scotland and especially, introducing skills drawn from the Training for Transformation programme. For information about her work, click www.VereneNicolas.org .

 

 

Last Updated: 20 June 2008

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