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Reading Family Aid Group
ANNUAL REPORT Year ended 30 April 2025
e-mail: info@ReadingFamilyAid.org website: www.ReadingFamilyAid.org Registered Charity No. 1022144
Address: 61 Woodcote Road, Caversham, Reading RG4 7EX Phone 07930 033413
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CONTENTS
| CONTENTS | |
|---|---|
| ABOUT THE CHARITY | 3 |
| CHAIR’S REPORT | 4 |
| FINANCIAL REPORT | 9 |
| TRUSTEES | 15 |
| CHARITY COMMISSION & | 16 |
| GOVERNING DOCUMENTS |
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ABOUT THE CHARITY
Our mission is to put a smile on the faces of disadvantaged children in the Reading area.
Our aim is to bring a little joy into the lives of children and families living with poverty, physical, mental, sexual, alcohol or drug abuse, illness, disability, domestic violence, homelessness or refugee status.
We work through schools, social workers, health visitors, places of worship and other charities and charitable organisations.
We distribute toys at Christmas to children aged 0-16 through our Toys & Teens Appeal.
Where our funds permit, we also provide outings throughout the year for children and their families who couldn't afford to go otherwise. These may be to a theme park, the seaside, a zoo or a farm park; they may also be to local activity centres and adventure playgrounds, theatres and cinemas.
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CHAIR’S REPORT
My final year as chair. What can I say? My trepidation at the end of last year without a vicechair was eventually allayed as Anna stepped forward into the role. So, it’s been a very successful year. June began with two fundraising events. The Winnersh Fete was hampered by windy weather whereas the following week, our first attendance at the East Reading Festival in Palmer Park, it was balmy. Both generated income for us and also lots of interest from people who hadn’t heard of us before. We met the mayor of Reading, Cllr Glen Dennis and warned him we would meet again for the Toys & Teens Appeal later in the year.
Ruth, Laura and Wendy meeting the Mayor of Reading, Cllr Glen Dennis, at the East Reading Festival
A great surprise was Procter & Gamble becoming a Sponsor. They donated £3,000 to us and held an event that Ruth (Fundraising manager) and Laura (Toys & Teens Appeal manager), were able to attend.
July proved to be another great month for sponsorship. BH&P, a local Reading creative marketing company, challenged themselves to raise £1,000 by walking 1,000 miles in July culminating in a walk from Marlow to Henley for many of the staff.
We were also delighted to announce that TrustID had chosen Reading Family Aid as their first official charity partner!
TrustID is a business specialising in identity document validation services which has grown and developed in Reading over the last ten years, and we’re very happy they have chosen to support us as a local charity.
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And finally in July, we were delighted to receive the Safe & Sound Governance Certificate from Reading Voluntary Action. Safe and Sound is a quality award developed by RVA that is locally relevant, credible and achievable. It provides Reading’s charities with the confidence that they have met a fundamental level of good governance. The primary goal of Safe and Sound is to ensure that trustees have implemented relevant safeguards to protect themselves, the charity, and its beneficiaries, while also fulfilling their core responsibilities. Various committee members, especially Jo, spent a lot of time on this. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Herjeet Randhawa and everyone at Reading Voluntary Action for their unwavering support during our journey to achieve this prestigious award.
It was now time for our summer outings and we started off with a trip to Beale Park Wildlife Trust, followed by Camp Mohawk, a site which specialises in activities for children on the Autistic spectrum. We were grateful to The Berkshire Nurses & Relief in Sickness Trust and The Reading Dispensary Trust who each made a donation of £600 towards this outing.
On the way to an adventure at Camp Mohawk
There were also two coach trips to Bournemouth, plus a visit to Odds Farm Park. This was appreciated by the children and their parents; as one mum told us “ I cannot thank you enough for today, we definitely needed to get out the four walls of home. You won't ever know how much this means to us as a family.”
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Our fundraising continued as we took our annual slot at Earley Green Fair and were visited by the mayor of Earley, Mike Smith. BH&P also achieved their target of £1000 by walking 1000 miles. We were also pleased to hear that Procter & Gamble continued to support us with a staff family fun day where they raised £881.
The Mayor of Earley, Mike Smith, and Wendy at the Earley Green Fair
As charities support us, so were we able to support them. In September, RFA had an information stall at St Barnabas Centenary celebrations. St Barnabas hold a Christmas Toy Service and have for many years made an annual donation.
Another celebration we attended was the 40[th] anniversary of Homestart. A charity we support with toys and outings.
It was now time for the annual Toys & Teens Appeal. This was launched in October by the mayor of Reading, Cllr Glen Dennis. As ever, we were very grateful to our Appeal sponsors – the Reading Chronicle , Caversham Van Hire, the Berkshire Masons, Big Yellow and St Luke’s Church. Without the publicity provided by the Chronicle and the generous donation of toys by the Masons, not to mention the general public, there would be many sad faces on Christmas morning. One child told us “ I woke on Christmas day and Father Christmas came. I got presents in a sack which I knew came from Father Christmas, as my mummy had told me she couldn’t get us any this year .”
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We also received a large donation of toys from Kids in Mind.
Sheila helping to unload the toys kindly delivered by Gordon of Kids In Mind
In November, St Andrew’s Church, Caversham, adopted us as their charity of the year. They launched with their Autumn Fair. Later on in June, Ruth spoke at their annual church council meeting and Wendy spoke to the Mothers’ Union.
As well as offering us their hall for Toy Week, St Luke’s held a concert in December which raised even more money for us.
And so, the Toys & Teens Appeal was over for another year. 2,509 children received at least four gifts each on Christmas morning thanks to the generosity of the people of Reading. A special “thank you” must go all the volunteers who helped to sort and pack during the week, to the RFA committee, who with their experience helped make things run smoothly and not forgetting our Appeal manager, Laura, whose calming influence got us to the end of the week. This was rounded off with our celebratory meal held at Loddon Brewery this year. Proper Kitchen pulled out all the stops to make it a wonderful evening, despite the cold.
Some of our brilliant volunteers and “Van Men” enjoying dinner at the Loddon Brewery
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The New Year started with the annual trip to the Pantomime at the Hexagon, this year it was Cinderella. This was the relaxed performance most suited to the children. We were then able to look forward to our publicity manager Charlie, entering the Reading Half Marathon in March. She completed the run in just over 2 hours and raised £410 for us. In April The Small Strings Ukulele Band held a fundraising gig for us The Club at Mapledurham.
The Small Strings Ukulele Band performing for us at The Club at Mapledurham
BH&P again raised money for us by entering a 5K Tough Mudder event.
More financial donations were received when Ruth accepted a cheque for £875 from the Berkshire County indoor Bowls Association and Wendy received a cheque from Thames Valley Flower Club for £700.
Finally for the period covered in this report, we were able to offer Easter Eggs via events organised by Brighter Futures for Children for looked-after children. We received this lovely message “ Thank you to Reading Family Aid who donated Easter eggs for all young people that attended the Participation events over the Easter holidays. The Children in Care and Care Leavers say thank you and they enjoyed their eggs .”
And so, as I said at the beginning, another successful year both financially and in supporting so many children in various ways.
The committee has been lucky to attract some more new enthusiastic members, Vicky and Mia, who can help lighten the load. We have several members planning to retire or at least step back in the coming year.
It has been a pleasure to chair RFA for a second time and I wish Anna all the best as she takes over from me in July. I know she will have the backing of all the committee and myself as I will still be active in the charity as it is very close to my heart.
Wendy Howell
June 2025
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FINANCIAL REPORT: Reading Family Aid Group 2024/5
1. Summary
Total income and expenditure are set out in the table below. Further information is provided in sections 2 and 3 and the Income and Expenditure report overleaf.
| 2024/5 | 2023/4 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | £ | |
| Total income | 48,231.61 | 36,599.10 | 11,632.51 |
| Total expenditure | 33,062.04 | 33,923.47 | -861.43 |
| Surplus | 15,169.57 | 2,675.63 | 1,2493.94 |
At the end of April 2025 there was a bank balance of £48,401.09 (April 2024 £33,231.52).
Income and Expenditure over the last 5 Years
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£60,000
£50,000
£40,000
£30,000
Income
£20,000
Expenditure
£10,000
£-
2024/5 2023/4 2022/3 2021/2 2020/1
Financial Year
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2. Income
Total income in 2024/5 was £48,231.61, £11,632.51 higher than the previous year.
Donations included £3,000 from Gillette’s Community Impact Program, together with £881 from their Summer Charity Event. TrustID nominated RFA as a Charity Partner donating £4,000 during this financial year. The Pears Foundation selected RFA as one of 20 small charities to bring Christmas cheer to children & families, donating £3,000.
St Andrews Church in Caversham adopted RFA as their charity to support this year and donated £1,258.59 from their Tea Party. BHP organised a sponsored walk on our behalf and raised over £1,200.
The Thames Valley Flower Club supported us again this year with a £700 donation.
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Berkshire Indoor Bowls Club fundraised over the winter months for RFA and donated £875.
The John Sykes foundation provided £1,000 for Christmas Toys for older children.
A Christmas GoFundMe appeal together with many more generous donations from local businesses, schools, churches, many individuals and gift aid provided further income. Donations received in memory of a committee member totalled £346
Funding for trips was provided by The Reading Dispensary Trust and Berkshire Nurses for Camp Mohawk (£600 each); St James’s Place Newbury Foundation Grant for the Christmas Pantomime visit (£2,277); and the Masons for the autumn trip to Chessington and Thorpe Park (£3,355)
Fundraising by the committee brought in another £1,958 via car boot sales, local fetes and sale of goods. The very successful Small Strings concert evening at The Club at Mapledurham brought in £2,282. Charlie ran the Reading half Marathon raising over £400. Wendy and her husband donated £50 per month towards the storage facility, Laura’s fatherin-law donated his Reading Community Lottery winnings twice and other committee members or their families made individual donations or matched funding with their employer.
A huge thank you to all our supporters.
3. Expenditure
Total expenditure in 2024/5 was £33,062.04, £861.43 less than in 2023/4. The detail is below:
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2024/5 How we spent the money
6.30% 3.10%
Trips and Outings £11,186
10.70% 33.80%
Christmas Toys,batteries &
Easter eggs £15,253
Other Toy Project expenses
including storage £3,531
46.10%
Admin and general expenses
£2,086
Fundraising £1,004
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Christmas Toy Project expenditure
| 2024/5 | 2023/4 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | £ | |
| Toys and batteries | 15,193.96 | 15,733.25 | -539.29 |
| Contribution for use of hall | 350.00 | 350.00 | - |
| Labels, bags, publicity and stationery | 684.58 | 542.17 | 142.41 |
| Van insurance, travel and fuel | 421.11 | 345.56 | 75.55 |
| Food for helpers | 71.66 | 48.65 | 23.01 |
| Storage | 2004.32 | 854.70 | 1,149.62 |
| Total | 18,725.63 | 17,874.33 | 851.30 |
Storage expenses increased over 2023/4 (by £1,149) due to the need to store excess toys at Big Yellow for the full year.
Trips and Activities Expenditure
| 2024/5 | 2023/4 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | £ | |
| Caversham Lakes | - | 1,244.00 | -1,244.00 |
| Coach /(s) to Bournemouth and expenses | 1,788.22 | 2,310.58 | -522.36 |
| Chessington/Thorpe Park | 3,355.00 | 3,360.00 | -5.00 |
| Beale Park | 1,031.50 | 1031.50 | |
| Camp Mohawk | 1,260.00 | 1,145.00 | 115.00 |
| Panto | 2,281.00 | 3,956.00 | -1675.00 |
| Easter Outing to Odds Farm | 1,471.10 | 1,204.80 | 266.30 |
| Total | 11,186.82 | 13,220.38 | -2,033.56 |
Outings in 2024/5 cost £11,186.82, £2,033 less than 2023/4. Pantomime tickets were all purchased for relaxed performances (saving £1,675 over the previous year), and the trips to Bournemouth took place in good weather so no further costs were incurred for additional entertainment due to inclement weather. (2023/4 £ 480.58 for the Oceanarium).
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A dmin and General Expenses
| Admin and General Expenses | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024/5 | 2023/4 | Change | |
| £ | £ | £ | |
| Postage, Stationery, Phone | 274.88 | 349.43 | -74.55 |
| Website & email service | 421.93 | 417.61 | 4.32 |
| Room Hire | 44.00 | 45.00 | -1.00 |
| Liability Insurance | 499.14 | 472.34 | 26.80 |
| Fundraising Expenses | 1,004.00 | 54.00 | 950.00 |
| Admin subscriptions | 514.88 | 435.88 | 79.00 |
| Committee Training | 60.00 | 33.00 | 27.00 |
| Equipment purchases | 271.56 | 0 | 271.56 |
| Total | 3,090.39 | 1,807.26 | 1,283.13 |
After success in the recent charity ballot, fundraising expenses in 2024/5 include the entry fee in April 2026 for 2 places in the London Marathon (£960)
Equipment purchase in 2024/5 includes weights for the gazebo (£157.20), vinyl to customise tops (£35.96) and lanyards (£78.40) for committee members.
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TRUSTEES
Chair: Wendy Howell Vice Chair: Anna Gilbert Secretary: Laura Windisch Treasurer: Sue Marson Others: Charlotte McLean Vivienne Simpson
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CHARITY COMMISSION & GOVERNING DOCUMENTS
Governing Document:
Reading Family Aid Group operates in accordance with its constitution adopted on 21 April 1993, as amended on 16 June 2004, 19 July 2016, 4 March 2021 and 11[th] Jan 2024
UK Charity Commission registration number: 1022144
Charity Commission for England and Wales Public Benefit Guidance:
The trustees have had due regard to the public benefit guidance issued by the Charity Commission for England and Wales.
Charity Registered Address:
61 Woodcote Road, Caversham, Reading, RG4 7EX
Bankers:
Barclays Bank PLC
Independent Examiner :
Ms Annette Parker
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