Our Activities
Business for Scotland (BfS) operates as a limited company and is registered in Scotland. In 2023/24 we had five full-time employees and two contractors. Currently we are working with three full-time employees, two contractors and five part-time Independence Campaign Interns. We operate as a campaigning business network and a Wellbeing Economics and business policy think tank/advocacy company. We seek to influence political and economic policy with a particular emphasis on promoting:
- The Wellbeing Economic Approach
- A Just Transition to Renewable Energy
- The Wellbeing Pension
- Scotland Rejoining the EU
- Scottish Independence
- Promoting Scotland's languages and culture
Transparency
We believe that transparency is fundamental to democracy and as one of Scotland’s most influential campaigning organisations, we wish to be open about how we fund our activities. The bulk of our spending is related to campaigning for Scottish independence and connected policies.
When last reviewed, Business for Scotland received an A rating for its financial transparency from OpenDemocracy’s Who Funds You? project.
A link to the full report can be found here
Financial Governance
We strive to operate the gold standard in financial governance and transparency. Indeed we see operating this way as a key reason why people would donate to our campaigns.
Business for Scotland has eight Directors who are all now, or have been in the past, major donors to our campaigning.
Every one of those directors is registered as a person of significant control, with their identity verified by the bank (Santander) and Companies House. Every director can request read-only access to the account at any time.
One non-executive Director acts as Finance Director and has full and permanent read-only access to the account and is tasked with overseeing and analysing transactions and questioning the Chief Executive on anything out of the ordinary.
All non-regular payments of more than £250.00 are approved by the board.
A third party accountant also has read-only account access and independently prepares monthly accounts for the board meetings and provides answers to directors' questions.
All donations given against specific campaigns and projects are physically ring-fenced (not just notionally). We deposit the funds in an interest-paying savings account and can only access those funds when an invoice is received specifically for that project. Every penny is counted in and every penny is counted out and every director and an external accountant can ask for an explanation for every payment even if it's just a few pounds.
We believe that this represents the most open, transparent and best practice financial governance regime possible and it stands as a beacon of financial responsibility compared to most of Scotland’s political parties, lobbyists and think tanks on both sides of the constitutional debate.
Relationship to Political Parties
We have no hidden agenda, we are 100% committed to Scotland’s independence and are 100% politically neutral between independence-supporting parties. We have never donated to, nor received money from (even in the form of grants or loans), any political party and never will.
BfS is proud of our political party neutrality, which allows us to champion the cause of Scotland’s Economic Wellbeing without interference or influence.
Our Main Sources of Income
Business for Scotland has significant event and membership revenues, specifically in the past from our annual dinner which is one of Scotland's largest business dinners. The format is being redesigned and it will be relaunched in 2027. We also generate significant revenues from our Saltire Club Membership. The Saltire Club is a paid-for monthly business networking lunch. We also, from time to time, generate significant training, publishing and consulting revenues. Finally, we also regularly receive donations from a wide range of individuals who wish to support our campaigns.
Crowdfunding
In total, in any year we expect to receive micro-donations from approximately 2,500 individuals who wish to support our work.
Our annual turnover can vary from year to year depending on which campaigns we are running and that obviously rises significantly in years such as 2014 and 2016 (the years of the Scottish Independence and EU referendums). That means that turnover can vary between £200,000 and possibly as much as £700,000 for any twelve-month period. In the last year the turnover of Business for Scotland Ltd was just over £300,000.
Lobbying Government
Please note that Business for Scotland does not accept payment for lobbying ministers or elected members in any parliament, nor do we lobby on behalf of any business organisation or individual.
Business for Scotland publishes the names and donation brackets of everyone who donates more than £5,000 - we are not required to do this but we do follow the best practice guidance given by Open Democracy. Research reports are never funded directly by individuals as all donations are in support of our general causes, not specific policy work. The donation figures for the 2025 calendar year can be found below - we have also added qualifying donations received so far in 2026 and we will update the page at the end of 2026, following our annual crowdfunder.
Scotland the Brief
We sold more than 75,000 copies of our book Scotland the Brief. The bulk of those sales are to local Yes Groups who purchase the Mini version of the book for as little as 70p each (depending on volume), which allows them to retail to members and supporters for the RRP of £3.50. Thus, Scotland the Brief is designed to help fund the activities of local grassroots groups. This was a major revenue stream for both Business for Scotland and the grassroots independence movement, and a new book is in the works for 2026.
Thanks to our dedicated and generous individual backers.
We would like to thank the 2,500 or so individuals that made micro donations during the last financial year. We would also like to thank our major donors for their contributions. All of our members and donors are individuals, not companies or organisations, with the exception of The Scottish Independence Foundation.
Our thanks also to the major individual donors who contributed more than £5,000 to the 2025 Crowdfunder and donations updated to end June 2026:
Ian Forrester – £15,000
Françoise and Ian Henderson – £46,000
Grahame McQueen - £5,000
Alex Mackie – £6,000
Niall McLean – £5,000
Les Meikle – £5,000
David Morrison – £5,000
Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp - £5,000
This represents 100% of our donors who have contributed more than £5,000.
The Scottish Independence Foundation has also awarded BfS a £4,000 project-specific grant.
Together we are going to make an independent Scotland a better, fairer, greener, wealthier, healthier, happier and more successful nation.
Please consider backing our Believe in Scotland Campaign for Wellbeing Economics and Scottish independence with a small donation here.