The Trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022.
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 2022. 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.
Method of Appointment or Election of Trustees
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.
Organisational Structure and Decision Making
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) has a Board of Trustees that meets twice a year (until 2022), moving to three times a year from 2023. There is a Chair of the Board and Treasurer. The Institute also has an active Finance Committee, made up of the Chair and Treasurer, which meets regularly and works closely with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Responsibility for day-to-day management matters and the implementation of policy is delegated to the CEO, within a clearly understood framework of strategic control. The CEO 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 studies and develops 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.
The principal objects of the charity and 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
Since its formation, ISD has been at the forefront of solutions that combat extremism, hate speech and disinformation. At a time when these pose immediate threats to safety, security and democratic civil culture and institutions, ISD is working to enable individuals, organisations and nations to turn the tide.
ISD’s work is delivered through three types of activity:
RESEARCH & ANALYSIS - ISD combines sector-leading expertise and research in global extremist movements with advanced digital analysis that identifies and tracks disinformation, weaponised hate and extremism in real time. Our 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, has ensured that ISD has consistently been ahead of the curve in predicting developments at the nexus of disinformation and extremism. Our research informs responses to these emerging challenges, and shapes policy-makers’ and the public’s understanding of evolving threats.
ACTION PROGRAMMING - ISD innovates, trials and scales cutting-edge interventions that empower cities, practitioners and civic leaders to mitigate hate, polarisation and disinformation. From our digital education and communications programmes, to our training and direct interventions with at-risk individuals, we build the resilience of communities on and offline. 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. ISD has pioneered the application of data, technology and marketing tactics to mount a proportional response to extremist messaging.
POLICY & ADVISORY SERVICES - ISD provides strategic advice, policy support and training to local and national governments and multilateral institutions worldwide, giving them the data, expertise and support needed to deliver evidence-based policy and programming. We lead inter-governmental policy initiatives on extremism, polarisation and digital regulation that optimise counter-extremism and integration policies and programming and safeguard democracy. ISD also provides high-level digital policy input to the tech sector to harmonise efforts with governments and civil society.
Polarisation, hate, extremism and disinformation continued to have a profound impact on society throughout 2022, presenting real and immediate threats to cohesion and democracy worldwide. We achieved our charitable objectives in the year through three core operating areas: research and analysis; policy and advisory services; and action programming.
During 2022, ISD’s research teams published work showing how extremists, conspiracy networks, hate groups and authoritarian states borrow from each other’s playbooks and amplify each other’s narratives. ISD’s work showed how profits are being made from hate and disinformation and how social media products and algorithms are supercharging everything from electoral disinformation to misogyny. In 2022, our teams helped safeguard elections in the US, France, Kenya, and Australia; protect targeted communities from harassment and violence, and countered conspiracy and disinformation on Ukraine, climate, migration and public health. Our digital policy team used this insight to move the needle on tech platform action and regulation. Where bad actors seek to exacerbate division and undermine trust, we worked to deliver programming to meet the evolving challenge.
The following areas of programming constituted particular highlights of the organisation’s work in 2022:
Research & Analysis
Research on conspiracy, extremism and hate: 2022 once again saw a number of vicious attacks motivated by extremist ideologies and conspiracy theories. The mass shooting in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York in May was one of the deadliest and ISD experts spoke to NBC News about what the shooting can tell us about online extremist communities. We also discussed with BBC News the importance of disengaging people from conspiracies that have become mainstreamed; sounded the alarm over videos of the shooting that remained online with Bloomberg; and explained to Tortoise how gaming platforms can be a link to extremist communities, building on ISD’s extensive analysis of extremism across gaming platforms. In 2022, ISD also produced four separate reports on how extremist actors use alternative platforms; produced one of the most comprehensive studies of Islamic State’s social media ecosystem; and charted the numerous difficulties entailed in researching the evolving online ecosystem.
Misogyny and targeted hate against women and LGBTQ+ people: In addition to a study of abusive hashtags recommended to users searching for female political candidates on social media, we produced one of the first pieces of its kind looking at algorithmic recommendation of misogynist content on YouTube and YouTube Shorts. For the award-winning Slow Newscast podcast, ISD experts explored how platforms with aggressive algorithms like TikTok are actively contributing to the popularity of misogynistic online content produced by Andrew Tate and others. We also published a study on gender-based harassment by QAnon supporters, and explainers about Incels and the Manosphere. Simultaneous with assaults on the rights of women, LGBTQ+ people increasingly had their rights and freedoms attacked in countries around the world. ISD published analysis of the ‘groomer’ narrative used to slander LGBTQ+ people as paedophiles for VICE, Euronews, and Insider; followed the harassment of drag queens reading to children for CNN; and explored the links between a Spanish-based advocacy group and the cancellation of a British children’s sex education play for VICE. In the aftermath of the vicious attack on a gay club in Colorado Springs that left multiple people dead, ISD provided thought leadership on the international trend of anti-LGTBQ+ hate and demonstrated an increase in ‘groomer’ rhetoric on social media stemming from the attack.
Research and action on antisemitism: In collaboration with UNESCO and B’nai B’rith International, ISD produced a first-of-its-kind toolkit for civil society and practitioners looking to combat online antisemitism. As part of our Explainer series, we published articles exploring common conspiracy theories that are often tinged with antisemitism - the New World Order and the Great Replacement - as well as shining a light on the antisemitic ‘Khazarian Mafia’ conspiracy theory circulating around the war in Ukraine. ISD also built and tested new tools which we deployed to detect antisemitic content online.
Response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine: The 2022 invasion of Ukraine marked a significant geopolitical shift in Europe and the trajectory of the war will in so many ways determine the balance of power between authoritarianism and liberal democracy on the global stage. ISD quickly mobilised in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion to track and monitor Kremlin information operations targeting global audiences, as well as technology platform performance in relation to stemming the tide of Russian disinformation regarding the war. Our objective was to provide vital information on one key question: how and where pro-Kremlin propaganda reaches foreign audiences. This work served to inform policy audiences at the highest levels in the UK (including foreign office briefings), the US (including White House briefings) and the EU. It also led to us securing funding to set up a monitoring taskforce contributing to the EU ‘Disinformation Situation Centre’ which exposes online disinformation about the conflict in Ukraine for the European Commission in the first instance but also to other government, media, corporate clients and the public.
We continued research on the war throughout 2022, creating a resource page on the Ukrainian war to provide analysis of the evolving threat landscape to policymakers, the media and wider public. This included the first analysis of TikTok’s role in the info war; a dissection of pro-Kremlin operation IStandwithRussia; analysis of a Chinese-linked network supporting Russia; and numerous breakdowns of Russian state me dia’s circumvention of sanctions. Our expertise featured prominently in the media landscape, with Sasha Havlicek appearing on Sky’s prime-time programme The Great Debate and BBC Radio 4’s Today programme to discuss the war. We collaborated with the Washington Post to debunk viral misinformation on TikTok; had our investigation of atrocity denial in Bucha covered by the Guardian; worked with BBC News to analyse networks of Vladimir Putin ‘superfans’; spoke to Deutsche Welle about RT’s success in the Arabic-language information war; gave comment to Al Jazeera on the pro-Kremlin troll army Cyber Front Z; and helped the New York Times understand Russia’s information war past and present. Building on these insights, our teams have launched counter disinformation education and communications programming in countries heavily targeted by Russian propaganda.
Climate information operations analysis: In 2022, ISD built on our work to provide real-time analysis of information manipulation related to the COP27 climate summit. We provided real-time intelligence for the duration of the climate negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh as part of the Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition. During the event, the unit produced eight ‘COP, Look, Listen’ intelligence briefings, the equivalent of ~90 pages of data-driven evidence and case studies. These were circulated to a mailing list of 920 subscribers, nearly tripling the audience engaged in 2021. ISD also produced a landmark report on the state of climate disinformation: Deny, Deceive, Delay, launched at the UN’s Climate Change Conference in Bonn and covered across the media spectrum. Activity from the coalition generated over 300 media hits with coverage in The Guardian, The Independent, Forbes and Newsweek.
Islamist Extremism: In 2022, ISD’s experts on Islamist extremism produced one of the most comprehensive social media analysis of al-Shabaab and Islamic State networks on Facebook in Somali, Swahili, and Arabic, generating substantial coverage by the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and Voice of America. The report was similarly featured in two of the largest daily newspapers in Kenya, the Nation and the Standard. ISD’s findings from the report were presented to the UK Home Office, the UK Research, Information and Communications Unit, the US State Department Bureau of Counterterrorism, the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh, and the National Counterterrorism Centre of Kenya. The report highlighted the gaps in platform moderation during a highly contentious election year in Kenya and identified 168 calls for violence across Meta platforms. ISD experts similarly released a report highlighting the networks, supporters, and platforms affiliated with Islamic State disinformation disseminators. The pro-Islamic State alternative news outlet ecosystem uncovered by ISD was exploiting platform inability to verify media sources, by masquerading as legitimate news outlets.
Electoral Disinformation: ISD continued its efforts to protect elections from information manipulation in an array of international contexts, working with coalitions of in-country partners to deliver real-time insights into the threat landscape and equip those at the front line with the data and capacity to respond. In 2022, these included the Australian, French, Kenyan and US midterm elections. ISD’s growing election team continuously tracked threats of violence, abuse, foreign and domestic disinformation, voter intimidation, confusion or suppression tactics, as well as attacks on election infrastructure. We delivered flags of high risk activity, analysis and training to community organisations, governors, state secretaries, election officials, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, working to protect communities from violence, safeguard the integrity of the election and hold platforms to account. The New York Times covered our research on short-form video platforms and the spread of election disinformation, as well as on disinformation efforts around election drop boxes, which became mainstreamed earlier this year. Our expert analysis was cited by CNN, Bloomberg, the NYT and Time Magazine on and after Election Day. ISD’s Head of Election Integrity gave testimony before the US House Committee on Administration about the growing threat of election disinformation, and ISD’s Head of Disinformation Research gave expert comment to Bloomberg about Meta’s failures to curb election fraud content and to NBC and the BBC on state-backed information operations.
Policy & Advisory
Influencing Digital Policy: Throughout the year, we continued to hold platforms to account over their failure to address extremist content and disinformation with over 25 research reports, briefings and Digital Dispatches on the subject published over the course of the year. Our team sought to be agile and responsive to new threats exacerbated by platform failures and insufficient policies, focusing on the monetisation and algorithmic amplification that benefit malign actors. We explored how YouTube profits from hateful Super Chats; assessed how algorithmic ranking practices affect online discourse; analysed new and alternative platforms such as Odysee and Gettr; highlighted inauthentic tactics used by political campaigns; evaluated platforms’ implementation of EU sanctions against Russian state media; produced four separate reports on how extremist actors use alternative platforms; and published a series of case studies showing how a commercially motivated network has used conspiracy clickbait to make serious money. We also assessed the platforms’ responses to the rollback of abortion rights in the wake of the Dobbs decision and the subsequent overturn of Roe v. Wade, documenting their inability to curb misinformation about reproductive rights even 100 days after the Supreme Court ruling.
Outside the Western context, we produced impactful research on the influence of Salafi-jihadist groups and other extremist actors in the Middle East and Africa. Our report highlighting Facebook’s failure to remove terrorist content from their platform in Kenya was covered by AP News, and saw Amnesty International release a statement calling on both Meta and the government to take action. We also released one of the most comprehensive studies of Islamic State’s social media ecosystem completed to date, and ISD collaborated with the Syria Campaign on a report looking at the human costs of disinformation spread about the Syria conflict. Our Executive Director for Asia, the Middle East and Africa gave comment to POLITICO and Washington Post on the poor moderation of terrorist content in the region.
Digital policy and regulation: ISD continued to work on digital policy and regulation in 2022 by convening the Digital Policy Lab (DPL). The DPL is an inter-governmental working group of Five Eyes and EU governments and regulators, funded by the German Foreign Office, focused on charting the regulatory and policy path forward on platform governance. Digital Policy Digests were published to track policy developments from across member countries as well as policy papers emanating from DPL Working Groups established on critical challenges including platform data access and algorithmic auditing. We hosted a series of DPL sessions in the year focused on risk-based policy responses, examining the parameters of formulating, designing and conducting risk assessments of online platforms, both within and beyond the context of the EU’s Digital Services Act. ISD’s research and policy analysis in this domain fed into advisory work with a range of governments and multi-stakeholder initiatives and ISD’s CEO Sasha Havlicek had the honour of addressing the Christchurch Call Leaders’ Summit in the margins of the UN General Assembly on the matter of algorithmic oversight and transparency. The Summit was attended by world leaders including former New Zealand President Jacinda Ardern, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian President Justin Trudeau.
Action programming
The Strong Cities Network (SCN): During 2022, our Strong Cities Network (SCN) launched four new Regional Hubs – in East and Southern Africa, MENA, South Asia and the Western Balkans – to serve as regional focal points for cities and to catalyse network engagement and support across these regions. These hubs will serve mayors and local leaders, sharing and delivering good practices and training to address threats where they are felt most acutely: at a local level within communities around the world. The team delivered two virtual regional summits (one in Africa and another in South Asia); organised an in-person city exchange in Kyrgyzstan; organised a Mombasa Governors roundtable on ‘Delivering as One in Preventing Violent Extremism Conducive to Terrorism in Kenya’; hosted a US-Nordic exchange on city-level P/CVE in Helsinki; and carried out two city consultations in Slovakia. With support from the European Union, the SCN also convened over 100 mayors and other local government officials, as well as representatives from national governments, civil society organisations and multilateral bodies like the UN Office for Counter Terrorism and UN Women, in Nairobi, Kenya and Dakar, Senegal to explore how to enhance city-led efforts to prevent and counter extremism across the African continent. Finally, antisemitism, racially motivated extremism, far-right extremism, dis/misinformation and polarisation were key thematic foci for the Network’s Transatlantic workstream, including workshops in Helsinki and Denver. This area of programming culminated in the endorsement of The Hague Mayoral Declaration by more than forty cities from both sides of the Atlantic – a demonstration of the commitment and determination of cities to work together to counter hate, extremism and polarisation, and to safeguard local democracy.
In 2022, we continued fruitful collaborations with partners such as Nordic Safe Cities through our Together for Safety series, which focused on Safeguarding Local Democracies and Safe City Governance and Regional Alliances. We also worked with new partners, such as the University of Denver’s Colorado Resilience Collaborative, and with the Bertelsmann Foundation, a collaboration that produced a graphic animation of key mayoral decision points during and in the wake of the 2018 attack at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Stronger Than Hate, narrated by the former Mayor of Pittsburgh Bill Peduto, was one of five shorts nominated for Cannes Shorts’ Best Animation Film this year. The SCN and ISD were also represented at a range of events, including at the Summit of the Americas in LA, where the SCN hosted a roundtable on city-led violence prevention.
Practitioner training: Mass casualty attacks in the US in 2022 underscored the need for improved capacity at the front line of violence prevention. Through our partnership with the McCain Institute for International Leadership, we developed and delivered practice guides and training for US practitioners, equipping over 500 practitioners - including social and health care workers, education providers and law enforcement - with the capacity to respond to domestic extremism as part of the build-out of the first US prevention practitioners network.
Counter-extremism interventions playbook: In 2022, ISD completed a project in Québec to deliver interactive resources for teachers, youth workers and those engaged closely with young people, centered on exploring the first-hand stories of former extremists and survivors of violence. Part of the Extreme Dialogue programme run with partners Duckrabbit, The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Peace Foundation, and the Montreal Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence (CPRLV), this project produced two new films telling the stories of Sylvain and Junior, two French-speaking individuals who have both experienced forms of radicalisation and violence. They are accompanied by educational resources centered on experiential learning to ensure maximum impact on young people.
MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS
During 2022, ISD published 64 report-style publications along with 92 Digital Dispatches in order to inform the public, policy makers and other stakeholders on trends and analysis on hate, extremism and disinformation. In addition, we launched our Explainers section - a glossary on different extremist narratives, movements and actors - of which we published 16 entries covering topics from the 'Great Replacement' theory to the Reichsbürger movement behind the failed coup in Germany.
In 2022, international news outlets sought ISD experts and analysis during important moments such as Russia-Ukraine War, the global freedom/trucker’s convoys, multiple elections, Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, the UN’s Climate Change conference (COP27), the coup plot in Germany, and more. In February, when Russia invaded Ukraine, we spoke to the New York Times, the BBC, the Washington Post, AP News, Al Jazeera, Politico, and others about the online war over information and the different pro-Kremlin tactics at play. We provided analysis to the Guardian and Slate on the Bucha atrocities, and CEO Sasha Havlicek featured on BBC Radio’s news and current affairs program, Today, and also joined Sky News’ the Great Debate answering the question, “can the West stop Vladimir Putin?”
Our analysis on the US elections featured in Bloomberg, the Washington Post, POLITICO, Axios, VICE News, and TIME, among others. Other US topics that garnered coverage included the overturning of Roe v. Wade, covered by Axios and Deutsche Welle; the Buffalo shooting, covered by NBC, ABC and BBC; and the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s residence, covered by The Hill, ABC and NPR. A report we published exposing the state of Islamic State content on Facebook in East Africa prompted a response from Amnesty International and was covered by the BBC, Washington Post and AP. Work we did on anti-LGBTQ+ hatred was covered by VICE, CNN and Insider, and we spoke to NBC News, Metro Weekly and Washington Post, on the far right’s reaction to the Colorado LGBTQ+-bar shooting. ISD researchers provided commentary to Bloomberg, AP News, the Washington Post, Euronews, on Musk’s takeover later in the year, and featured in MIT’s Technology Review talking about the risk of losing Twitter’s digital and human history records. During COP27, we featured in Politico, and provided journalists with daily monitoring reports on mis- and disinformation trends through our participation in the Climate Action against Disinformation coalition. Our experts commented to Newsweek, Reuters, Vice News, and more, on the failed coup plot to overthrow the German government and its conspiratorial connections. ISD’s CEO Sasha Havlicek also delivered high-level appearances, including at Eradicate Hate 2022 and alongside world leaders at the Christchurch Call Leaders’ Summit, as well as being an expert panellist at Defence Disrupted and the Institute for Economics’ 2022 Global Terrorism Index presentation. Her interview for the new Paramount Plus docuseries Indivisible: Healing Hate also premiered in 2022.
OPERATIONS
2022 was a significant year for ISD’s institutional growth and operations. In addition to a number of exciting new hires to our UK team, we also achieved significant expansion of ISD’s sister organisations ISD US and ISD Germany. ISD recognises that our global impact is best achieved by effective co-working between ISD UK and all other ISD entities, and so ISD invested in the growth and training of these teams as well as improved inter-entity working across all ISD’s geographies.
During 2022, we actively managed approximately 45 concurrent projects valued at £14.2 million throughout their lifecycles, with £6.01 million generated in 2022 income. We made substantial improvements in project management, developing a versatile Project Management Toolkit and introducing dashboards for workstream oversight, promoting transparency, ownership, and accountability. Additionally, we strengthened business development oversight through focused weekly meetings and an improved automated system.
We recruited ISD’s first Managing Director in Spring 2022, mandated to drive a number of priority institutional projects including building our capacity for internal knowledge and information flow and boosting management processes to support our growth and internalisation. She also provided leadership and management support to our senior teams. Meanwhile, our COO expanded her team to bring on additional operations staffing to support this growth, including a Head of Finance and additional HR and finance staff in the UK, Germany and the US.
FUTURE PLANS
In 2023, ISD will continue to deliver its work internationally. We anticipate the start or continuation of many new multi-year grants and projects, particularly in relation to research and the Strong Cities Network. In fundraising, 2023 will see significant expansion of ISD’s work in the United States through its sister organisation, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue-US.
In September 2023, ISD’s co-Founder and CEO Sasha Havlicek will move from London to Washington DC to drive the growth of the global group of organisations from there. Once she is no longer an employee of ISD UK, responsibility for day-to-day management matters and the implementation of policy will be delegated from the Board directly to Sarah Kennedy, the Chief Operating Officer, and Arabella Phillimore, the Managing Director, within a clearly understood framework of strategic control.
The results for the year show that there was net expenditure of £788,258 (2021: £100,960). The total incoming resources for the year were £6,014,739 (2021: £6,829,100).
The charity has been able to achieve its objectives as reserves have been maintained to enable it to do so.
At 31st December 2022, the unrestricted reserves amounted to £402,343 and restricted reserves amounted to £479,465.
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 31st December 2022 were £359,083 (2021: £167,244) - 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.
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.
The Trustees report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
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.
Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of Institute for Strategic Dialogue (the ‘company’) for the year ended 31 December 2022 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including 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:
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 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.
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 company’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 other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon. The Trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. 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 course of 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 this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. 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 report; 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 statement of Trustees responsibilities, 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.
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 extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is detailed below.
We identified areas of laws and regulations that could reasonably be expected to have a material effect on the financial statements from our sector experience through discussion with management (as required by auditing standards).
We had regard to laws and regulations in areas that directly affect the financial statements including financial reporting and taxation legislation. We considered the extent of compliance with those laws and regulations as part of our procedures on the related financial statement items.
Except for any known or possible non-compliance, and as required by auditing standards, our work in respect of these included enquiry of management about the company's policies, procedures, and related controls regarding compliance with laws and regulations and if there are any known instances of noncompliance.
We tested the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments; assessing whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias; and evaluated the business rationale of any significant transactions that are unusual or outside the normal course of business.
We performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships.
We examined supporting documents for all material balances, transactions and disclosures.
We evaluated the selection and application of accounting policies related to subjective measurements and complex transactions.
We reviewed the board of trustees’ minutes.
Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that some material misstatements of the financial statements may not be detected, even though the audit is properly planned and performed in accordance with the ISAs (UK).
The potential effects of inherent limitations are particularly significant in the case of misstatement resulting from fraud because fraud may involve sophisticated and carefully organized schemes designed to conceal it, including deliberate failure to record transactions, collusion or intentional misrepresentations being made to us.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://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 auditor's 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.
Landau Morley LLP is eligible for appointment as auditor of the company by virtue of its eligibility for appointment as auditor of a company under section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.
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 2019). 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 amounts 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.
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.
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.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the company has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
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.
Grants payable are charged in the year when the offer is made except in those cases where the offer is conditional, such grants being recognised as expenditure when the conditions attaching are fulfilled. Grants offered subject to conditions which have not been met at the year end are noted as a commitment, but not accrued as expenditure.
All expenditure is inclusive of irrecoverable VAT.
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 the statement of financial activities.
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 payments 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.
Programmes
Core
Programmes
Programmes
UK travel and hospitality
Travel costs (staff)
Travel costs (participants)
Occupancy costs and room rental
Outside professional services
Communications and technology
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)
Occupancy costs and room rental
Outside professional services
Office costs and communications
Exchange loss/(gain)
Depreciation
In respect of the year ended 31 December 2022, of the total Exchange gain of £10,451 (2021: Loss £24,815), a gain of £1,040 (2021: Loss £18,249) is attributable to unrestricted funds and a gain of £9,411 (2021: Loss £6,566) is attributable to restricted funds.
Outside professional services costs include £20,000 (2021: £21,000) in respect of auditor's remuneration.
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 2022 was £154,745 (2021: £150,208).
Of the employees whose emoluments exceed £60,000, 14 have retirement benefits accruing under defined contribution pension schemes, totaling £56,773 (2021: £42,811).
The charity is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within section 505 of the Taxes Act 1988 or section 252 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extent that these are applied to its charitable objects.
Restricted funds are funds donated to the charity to aid its work as an independent 'think and do tank' for the study and development of policy and operational responses to the challenges of hate, polarisation and extremism.
The transfers from restricted funds to unrestricted funds totalling £28,377 (2021: £16,779) relate to activities and funds that have ceased to meet the conditions required for Institute for Strategic Dialogue to continue to retain these funds in restricted 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:
Donations of £74,000 (2021: £60,049) were received during the year from the Trustees and from entities connected with the Trustees.
The company had no debt during the year.