The Kiltwalk has been engulfed in a storm of negative publicity since Third Force News revealed four of its main charity partnershad withdrawn from this year’s events. It reached a crescendo last week when one of its founding members called for OSCR to investigate saying he was sickened only £776,406 of its £1.6 million income went to good causes. This week TFN sat down with Mhairi Pearson, head of marketing and fundraising at The Kiltwalk, to get answers to the 10 questions that had to be asked.

TFN: What do charities have to do to benefit from The Kiltwalk or become partners and how has this changed since the first event in 2012?

MP: Last year we asked a lot of our partner charities. They were asked to provide an item of food for their pit stop, help with putting up signage, providing volunteers and pit stop entertainment. Most importantly, as part of their agreement they were asked to recruit, on average, 200 participants for every one of our five events.

We knew at the end of the year that many had found this a struggle and so in order to address that issue in 2015, each walk now has its own local charity partners. This means there are more charities benefitting but also, the requirements placed on each charity in terms of cost and resource has been reduced. For their local event, the charities have each been asked to recruit 200 participants and provide entertainment and volunteers for their pit-stop.

TFN: Over the past year Aberlour, Sick Kids Friends Foundation, Clic Sargent and Tartan Army Children’s Charity (TACC) have announced they are no longer official charity partners. What was the reason for their withdrawals?

MP: We maintain a good relationship with many of these charities. For example, Sick Kids Friends Foundation are still good friends of The Kiltwalk but as they have a very limited resource with the hospital move coming up soon they needed to focus their time on that. However they still have teams entering the event and we will still promote their cause as much as possible.

CLIC Sargent and Aberlour have both expressed disappointment in their 2014 grants and have chosen to withdraw as a partner but they are still encouraging teams to nominate them in this year’s Kiltwalks, as they see the substantial benefit of this model.

The Tartan Army Children’s Charity never applied to be a 2015 partner and therefore haven’t withdrawn.

TFN: TACC and CLIC Sargent both said they were unhappy that the amount of money they received was less than what they were promised. Are they right to be upset?

MP: With the numbers of walkers recruited by them we are surprised they felt disappointed. Both charities only achieved a small percentage of their agreed walker numbers and this had a direct effect on the Kiltwalk’s overall sponsorship total and subsequently the amount available to give out in grants.

The forecasted income was based on our partners achieving their walker targets and that also had an effect on our return on investment.

As we stated previously, we realise that we may have asked too much of some charities in 2014. However, each charity that wanted to become a partner entered into an agreement with us on a willing basis that they would provide the numbers agreed. Yet as mentioned, this year we are spreading the load by inviting more charity partners to join us in 2015.

TFN: The former founder of The Kiltwalk event when it was run by TACC has called for OSCR to examine the running of the charity and said he is concerned at the amount of money it costs to operate. What is The Kiltwalk’s position on OSCR being asked to investigate?

MP: The Kiltwalk has proactively spoken to OSCR for advice and assistance regarding TACC’s concerns. We have told them we are open to any scrutiny and are fully willing to assist any investigation OSCR may or may not choose to conduct.

TFN: How does The Kiltwalk meet its costs? How much is met directly through donations?

MP: Currently the Kiltwalk meets its costs through entry fees, Gift Aid, corporate sponsorship (including Gift In Kind) and a percentage of the walkers’ sponsorship, which in 2013 was 32p in the pound.

The Kiltwalk’s vision is to become an organisation solely funded through corporate support, Gift Aid and entry fees not dissimilar to Children in Need and Comic Relief. We had hoped to have made a huge leap towards this in 2015. However, there is no denying that the current publicity surrounding The Kiltwalk will make that task far more difficult.

TFN: Why have The Kiltwalk’s costs risen much quicker than the money it is giving to charity? In 2013 its costs of generating income rose from £112,348 to £779,794 which is an increase of 594%, however the money The Kiltwalk donated to charity in 2013 only rose from £351,666 to £776,406 which is an increase of just 120%.

MP: We are an organisation in a period of immense growth and a responsible organisation has to protect itself for the future. In order for the Kiltwalk to continue and grow, we had to invest in basic infrastructure such as professional staff, fundraising database, IT, offices. However our participation costs also grew, so 6000 participants taking part throughout Scotland in 2013 translates into 6000 T-shirts, medals, postage along event costs increasing to accommodate that number of people - all of which are unavoidable costs. It’s important to note that we only ran three events in 2012 and this increased to five in 2013. The costs in 2013 also included a large amount of Gift in Kind (media sponsorship etc) which artificially inflates the accounts.

Our participants and partners expect a professional, safe, secure event and we have to provide that. As a charity we have no other forms of income to bolster our bottom line; we don’t have regular giving, legacies, major donors or government funding. We are a charity purely based on an event and as the industry is aware, that can carry a heavy return on investment.

TFN: Is The Kiltwalk making any effort to cut its costs so more money will be given to charity, and will this be seen in the 2014 accounts?

MP: We continually look to minimise our running costs whilst increasing our cash support. We are currently looking at ways to cut our costs in the year ahead although this obviously won’t be seen in the 2014 accounts as the investment into our infrastructure was still in progress.

TFN: What staff does The Kiltwalk have and are there plans to recruit more?

MP: The Kiltwalk currently has 14 permanent members of staff and there are no plans to recruit any more in the near future.

TFN: The 2012 reports show your chief executive Carey McEvoy was on a salary of £31,873 but the 2013 report shows his salary to be between £60,000 and £70,000. That is almost 10% of what The Kiltwalk gave to charities – how is that justified and why did it increase so much?

MP: The 2012 accounts only show a partial year from August 2012. The board of trustees looked at a number of aspects when determining the salary, his level of pay from his previous employment benchmarked against average rate of CEO pay in the industry.

TFN: Has the Kiltwalk used the recent publicity to evaluate its internal procedures and has it made any changes as a result?

MP: The Kiltwalk is conducting a full review of its procedures and costs for the year ahead. We want to be regarded not only as a transparent organisation but one that brings an amazing tool for fundraising to the Scottish Third Sector.

There is no doubt that negative publicity has been difficult but we are committed to taking steps to build confidence amongst both the public and across the industry so that The Kiltwalk can continue to prosper.