Sir, – I write as the chairman of the Mary Robinson Foundation.
It is a great pity that Peter Hamilton did not contact the foundation before he wrote his piece "Donations dip causes income to fall at Mary Robinson Foundation" (Business, September 14th).
The adoption of the voluntary statement of recommended practice (SORP) for the accounts of charitable bodies for the first time in 2016 has led to significant changes in accounting policies and adjustments to prior years, rendering year-on-year comparisons difficult.
The majority of our donors provide funding for multiannual programmes, and so would not normally donate each year, so there is nothing strange about the pattern, as suggested by your article.
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The piece implies that all employees are paid between €70,000 and €80,000. In fact that is the salary of our director, which was reported as required by the SORP. All other salaries are below this figure.
A comparison of the cash figure referred to in the final sentence with the annual expenditure as shown in the accounts would show your readers that the foundation is fully funded for the next two years, with cash on hand to cover costs for 2017 and 2018. – Yours, etc,
DAVID WENT,
Mary Robinson
Foundation,
South Leinster Street,
Dublin 2.