I thought it appropriate to provide an update on my funding as quite a number of people have very generously been supporting this blog over the last few months when overall funding has been on the pretty low side.

During the period of lockdown I have worked on a project for the Global Initiative for Financial Transparency. This project went on hold for a period but then I threw myself at it, because I believe in the model of financial transparency based on tax spillover analysis that this is based on. As a result it has now been delivered to the original schedule, which is not at all what I expected, and is now awaiting World Bank peer review (which from experience is not necessarily a quick process). That project when finally complete will be worth about £8,500.

Another project that went on complete hold in March was my work through the Corporate Accountability Network with the University of Sheffield, who not unreasonably put a hold on just about everything when universities faced considerable uncertainty on funding, even though this is paid for with Research Council money. I am now pleased that this is finally back on track, and starting soon, although the budget is being rejigged right now to reflect new realities and I am not quite sure as yet what precisely the outcome will be, but it is likely it will support a salary of at least £20,000 over the next year.

I have now left part-time employment at City, University of London, as expected.

And then there are donations. These now amount to nearly £5,000. I am very grateful. When almost everything was on hold they provided the confidence to go ahead with things like the video project, which I think is progressing well, with some videos now already in use on other organisations' sites, and republishing in the USA and elsewhere now happening. This is a joint project with Mark Cooney of Spotted in Ely, but the aim is to keep it going as I think it is working.

I also secured a grant from the Joffe Charitable Trust to work on Tax After Coronavirus, of which the main output to date has been a submission to the Treasury Committee of the House of Commons on this issue, which has now been submitted. There will be more to come. This grant is worth £7,500 and has some time to run as yet.

The sustainable cost accounting project also funded by the Joffe Charitable Trust remains on hold for now, but will recommence soon.

A couple of other grants have not been won: that's the way things work.

In the meantime there remain three applications outstanding, for work on audit reform, the Green New Deal and accounting reform. What will happen with these is not known, but if any are won the way the videos are funded may become more stable. I will post updates if they are required.

In the meantime, thanks for the support. The position looks better now than it did from April to July, I admit, when it looked very tough indeed. But the support has made a big difference.