(Image: PA)
Documents leaked to The Herald which are to be presented to an internal meeting of the Scottish Greens this week reveal that a key party committee collapsed after only one member was elected to sit on it.
The report to the party's annual general meeting on Tuesday about the finance and fundraising committee (FFC) states that at the 2026 internal elections, no co-convenors were elected to it.
It added that the collapse happened after "issues of fundraising being significantly behind target".
It said: "No co-convenors were elected to the FFC and only one ordinary member was elected, meaning the committee cannot function.
"This is against a background of SGP [Scottish Green Party] Executive and SGP Council discussing issues of fundraising being significantly behind target, with the result that SGP Executive set up a fundraising working group in autumn 2025 to increase focus on this work.
"More recently, SGP Executive has voted to establish a Financial Oversight Working Group, in response to concerns about our financial position prior to Holyrood 2026 and a desire to make our financial oversight role more robust.
"It is our view that FFC has not been able to function well in recent years, and has not been able to fulfill the role it was intended to have.
"Given that SGP Executive needs improved finance oversight to fulfill its role, we recommend disbanding FFC and replacing its functions with the Financial Oversight Working Group and Fundraising working group, both of which will report directly to Executive."
It said the party "would welcome enquiries from any member who would like to join the Financial Oversight Working Group".
The financial troubles that hit the Greens emerged earlier this month when it was revealed the party had to borrow £150,000 from the Green Party of England and Wales.
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A motion to the party's conference, being held in Inverness, on Saturday and Sunday drew further attention to the matter describing the party's financial situation ahead of the Holyrood election in May as "dire".
In the documents leaked to The Herald the report prepared by co-leader Ross Greer for a meeting to be held this Tuesday also described the challenge the party had facing and also revealed the party had reached out to wealthy Scots who were Scottish Greens supporters for financial support.
"This time last year it's fair to say the party was in an extremely challenging financial situation," Mr Greer said.
"This seriously threatened our ability to deliver an effective Holyrood election campaign, so addressing it became one of my top priorities."
He went onto say that he had "established a fundraising working group of senior office bearers and staff, to get a grip of the situation".
He stated: "This group continues to meet, having overseen the development of a fundraising strategy and systems for tracking individual projects.
"To meet our urgent need for funds ahead of the election I negotiated a £150,000 interest-free loan from the Green Party of England and Wales, to be repaid over three years. I am immensely grateful to GPEW for their support.
"Without it we simply would not have delivered such a successful election result."
Mr Greer said he had taken a lead on "Higher Value Donations" and underlined fundraising appeals he had made in his speeches to the autumn 2025 and spring 2026 conference.
He added: "Alongside those appeals, I have established relationships with a number of individuals associated with the ‘Patriotic Millionaires’ network who campaign for a wealth tax and other measures to increase their own tax bills.
"Thanks to their generosity I am pleased to say that we received more four and five figure donations earlier this year than to any previous election campaign."
He went onto say that he had reviewed the party's membership policy to close a loophole whereby individuals subject to complaints could resign, closing the complaint against them, only to rejoin the party months later "with an effective blank slate".
Speaking to journalists after his speech on Saturday, Mr Greer was asked directly if the party was “skint”.
He said: “We have been totally open that we were struggling this time last year. The biggest single difference to our finances has been the huge growth in our membership, from 7000 to 11,000…but we also had some of our members and supporters give really generously during the election.”
The Scottish Greens said it had a policy of commenting on leaked documents.