New corporate partnerships and a large legacy donation is behind an almost AUD$14 million increase in incomes at United Kingdom’s WWF.

The increase from £60.8 million to £67.6 million is the charities second-highest total in history and was partly due to an extra £2.9 million from corporate partnerships, which rose to £7.4 million when a project with broadcaster Sky began.

A spokesperson for WWF-UK told Third Sector UK said the charity “was delighted to have had a successful year in fundraising.”

“This was greatly aided by a £3.3 million legacy to support our tiger conservation work and our continuing partnerships with HSBC and Sky, which will help to fund our freshwater and marine programmes,” the spokesperson added.

The increase comes after the charity reported in early accounts that income had fallen by 13 per cent between 2015/16 and 2016/17 from a record high of £71.1 million, due in part to a fall of £2.4 million in legacy incomes. Expenditure in 2017/18 was reported to have also fallen from £63.2 million to £62.4 million.

The top earner in the charity is paid between £180,001 and £190,000 during the year, which is far higher than in the previous accounts when the figure was reported to be between £120,001 and £130,000. The spokesperson said Tanya Steele, WWF-UK’s CEO, continued to receive the highest paid salary of £137,714.

The spokesperson said: “As part of our strategy renewal process, we recognised that to address the urgent threats facing our world we needed to have significantly greater impact as an organisation and have strengthened our leadership to achieve targets.”