FESTIVE
Annual Trustees’ Report Year ending 31[st] August 2025
Festive
Trustees:
Charity No: 1123966 Pauline Kendall (Chair) 487 Coed-y-Gores Alex Forrest Llanedeyrn Jon Fortnam Cardiff Joshua Kendall CF23 9NU Jess Stinton
Organisation Overview
Festive was formed by a small group of people with a big heart for Further Education (FE). They had experience of ministering in FE Colleges and Sixth Forms and were aware of the lack of support available to Christian students, staff and chaplains. Working in partnership with Scripture Union and UCCF, through much prayer and God’s great provision, Festive was launched in 2007. Festive currently works across the UK supporting Christian students in FE through prayer, advice, resources and training. The mission is to inspire and support Christians in FE to live for Jesus and to equip them as they share their faith through their words and actions. The vision is to see an ongoing vibrant witness of Jesus in every FE College and Sixth Form in the UK. The charity is run by the Trustees named above in close relationship with the Director, Peter Carrington, with a team of 7 other staff members, 28 volunteer workers and a network of partners and supporters of the work.
Summary of Activities 2024-25
During this academic year, 2024-25, Festive has kept in touch with, prayed for and supported around 500 students – a slight reduction on the previous year. Our staff team and volunteer Student Engagement Team have prayer for, emailed regularly, sent text messages, and engaged with the students on a variety of social media platforms. In addition to this, we have had a significant number of students from both within and outside of our network joining us for our online ‘Scattered’ events that continue to be beneficial to the students who attend, along with a number of new webinars such as ‘Beginning Uni’ (in partnership with UCCF) and ‘How To Start A CU.’
One of the key highlights of the 2024-25 year was the introduction of Festive’s first ever full time worker. The Student Connect Worker role commenced in March 2025, and was the culmination of many years of planning. Funded by a number of new grants, Festive were able to recruit an experienced youth worker, Hannah, who has been given the mandate to pioneer in-person training for CU leaders and young evangelists in FE establishments across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The introductory months in the role were spent networking, visiting key partners and establishing new resources, before embarking on a number of regional events in the second half of 2025 and into 2026. Festive also appointed a new Operations Manager and an Admin/Finance Assistant during this year.
Festive has continued to play an important role in ‘Amplify Academy’: a young people’s evangelism training course run in partnership with a number of other youth-focused organisations. Pete continues to sit on the core leadership panel, with other members of the team being involved this year with leading seminars and mentoring students throughout the course. This has been a great opportunity to offer to
Annual Trustees Report
Year end 31-08-2025
Festive
our existing students, as well as meeting new students and inviting them to join our network. Various members of the team have also made the most of other opportunities throughout the year to lead seminars and talks at youth events across the country throughout the year, along the themes of Festive’s mission to equip and inspire young people in their evangelism and running Christian Unions.
Alongside student engagement activities, the other key area of our work is resources. Much of the focus through 2024-25 has been on establishing our podcast ‘Beautfiful Feet’ and growing the listenership. Through the year we were able to produce 8 full-length episodes, delving into a number of practical topics relevant to our target age-group and designed to equip them to share the gospel within FE contexts. The response to these podcasts has been hugely encouraging so far, and we very much see the podcast as a long-term resource where young people will be able to access the episodes for years to come.
Our existing online and print resources continue to be reviewed and updated where necessary, and we have held two evangelistic giveaways this year at Christmas and at exam time. The idea behind these giveaways is that students can order a gift package to give to a non-Christian friend, that will contain something of the gospel as well as some treats. The exam package also has some practical bits in to help with exam time and a little stress-busting prayer card. At Christmas we doubled the number of packs given away from 2023.
During this year, Festive have sought to increase our profile nationally and have seen encouraging signs of growth. We have sought to do this through a greater online presence, extending our Comms Manager’s remit to produce digital content more extensively for social media. We have also largely increased our contact with churches and key youth leaders in the nation through letters and emails, and have sought to network more and be in attendance at more strategic events. Although Festive’s aim has never been to be a prominent name in the Christian youth sector, we are aware of a need to be more visible due to the enormous need within FE, and also aware of a need to grow our financial supporter base.
For the third year, Festive took an active part in FE Sunday, an initiative run by West Midlands Churches’ FE Council, to promote and encourage prayer in churches across the country for their local FE colleges and sixth forms, for their staff, students and any Christians they know in the field.
As always, the summer was full of recruitment activity ready for the 2025-26 academic year. We were present at 5 conferences (DTI, Limitless, Satellites, New Wine and Keswick), and will be beginning the next academic year with nearly 750 young people in our network – a very encouraging increase in numbers. We were also able to recruit around 10 new volunteers to our Student Engagement team, and held a Summer training day for them alongside staff and trustees. This was a huge highlight of the year, alongside some other fruitful staff training days in London and Luton.
Finance
Festive received £87,500 in grants for the 2024-25 financial year. Festive has grown a surplus of funds over previous years that will provide funding to continue staffing and operations at our current capacity into the following financial year. Grant funding for the next two financial years has already been successfully secured, with the bulk raised towards the Student Connect Worker role.
Festive is grateful to its ongoing and its new regular givers, and to those churches and individuals who have increased their giving during this financial year. Festive has also benefited from a number of one-off donations from individuals, churches and Trusts. Ultimately, encouraging further new regular supporters, both individuals and churches, remains an important financial priority going forwards as current income levels do not support the organisation’s ambition to grow its work and ministry.
As always, the trustees keep a close eye on the finances with financial reports and projections provided and reviewed at quarterly Trustee meetings. A summary of the accounts for the financial year ending 31[st] August 2025 is included below.
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Year end 31-08-2025
Festive
Future Developments
For the next academic year we will continue with all our student engagement activities including Scattered, regular webinars, in-person regional training, Amplify, and the regular support-work of our Student Engagement Team. The in-person training will form a large part of our activity in this next academic year, as we pilot and roll-out training events that we hope will not just serve the young people we meet, but also have a positive impact on the number of young people engaging with our network and our resources.
Should we see encouraging fruit in this area, we will begin to plan ahead as to whether the Student Connect role should become regional in the coming years, with multiple full-time workers serving different regions of the UK and significantly growing this in-person work in colleges and sixth forms.
In this next academic year we will be accelerating our plans for digital growth and engagement with young people in these spaces. We are investing in more frequent video content (and seeing the benefits), and our vision is to shine light into the online spaces young people are inhabiting.
At the beginning of 2026 we will be reviewing our podcast and our regular resources (with the assistance of our students, volunteers and trustees) to decide on the direction of Beautiful Feet, and how to increase the audience. We will also be performing a full audit of our printed and digital resources to ensure they are up-to-date, engaging for this generation of 16-18 year olds, and continuing to serve our mission. Where we identify gaps in our resources we will be endeavouring to produce new ones, and making them as widely available as possible.
Finally, we will be hitting go on a medium-scale research project alongside an experienced researcher, seeking to understand how younger Generation Z are sharing the gospel with their peers. The largely qualitative study will predominantly serve our internal vision and resources, however if we feel there are findings that might serve a wider audience we will look to publish a paper during the 2025-26 year for wider dissemination.
The Trustees will continue to monitor closely the activity and finances of the charity, and ensure that all relevant policies and procedures are kept up to date and are adhered to accordingly.
Closing Remarks
The trustees wish to thank all of Festive’s staff and supporters for all their work, prayer and support over the last 12 months.
Annual Trustees Report
Year end 31-08-2025
Festive
For financial year 01-09-2024 to 31-08-2025 Opening Balance
Accounts Summary
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|01-09-2024|£64,399.76|
|iia|nn|a|Ae|ere|ae|TE|ee|eer|eee|
|Income|Expenditure|
|Trusts/Grant Money|£ 87,500.00|Staff Wages(incl.|pension, tax, Ni, SMP)|£ 82625.96|
|Individual Supporters|£ 23,954.05|Staff & Volunteer Expenses|£|7950.34|
|Churches|£|6714.00|Events|(summer Exhibits,|Scattered)|£|2364.20|
|Gift Aid|£|4509.75|External Wages & Contractual Work|£|1272.60|
|Cash & Cheques|£|12,845.08|Resourcing Students|(purchase, print,|post|etc.)|£|5476.04|
|Partnerships|£0|
|Website/IT packages|£|457.59|
|Communications(social|Media,|SMS|etc.)|£|1131.06|
|Other general costs|£|5355.50|
|Insurance|£|720.02|
|Safeguarding Training|£|511.50|
|Total Income|£135,522.88|Total Expenditure|£107,864.81|
|rahSOPchek|Crs|
|Closing|Balance|
|31-08-2025|£ 92057.83|
|aee|
|PCVS Add|£43.90|
|31-08-2025|Closing Balance|£92101.73|
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Ringfenced Funds:
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Beyond Beans on Toast £ 1,292.18 Total £ 1,292.18
Total
Independent Examiners Report:
| have examined the accounts of Festive for the year ending 31% August 2025 in accordance with the general directions given by the Charity Commission. In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements to keep accounting records and prepare accounts have not been met. | have not found anythingto which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Address:Name: bry@ . OUCENSlar Ae MEhear Signature: (FE Date: S/-92-°1G6 Relevant professionalAivioo qualificationTees Ton orFe body:2 4yy
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Date: S/-92-°1G6
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: fens (Ketee))
Festive
Annual Trustees Report
Year end 31-08-2025