Trustees’ report and audited financial statements For the year ended 31 March 2023
Registered Charity Number (England & Wales): 1132411 Registered Charity Number (Scotland): SC047395
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| Contents | Page |
|---|---|
| 1. Trustees’ report | 2 – 15 |
| 2. Report of the independent auditors | 16 – 19 |
| 3. Consolidated statement of financial activities | 20 |
| 4. Charity statement of financial activities | 21 |
| 5. Consolidated balance sheet | 22 |
| 6. Charity balance sheet | 23 |
| 7. Consolidated statement of cash flows | 24 |
| 8. Notes to the financial statements | 25 - 43 |
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1. Trustees’ Report
The Trustees present their report with the financial statements of the Charity and the Group for the year ended 31 March 2023.
The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in the notes to the accounts and comply with the Trust Deed, the Charities Act 2011 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (2nd Edition, effective January 2019) ("Charities SORP").
Reference and administrative details
Charity name
Localgiving Foundation
Registered Charity number
England & Wales: 1132411 Scotland: SC047395
Principal address
Shurland Castle (The “Castle”) High Street Eastchurch Sheerness ME12 4BN
Trustees
Tom Latchford (Chairman) Gillian Mead David Langer Maria Chavez Benjamin Miller (appointed 2[nd] October 2023)
Auditors
Goodman Jones LLP Chartered Accountants & Statutory Auditors 29/30 Fitzroy Square London W1T 6LQ
Accountants
Evelyn Partners LLP 45 Gresham Street London EC2V 7BG
Bankers
CAF Bank 25 Kings Hill Avenue Kings Hill West Malling Kent ME19 4JQ
Wise Bank The Tea Building Shoreditch High Street London E1 6JJ
Solicitors
Farrer & Co LLP 60 Lincoln’s Inn Fields London WC21 3LH
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Trustees executive overview
Localgiving Foundation is the leading Charity in the UK for helping local communities flourish. We focus our charitable impact through two clear projects:
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Community Platform: The provision of the Localgiving.org platform (The “Platform”), providing secure grant distribution services for large grant makers and grants and tools for local community groups to flourish; and
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Community Sanctuaries: Catalysing generational change in geographical inequalities, through the restoration and reimagining of historic properties in deprived communities into educational and healing sanctuaries for children, with the prototype at Shurland Castle.
Overview of the Community Platform
The Platform provides vital support to over 4500 local community groups across the UK and has delivered £65m+ in funding. The Trustees have led the Charity through continued significant strong and stable growth since they took over in 2017. The Trustees have successfully executed a growth plan, in spite of the extreme difficulties of the macroeconomic market through the long-term impacts of Covid and the cost-of-living crisis, leading to the tripling of:
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funds raised for our beneficiaries;
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grants distributed in collaboration with major funders; and
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the Charity’s income.
The Trustees have ensured this has been done through building strong recurring revenue lines coming from a stable and engaged membership of 4500 local groups, tips from tens of thousands of donors and payments from growing grant partnerships. Whilst the Charity is still keen to win relevant grants to expand its impact to beneficiaries, it is not reliant on such grants to fund its core costs and ensure the Charity’s continuity.
The Platform delivers public benefit by maximising funding to grass roots community groups. We do this by providing a comprehensive toolset for large grant makers to more easily and securely distribute grants to small and local nonprofits. Our platform has made grassroots giving much more accessible to funders, who would otherwise consider the operations of distributing funds to hundreds of charities prohibitively risky and expensive; choosing instead to offer funds to a handful of large charities. It is a testament to the scalability of our technology that we were able to manage £5m in grants in a single quarter during this year’s National Grid Community Matters Fund without pausing three other concurrent grant programs (Wales Match Funding, Magic Little Grants, and Community Grants Program). We have the capability to offer grant programs as match funding campaigns, meaning we (more than) double the funds by creating a groundswell of local support. We make it easy for local people to get involved and give time and money to the causes in the locality they care about across the UK. In this way our local community group members get more funding, more volunteers and become more sustainable.
The Charity has invested in its Platform to become a market leader in fundraising and grant distribution tools. As a Charity focussed on impact, we provide unique tools for grant makers at low cost such as powerful grant distribution and cutting-edge software for AML, Sanctions, and adverse media checks. We have built our software out to be the most comprehensive way to conduct due diligence on charities for grant makers who want to avoid risk and maximise impact. We have a hyper engaged membership, with a ~50% open rate on all our emails to tens of thousands of customers across our groups and we are flooded with letters and emails of grateful customers talking about the impact of the platform and programmes like the Community Matters Fund, Community Grant Programme, Magic Little Grants, Wales Match Fund, and the Hinkley Connection Project Education Fund.
The Charity has invested in building a market leading AI grant sourcing and application tool. This continues to accelerate Localgiving as being the leading solution for grant tools in the sector. This tool sources up to date information about all the latest grants in the UK and helps accelerate charities being able to submit
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the very best grant applications using self-learning algorithms that build on the previous content written by the charity as well as assessing winning bids for tips for honing applications.
We have greatly strengthened and expanded our partnerships with our grant distribution partners. Leading this trend is our work with National Grid. This started with a single grant phase of £0.5M in winter 2021and has expanded to managing three annual phases with the Community Matters Fund, as well as partnering on further grants with two additional parts of the business. We are deeply proud of impact the partnership has been able to deliver; offering grants totalling more than £10M to more than 1700 projects across the UK. We also say goodbye to People’s Postcode Lottery. It has been a privilege to work with PPL on Magic Little Grants for many years. However, we’re excited to see the programme evolve over the year.
The team has world-class strength in the technology field. The CEO, responsible for the Platform, was formerly Vice President of Accounts for JPMorgan Chase & Co leading a team that launched CHASE online bank in the UK; prior to that he was Principal Product Manager at Tandem Bank. The CEO reports to the board, which includes strong technology leadership - one trustee founded Joyful.org, a market leading SaaS platform for nonprofits in Europe and Australia (acquired by The Access Group, and another trustee founded GroupSpaces.com (backed by Index Ventures) and Zesty.com (backed by Index Ventures and acquired by Square.com) before becoming managing partner at a tech focussed venture capital firm.
Overview of the Community Sanctuary
The opening paragraph of the Government’s white paper, Levelling Up the United Kingdom , recognises the crucial role of charities in the endeavour of eliminating geographical inequality. The White Paper states “the economic prize from levelling up is potentially enormous. If underperforming places were levelled up towards the UK average, unlocking their potential, this could boost aggregate UK GDP by tens of billions of pounds each year. Levelling up skills, health, education and wellbeing would deliver similarly-sized benefits.” Over a span of ten years, the Charity diligently operated its Platform, making every effort to encourage fundraising for established community groups. However, despite their best attempts, a fundamental problem persisted: data gathered from the Platform revealed that the most impoverished areas in the UK often lacked pioneering, audacious initiatives necessary to spur investment and foster local inspiration. This led to a profound insight among the Trustees. They understood that if the Charity truly aimed to create a legacy in levelling up the UK, it must initiate and establish beacons of innovation and opportunity within these most disadvantaged areas.
Over the course of a year, a plan was meticulously crafted to establish a community sanctuary for children, with the aim to spark profound, generational shifts in skills, health, education, and wellbeing. The decision was made to concentrate on repurposing inspiring, yet deteriorating historic buildings—those in private ownership, heading towards disrepair, and lacking public accessibility—into thriving, sustainable sanctuaries for children in nature. A report by the Education Policy Institute demonstrated that children from the most deprived areas are more likely to endure mental health issues, negatively influencing their academic performance and limiting future opportunities. Inspired by the acclaimed Maggie's Centres, which intertwine art, architecture, and nature, the Trustees devised a robust plan for a new type of healing sanctuary for children’s mental wellbeing, envisioning it as a scalable model.
Through doing this, the Trustees set out to create a long-lasting legacy for Localgiving Foundation of catalysing impact on a local level by repurposing historic properties in private ownership, local job and opportunity creation, and delivery of impact through measurable education, health and wellness outcomes in children. In 2019 the Trustees conducted a search to find a historic property matching the criteria and found the perfect property. Shurland Castle (The “Castle”) was based in Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey - one of the top 2% deprived areas within 2 hours from London. The Trustees had learned through the Platform that local transformation was done through collaboration, and the Sheerness Dockyard Trust has recently opened a project for young entrepreneurs on the island. The Castle was steeped in national history - a place Henry VIII bought Anne Boleyn and where Winston Churchill learned to fly - but it had fallen into continual neglect in private ownership. The Spitalfields Trust spent almost a decade restoring the building but mid-way through an ambitious plan hit the challenges of the 2008 crash
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and the project stalled and was again sold into private ownership. The Charity completed the purchase at the end of the 2019 to revitalise the building and build the prototype of the vision for levelling up deprived areas in the UK.
Within a few months of purchase, the Covid19 shock resulted in the immediate plans for Shurland Castle impossible and saw signed deals that would have fully funded the project withdrawn in unprecedented moves. Once Covid19 had eased, the cost of living and economic crisis was settling in and so, like many charities, this has been one of the most challenging environments in recent history for the Trustees and the Charity to launch the project. However, the Trustees have executed a careful plan since Covid19 began, to provide critical repairs to the building, build the architectural plans for the healing sanctuary, design the therapeutic and artistic vision for the centre whilst building relationships with the local people and local charities. It has been a joy for the Trustees to witness the local people, for example having over 100 local people stick it out in the pouring rain for our Charity Castle Summer Jazz fundraiser with Sheppey Matters and the local Rotary Clubs and Women’s Institute.
The Trustees have created a world-class team. Having carefully studied the model for Maggie’s Centres, the architectural team is led by Piers Gough CBE who designed Maggie’s Centre in Nottingham with fashion designer Paul Smith. The landscape architect is Rupert Muldoon who designed the award-winning Maggie’s Centre in Oldham. The historic architects are led by Martin Ashley, who recently completed the Sheerness Dockyard Church also on the Isle of Sheppey. The creative team is led by Lucy Ridley, who was Head of Creative Development at Secret Cinema and before that at the Royal Opera House.
The Charity has won a grant with the Architectural Heritage Fund to catalyse the restoration plans. This year we have worked on a largescale project to rescue and restore the large stone walls surrounding the property. We have appointed the leading historical firm Martin Ashley Architects (MAA) to lead the historical restoration of Shurland Castle. MAA have led many other leading historical projects from Buckingham Palace, Hampton Court Palace to Eton College and last year completed the largescale restoration of the Sheerness Dockyard Project also on the Isle of Sheppey.
The Trustees have been keen to build out our board to ensure we have the relevant expertise to deliver the projects and safeguard our beneficiary children. We recently confirmed a fifth trustee, Benjamin Miller, to be joining the trustee board who has been a governor of a state school board, is an expert in safeguarding children and a current Head of Department at a leading UK public school.
Summary
Localgiving Foundation achieves a tremendous amount with a very lean, highly motivated and skilled team and trustee board, leveraging transformative technologies, creating innovative projects and building effective partnerships to ensure maximum impact.
We are driven by the measurable impact we have made on hundreds of thousands of people and are happy to work with organisations of different sizes. Our campaigns vary in scale from distributing £5m to 714 charities tackling fuel poverty in a single quarter to helping Milton Keynes run their annual Mad March Match fund of £20k.
Having supported grass-roots charities for a decade providing services on the front-line to tackle local problems and geographical inequalities, we have joined the efforts directly in expanding into educational and healing sanctuaries for children in deprived areas. This creates a virtuous circle where we can better understand the realities of creating change as a community Charity on the ground, which can then feed into our innovation with the technologies.
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Structure, governance and management
Governing document
The Charity is constituted and managed in accordance with the trust deed of 20 October 2009 as amended on 16 April 2013 as amended by deed of variations dated 16 April 2013, 20 March 2017, and 21 October 2019 (the “Trust Deed”).
Organisational structure
The Charity commissions Localgiving Limited (the “Subsidiary”) to carry out the services of running the grant distribution and fundraising platform, Localgiving.org. The work of Localgiving.org is entirely impact driven, but exists as a subsidiary so that it can most effectively run a technology platform that needs to remain competitive and suitably manage tax and risks.
The Charity owns the building Shurland Castle (the “Castle”).
Trustee appointments and training
New Trustees of the Charity are appointed by the existing Trustees. Trustees have the power to appoint new Trustees at any time by passing an ordinary resolution at a trustee meeting or by written resolution. The minimum number of Trustees is 3 and there is no maximum.
The Trustees offer a wide range of skills and experience essential for good governance of the Charity. Our Trustees collectively have a broad range of skills and expertise including the following that are relevant to the Charity: decades of combined experience as Trustees, directors or governors, market leading nonprofit expertise, successfully exited technology entrepreneurs, experience running leading therapeutic clinics, leading operations for fast growing organisations, corporate finance skills and running professional theatre companies.
New Trustees are given a thorough induction and are provided with key information on the Charity and its subsidiaries. The Trustees do a review of their responsibilities annually, including noting any updates to trustee responsibilities and advice.
The trustees have worked with our legal advisors over the last year to do a thorough review of all of charity decision making documents and updated various documents to expand best practice for example, by having multiple non conflicted trustees to approve relevant decisions versus the legal minimums according to charity law.
Decision making
The Charity is governed by the board of Trustees composed of a chairman and four other Trustees. A further trustee has recently accepted an offer to join shortly. The Trustees are ultimately responsible for the Charity’s strategic direction, management and administration to ensure the Charity achieves its objectives.
The Trustees fulfil their key duties, which include ensuring compliance with the Charity’s governing documents, acting in the Charity’s best interests, managing the Charity’s resources responsibility, acting with reasonable care and skill and ensuring accountability.
The Trustees hold meetings, at least, quarterly. In addition, they are actively involved in ensuring the effective leadership of the Charity and Subsidiary, becoming involved in operational issues where necessary. They also act as ambassadors for the Charity in public, attending events and key meetings for the Charity. The Trustees ensure detailed operational and financial oversight and carefully consider and approve key strategic decisions.
The Charity has one full-time members of staff and so the Trustees are also involved as volunteers to steer the charitable programmes of the Charity. This includes working on major partnerships, the finances and key charitable activities and events.
The Charity has two subsidiaries, Localgiving Limited (100%) and Impactful Group Limited (97%). Impactful Group Limited is currently a dormant company. Localgiving Limited (the “Subsidiary”) is a thriving business with a separate board of three directors, one of which is also the Chair of the Charity.
The Subsidiary’s board (The “Board”) is responsible for the planning and major operational decision making of the organisation. This includes reviewing risk management, key activities or projects and performance against objectives. The Board meets, at least, quarterly and is responsible for reporting back to the Charity regularly on its financial position and progress against the business plan. The Charity maintains a detailed oversight of the performance of the Board and the Subsidiary to ensure its interests are fully represented.
The staff of the Subsidiary, overseen by a CEO, are responsible for the day-to-day management of the subsidiary and implementing plans and activities. The CEO has regular 1:1 meetings and frequent
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correspondence with the Chair at which they have the opportunity to raise any immediate issues that require strategic guidance. The CEO reports to the board and is invited to certain board meetings.
The CEO, working with the Senior Management Team, maintains regular weekly meetings to track performance, manage issues and assess new opportunities. The staff team is structured around 4 key functions: Technology Development, Business Development, Customer Success and Finance & Operations. The staff also work in flexible crossfunctional teams to deliver new technology projects, regional development programmes and match-fund campaigns.
The Charity is committed to building effective partnerships with other organisations in the sector through joint funding programmes, cross-member benefits, advocacy, shared services and research. The Charity takes a data driven approach to decision making, analysing the impact of its work and carrying out research and consultation with beneficiaries and donors.
Remuneration of key management
personnel
Salaries for permanent staff are revised and set once per year by the remuneration committee. The committee is made up of the Trustees of Localgiving Foundation together with the Board and CEO of the Subsidiary. The Subsidiary aims to pay staff as fairly as possible and is a Living Wage employer. Staff on contracts for Regional Development programmes have their pay set according to costing in the funding proposal for the respective programme. Localgiving Ltd aims to recover full cost on funding bids for these programmes, unless the member of staff contributes to core operations as well.
Members of the Senior Management Team of the Subsidiary are rewarded commensurate with comparable sized technology companies using benchmarking data, and their performance is carefully monitored.
In situations where the conflict is unavoidable in pursuing the best interest of the Charity, the Trustees maintain a Conflicts of Interest Register, which contains any of the trustee conflicts that have been encountered since the new Trustees took over the foundation in July 2017. This demonstrates how the Trustees have carefully managed any conflicts of interests, and took legal counsel when required.
The Conflicts of Interest Register contains a step-bystep account of how each conflict was managed in the best interests of the Charity by independent Trustees, following express provisions in either the governing documents of the Charity/ Subsidiary, applicable legislation (such as the Companies Act 2006 or the Charities Act 2011), as well as any guidance published by the Charities Commission.
Related parties
As at 31st March 2023, the Charity owns 100% of the called-up share capital in Localgiving Ltd and 97% of Impactful Group Limited (with the remaining 3% held by independent advisors).
Localgiving Ltd became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Charity on 28th October 2015. As the Charity is a trust, a trustee holds the shares in Localgiving Ltd and Impactful Group Limited for the benefit of the Charity.
Impactful Group Limited was incorporated on 15 March 2022. The Charity owns 97% of the share capital of Impactful Group Limited.
The Chair of the Charity is also one of the directors of Localgiving Limited and the director of the Impactful Group Limited.
The Subsidiary acts as an agent for the Charity to receive online donations and match grants, claim Gift Aid and pay grants to local charities in a process that is annually audited by HMRC. The transaction costs of this income and expenditure are recharged to the Charity by the subsidiary.
The Charity also makes payments to the Subsidiary from restricted funding it has received to cover the costs of running various programmes.
Managing conflicts of interest
The Trustees of the Charity are very careful to manage any conflicts of interest that may arise from time to time. The Trustees maintain strict adherence to the guidance in the Charity’s Trust Deed, internal policies and Charity Commission guidance. The trustees for transparency have published the conflicts of interest policy on our website, which the trustees carefully follow and is in line with charity law.
The former Trustees of the Charity (prior to July 2017) granted a loan from the Charity to the Subsidiary, which is still being repaid. The current Trustees have not entered into any further loans between the Charity and the Subsidiary, beyond two advances that had already been factored into the forecast by the former Trustees in 2017 by the former Trustees.
The Trustees hold the title of Shurland Castle on trust for the Charity.
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Given the Charity has one employee, some of the Trustees need to stay at Shurland Castle to fulfil their duties in delivering the objectives of the Charity and so a licence was entered into to enable the Trustees to stay at the property as necessary at an appropriate rate to ensure no unauthorised trustee benefit. This situation was carefully managed to ensure no conflicts of interest.
One of the Trustees provided a bridging loan to enable the Charity to pursue its objectives in acquiring Shurland Castle. This bridging loan was provided by the trustee borrowing the money from their bank to save the Charity costs versus what the Charity would otherwise have paid on the open market. The bridging loan was provided on the expectation that the loan would be repaid by a deal which the Charity had a signed Heads of Terms for that would fully fund the Castle and/or a conventional loan. The Charity was careful to manage any conflicts of interest throughout this and to ensure any trustee benefit was incidental.
Two of the Trustees are connected persons by way of being married.
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Objectives and activities
The Objects of the Charity are “to promote for the benefit of the public such charitable purpose or purposes as the Trustees shall in their discretion think fit”. Although the Charity has general charitable purposes, it has a particular focus on helping communities flourish. It does this in two main ways on a national and local level:
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Community Platform: The Charity commissions its Subsidiary to deliver the technology platform, Localgiving.org (the “Platform”) to carry out grant delivery programmes for funders, and to deliver tools and services (such as digital upskilling) to local nonprofits and charities. It works in partnership with leading funders like the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Postcode Community Trust and National Grid to raise and distribute over ten million pounds in funding annually for front line organisations helping local people across the UK face daily struggles like Covid19 and the Cost-of-Living Crisis; and
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Community Sanctuaries: The Charity is committed to reducing geographical inequality in the UK through providing physical community sanctuaries focussed on children as the next generation. The Charity is developing a plan to create a series of centres - much like Maggie’s Centres but for children’s mental wellbeing. The plan is to create these by restoring and repurposing historic buildings that would otherwise be falling into disrepair in private ownership without public access. The Charity has launched its first pilot from an ancient scheduled monument and Grade II* property on the Isle of Sheppey called Shurland Castle, where Henry VIII visited with Anne Boleyn and where Winston Churchill learned to fly. The Charity is working to open the Castle as a healing sanctuary for children, combining the arts, theatre and nature.
The Trustees confirm that they have referred to the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit when reviewing the Charity’s aims and objectives and in planning future activities and setting policies.
Localgiving Platform (Localgiving.org)
Purposes and public benefit
Localgiving is a leading platform for local and community fundraising across the UK, working with over 4500 groups with widespread coverage across
the UK. Collectively we help local groups raise over £10M per year.
The Platform democratises giving. To become a member of Localgiving, we carry out due diligence on local groups, including anti-money laundering checks. Once a member is accepted, they can apply for grants and fundraise on the platform.
The Charity seeks to promote the local voluntary sector, efficiency and effectiveness of charities and the effective use of charitable resources. Its beneficiaries are local charities and community groups. The methods it uses to achieve its charitable purposes include:
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Making secure grants to approved local community organisations, partnering with leading funders
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Providing free training in digital fundraising skills to local community groups
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Providing low-cost tools to community groups to increase sustainability of income streams
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Acting as a network for local charities and community groups in the UK to strengthen the sector and increase resiliency.
The Subsidiary is operating the platform in order to achieve these outcomes at the instigation of the Charity.
The Platform provides a win:win:win for three stakeholders:
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Local community groups who struggle with access to funding. They are often highly costeffective as they are often volunteer run, but lack skills to reach key audiences;
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Larger funders who would like to support a diverse range of community groups and give grants in an efficient and secure way, but lack the internal capacity and technologies to do so; and
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UK donors who want to support local people and groups who are struggling or suffering through the Covid19 or the cost-of-living crisis and other issues.
The Platform helps these groups in the following ways:
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By providing a powerful technology platform for local groups so they can market themselves and fundraise effectively.
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By providing secure grant distribution and match funding tools to large funders, with anti-money laundering and safeguarding checks.
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By stimulating local giving through searchable databases and match funding campaigns to drive up donations.
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In this way the Platform stimulates the growth of local groups to ensure effective delivery of front-line services to help manage national problems like Covid19 and the cost-of-living crisis on a local level.
Long term objectives
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Help to strengthen communities by increasing funding of the local voluntary sector.
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Build public awareness of the value and opportunities of the local voluntary sector.
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Increase fundraising efficiency and reduce the cost of grant applications.
Short term objectives
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Increase online donations and grants to local voluntary organisations.
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Deliver digital fundraising capacity building programmes to poorly covered areas in the UK.
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Provide a year-round calendar of grants and match funds, working with partners.
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Enable grant makers to more easily distribute grants to small local organisations.
Significant activities – the Platform
Technology
Providing an online fundraising website, devoted to local charities and community organisations. The website enables charitable organisations to receive online donations, whether one-off or as a recurring monthly Direct Debit. It provides automated Gift Aid processing and enables smaller unregistered charities to benefit from donations with Gift Aid. It provides access to dashboards of donation reporting and enables charities to send messages to supporters.
Support
Delivering support and training to small local charities across the country. It secures funding from third party philanthropists and charitable foundations to run regional development programmes where local field workers provide free face-to-face training for charities, focused on developing digital and fundraising skills. It runs a regular webinar, which provides digital fundraising training and tips.
Funding
Securing funding from government bodies, philanthropists, other grant-making foundations and corporate sponsors for local and national match fund campaigns and grant funding programmes.
Advocacy
Running PR, marketing and advertising campaigns to support grant campaigns, match funds, capacity building programmes and Charity fundraising initiatives. It works to secure coverage, both locally
and nationally. It also conducts research to quantify the impact of local charitable organisations and report on the current state of the sector .
Achievements
In this financial year, the Charity has succeeded in distributing more £7.3M in grant funding in FY24, £4.8M in FY23, up from just £1.9M in FY21.
Community Matters Fund, with National Grid
Our CMF programmes with National Grid are structured across three phases throughout the year covering themes such as ‘Access to Green Spaces’, ‘Improving access to STEM education’, and ‘Fuel Poverty’. We help National Grid structure new themes every quarter, but the winter Fuel Poverty fund remains consistent and is the flagship annual fund. In winter 2023 we partnered on a £5M grant from National Grid to help local groups support disadvantaged people through times of difficult fuel price conditions through cold climates. We have now distributed over £10M in grant funding to over 1300 local charities and community groups.
The increase in value from £2.5M last year to £5M, in addition to a further £1M distributed with other programs in National Grid, represents a significant strengthening of our relationship and we are thrilled to be working with National Grid to help them achieve their community goals. Distributing such a large fund in a single quarter shows how far the Localgiving technology platform has developed to allow us to scale our work without significant impact on our staff.
The scale of the winter fund has opened new avenues and relationships with the UK non-profit sector as we forged strong friendships with organisations such as The Lloyds Foundation and the Warm Welcome Campaign, with whom we organised webinars to support the financial aspect of the fund.
We were delighted that the Community Matters Fund programme was nominated by the Charity Times for the Corporate Community Local Involvement Award, highlighting the achievements of the programme. This award helps to demonstrate the success of the programme in saving lives, for example through helping a local group Harbour Housing distribute warm blankets purchased with funding from this programme.
The funding has achieved great impact from increasing access to green space across the UK to providing specific programmes for young people in the midst of mental health crisis.
Future Plans
Following the success of our work with National Grid we plan to continue the expanded program into next
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year and increase the size of the partnership to different parts of the business.
We have invested a lot of time in building our Platform to improve the volume and value of donations our members receive. This has included updated donation pages, an updated donation journey, and will be expanded to offer a wider range of fundraising tools to our members through a new admin page designed to overcome UX challenges faced by charity volunteers who may be less computer literate.
We’re very excited to start working with generative AI to explore how we can support charitable organisations with limited resources to improve their impact and fundraising activities, especially in the task of applying for Grants. We believe that smaller charities, and those staffed by non-English speaking volunteers, are at a disadvantage when applying for grants.
We are also building an updated due diligence process that will make Localgiving the most secure way to complete validation on a charitable organisation in the UK and we look forward to extending the capability to the UK non-profit sector in the hope of offering new support to smaller organisations that are often overlooked by larger donors.
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Community Sanctuary (Shurlandcastle.org)
Purposes and public benefit
In November 2018, the NHS published a detailed report Mental Health of Children and Young People in England. This survey found that 1 in 8 (12.8%) 5 to 19year-olds had at least one mental disorder. There was a clear association between mental disorders and living in a family struggling financially or being in receipt of benefits. There is an overwhelming body of evidence showing that:
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There are extreme wealth inequalities in the UK that are becoming entrenched through cycles of deprivation;
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Children from more deprived areas suffer greater mental health challenges and their potential is limited as a result in education, which affects follow on job prospects; and
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There are fewer services addressing children’s mental health in these areas.
The Charity has some of the best data in the country showing that there are fewer services in the UK and less funding in the areas the country needs most support. By providing the Platform to support existing groups, the Charity realised it could not change the system alone.
The Trustees carefully prepared a plan for the Charity to launch a scalable model to provide physical spaces in the most deprived areas in the UK with the fewest opportunities to address children’s mental health. In this way the Charity seeks to provide new infrastructure that can help shift wealth inequalities over a generation and more. The Trustees studied different models of high impact charities in this space and were particularly struck by the model of Maggie’s Centres (maggies.org) which has expanded to 26 centres. Maggie's Centres provide comprehensive support to individuals with cancer and their loved ones, offering practical, emotional, and social assistance. The centres host a variety of professionals, such as therapists, psychologists, nutritionists, and benefits advisors, and offer activities like yoga, tai chi, mindfulness, and art therapy. With a design intended to feel like a home rather than a clinic, each centre features a unique architecture that creates a relaxed and empowering environment. Maggie's Centres have made a substantial impact, enhancing patients' physical and emotional wellbeing, reducing feelings of isolation, improving understanding of their condition, and fostering better communication with their medical team. They also provide much-needed support for family and friends during challenging times. The Charity set on a path to build a kind of Maggie’s Centres for children’s mental wellbeing and their parents or guardians.
The Trustees considered the best approach for finding a site to prototype the concept. The Trustees identified the areas of highest deprivation in the top 2% of socially deprived areas in the UK and then narrowed the search to also areas within 1.5 hours of East London to make it commutable from the Charity’s offices at the time in Shoreditch. The Trustees considered information from the "Heritage Counts" reports by Historic England showing the decline of Grade I and II* buildings and noticed the trends of such buildings in areas of higher deprivation. The Trustees considered that they could have an added public benefit of identifying historic sites that would otherwise fall into potential disrepair in private ownership in these areas and decided to focus the search on a building where they could reimagine the use of such a building.
In 2019, after an extensive search, the Trustees came across a perfect opportunity. An ancient scheduled monument and Grade II* listed building based in the Isle of Sheppey, close to East London, which had until recently been on the at risk register with Historic England. The building was steeped in history: built on the site of a mediaeval castle and enlarged for Henry VIII’s visit with Anne Boleyn in 1532. It was the place Winston Churchill learned to fly and became an airbase for the RAF in WWII, when a large industrial sized 5000 sq. ft barn was built, which would be perfect for the intended use of the Charity. The building had had a major renovation by the Charity the Spitalfields Trust in 1999 for a decade. This was abruptly halted in the 2008 market crash: the Trustees saw the potential for picking up where they left off and finding a new use for the building and a sustainable model to provide a beacon of inspiration in the Isle of Sheppey. This felt like a fertile ground for systemic change, and recently Will Palin and the Sheerness Dockyard Trust renovated a dilapidated church into a centre for entrepreneurship, raising £8 million including a £4.2m grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund in 2019.
Just as Spitalfield’s Trust struggled in 2008, the Charity found themselves in an even more challenging and elongated difficult macroeconomic environment within months of purchasing the property. The funding that had been secured and the business plans the Trustees had carefully created were cancelled overnight in unprecedented market conditions. Covid19 was extremely punished for trying to manage a large property that had created a plan based on public events, which were illegal for extended and unspecified periods. The Trustees managed the situation carefully through a very challenging time and the financial performance of the Charity speaks for itself as to the results. The income for the Charity has over doubled since then and will have tripled by the end of this financial year.
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During Covid19, the Charity instead executed a plan dealing with urgent restorations of the property on extremely tight budgets, including fixing leaking windows, roof and doors, which had been incorrectly repaired by the previous owners. The Charity also progressed plans for the healing sanctuary. Given Maggie’s Cancer Centres have been an inspiration behind the concept, the Charity curated a world-class team led by Piers Gough CBE of CZWG Architects who designed Maggie’s Nottingham with fashion designer Paul Smith. The landscape architect is Rupert Muldoon who was the lead of the stunning Oldham Maggie’s Centre which famously was built around a tree at the heart of the building. Our historic architect is Martin Ashley from MA Architects, who recently completed a project restoring the inspirational Sheerness Dockyard Church close to the Castle.
The Charity is working to create a therapeutic and personal development space for children with a focus on active learning through play, theatre and arts, and engagement with the outdoors. The Trustees have a particular expertise in professional theatre. One trustee was the Chair of Trustees for an international theatre company based at the Young Vic theatre, and a new trustee joining is a published theatre playwright (who has also been a governor for a state school and in the management of a leading public school). The Charity is working with a creative team led by Lucy Ridley, who was Head of Creative Development at Secret Cinema, and worked there for over a decade. Most recently Lucy wrote a large-scale children’s immersive experience, launched by Secret Cinema at Wembley Park this Christmas. She is working closely with the Trustees and subject matter experts in safeguarding, theatre and therapy, (e.g. with Hermione Benest who is extensively qualified in psychodynamic counselling). The next step is a multiday collaborative workshop with key stakeholders at the Castle to design the programmes for children.
Significant activities
The Trustees have been working hard on progressing plans for the restoration of Shurland Castle. This year significant progress has been made with progressing the overall site plans, including meetings with Historic England.
We have continued to build out the prestigious team, and this year appointed Martin Ashley and his team at Martin Ashley Architects to lead the historical restoration work. We successfully were granted emergency planning permission to do extensive restoration work on the historical walls of Shurland Castle, which in turn were built with the stone taken from Chilham Castle by Sir Thomas Cheyney after this was given as a gift to him by King Henry VIII after his stay at Shurland Castle. These walls were in urgent need of repair and in risk of collapse. The trustees
worked with planners, historic architects, archaelogists, historians and structural engineers to get permission from Historic England and enact the works. This has gone successfully and the walls are now fully secured through supportive scaffolding and undergoing extensive restoration to preserve the historic fabric.
We have now worked with a comprehensive team of architects, landscape architects and designers to build out the site plans for Shurland Castle and have worked on supporting documentation such as a 76-page statement of significance for the works on the castle.
To develop the ideas around the project we appointed Lucy Ridley, formerly Head of Creative Design at Secret Cinema to begin crafting the material for the immersive educational and healing environments we are creating for children and we have carried out a variety of prototyping events involving children from the Isle of Sheppey involving professional story tellers and actors, some of the photos of which are recorded in the blog on our website.
Achievements
The Charity has made significant advancements in progress on the overall site plans for the castle, working with many different specialists from a variety of disciplines. The plans have now been finalised and we are working on the detailed drawings and have recently engaged with Historic England to begin collaborating on the designs and positioning for various planned works.
We have had a number of very successful and creative pilot events for the conceptual development of the experiential learning and healing environments we are creating for children. We are gaining increased clarity about the impact of our work and how to measure these using benchmarks from the sector and recognised measuring protocols.
Future Plans
The plan for 2024 is to get to planning permission approved for the proposed works on Shurland Castle in order to then fully develop the site to open as an inspirational learning and healing space for children and their parents. We then seek to launch in 2025 a capital appeal to fully fund the project and begin staged building and development work that same year.
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Financial review
Supporters and beneficiaries
Risk management
Localgiving Foundation is grateful to every one of its supporters. Without such vision and continued involvement, it would not be possible to provide these valuable services to charities and community organisations across the UK.
The Group received £8,244,572 (2022: £7,848,734) in voluntary income during the year. This was made up of donations of £6,778,561 (2022: £5,964,034) and grants of £1,466,011 (2022: £1,530,000).
From this income, grants of £7,159,528 (2022: £7,275,115) were awarded. The Group had support costs related to grant payments of £417,130 (2022: £69,966).
Reserves policy
The Trustees maintain a reserves policy to build up the Charity’s unrestricted reserves to a level that will provide appropriate protection against normal and economic risks and which will also provide a stable financial foundation to meet current financial commitments, planned activities, and to invest for future growth. At the balance sheet date, the Group has negative free reserves of £4,350,948 (2022: £3,177,198).
Reserves of £663,606 (2022: £1,037,589) were carried forward by the Group at the end of the year, represented by £1,531,720 (2022: £1,402,526) restricted funds for future grant awards, £924,777 (2022: £157,685) designated funds, and £1,792,891 deficit (2022: £522,622 deficit) in general funds.
Voluntary income via online donations is designated to fund local charities represented on Localgiving’s online fundraising platform. These amounts are paid out on a weekly basis to designated grantees.
The Charity’s own balance sheet shows a balance on unrestricted funds (excluding designated funds) of £335,508 (2022: £981,866) compared to a deficit of £1,792,891 (2022: deficit of £522,622) in Group unrestricted funds caused by accumulated trading losses in the subsidiary. As the Group expands, the subsidiary is expected to become profitable so reducing its level of retained losses and ensuring Group unrestricted are no longer in deficit.
At the balance sheet date, the Charity had negative free reserves of £2,222,000 (2022: negative £1,671,159). Localgiving Foundation’s level of free reserves is under continuous review.
The Trustees have assessed the major risks to which the Charity is exposed and have in place systems to mitigate its exposure to major risks. The Charity depends on the subsidiary’s technology to receive donations and to operate grant programmes. The subsidiary provides quarterly operational risk reviews related to the processing of grants to local charities and community groups; the validation of these groups to be able to receive funds and the website infrastructure to deliver the fundraising platform. The subsidiary is required to have an independent website security audit once per year.
Financial performance and cash forecasts of the subsidiary are reviewed monthly by the Chairman to ensure the subsidiary remains on track with its business plan. The Charity has provided against the loan to the subsidiary in its Statement of Financial Activities.
Results for the year
Group income increased from £7,848,734 to £8,732,919 and expenditure from £8,030,040 to £9,106,902 leading to a deficit for the year of £373,983 (2022: deficit £181,306).
Fundraising
The Trustees ensure that our fundraising activity is delivered to a high standard:
-
We are committed ensuring that we are completely open about our fundraising and spending;
-
We undertake any fundraising activity to our supporters via formal applications;
-
We do not use any third parties to assist with raising funds, nor have we signed up to any voluntary codes of conduct regarding fundraising; and
-
We did not receive any complaints with regards to our fundraising activity in the year; and
Funds as agent
The Charity also receives funds on behalf of other foundations through its online platform. These donations are held on behalf of and remain under the control of these other foundations. As a result, the Charity does not include these funds in its financial statements.
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At the balance sheet date, an amount of £149,301 (2022: £50,736) was held on behalf of other foundations.
Trustees’ responsibilities statement
The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Annual Report of the Trustees and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
The law applicable to charities in England and Wales, the Charities Act 2011, the applicable Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations and the provisions of the Trust Deed requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial period, which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Charity and group and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the Charity and group for that period. In preparing those financial statements, the Trustees are required to:
-
select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
-
observe the methods and principles in the Charity SORP;
-
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
-
state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
-
prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Charity and group will continue in operation.
The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Charity and group and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the applicable Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and the provisions of the Trust Deed. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Disclosure of information to auditors
Goodman Jones LLP were appointed as auditors during the year and have indicated their willingness to be reappointed.
The Trustees confirmed that, in the case of each of the persons who are Trustees at the date of this report, the following applies:
-
so far as that Trustee is aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the Charity’s auditors are unaware; and
-
that Trustee has taken all the steps that ought to have been taken as a Trustee in order to be aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the Charity’s auditors are aware of that information.
On behalf of the board:
T Latchford
Chair of Trustees
Date: 04-06-24
15
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2. Independent Auditor’s Report to the Trustees of Localgiving Foundation for the year ended 31 March 2023
Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of Localgiving Foundation (“the Charity”) and its subsidiaries (together “the Group”) for the year ended 31 March 2023 which comprise the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities, the Charity Statement of Financial Activities, the Consolidated Balance Sheet, the Charity Balance Sheet, the Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows, and the related notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standards applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) in preference to the Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice issued on 1 April 2005 which is referred to in the extant regulations but has been withdrawn.
This has been done in order for the accounts to provide a true and fair view in accordance with the Generally Accepted Accounting Practice effective for reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2015.
In our opinion the financial statements:
-
give a true and fair view of the state of the Charity’s and Group’s affairs as at 31 March 2023 and of their incoming resources and application of resources, including their income and expenditure for the year then ended;
-
have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and
-
have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulation 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended).
Basis for opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditors' responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the Group in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the United Kingdom, including the Financial Reporting Council's Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
Conclusions relating to going concern
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the Trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the Group's or the parent charitable company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
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Independent Auditor’s Report to the Trustees of Localgiving Foundation for the year ended 31 March 2023(continued)
Other information
The other information comprises the information included in the Annual Report other than the financial statements and our Auditors' Report thereon. The Trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the Annual Report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
Matters on which we are required to report by exception
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
-
the information given in the Trustees' Report is inconsistent in any material respect with the financial statements; or
-
sufficient accounting records have not been kept; or
-
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
-
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.
Responsibilities of Trustees
As explained more fully in the statement of Trustees' responsibilities, the Trustees are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the Trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
In preparing the financial statements, the Trustees are responsible for assessing the Charity’s and Group’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Trustees either intend to liquidate the Charity or Group or cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
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Independent Auditor’s Report to the Trustees of Localgiving Foundation for the year ended 31 March 2023(continued)
Auditors' responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements
We have been appointed as auditors under section 151 of the Charities Act 2011 and under section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, and report in accordance with the Act and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an Auditor’s Report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:
-
Discussions with management, including consideration of known or suspected instances of non-compliance with laws and regulation and fraud;
-
Reading minutes of meetings of those charged with governance;
-
Obtaining and reading correspondence from legal and regulatory bodies including HMRC;
-
Identifying and testing journal entries;
-
Challenging assumptions and judgements made by management in their significant accounting estimates.
We also communicated relevant identified laws and regulations and potential fraud risks to all engagement team members; and remained alert to any indications of fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations throughout the audit.
There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures described above and the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely we would become aware of it. Also, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery or intentional misrepresentations, or through collusion.
Based on our understanding of the Charity and industry, we identified that the principal risks of non-compliance with laws and regulations related to industry sector regulations and unethical and prohibited business practices, and we considered the extent to which noncompliance might have a material effect on the financial statements. We also considered those laws and regulations that have a direct impact on the preparation of the financial statements such as the Charities Act 2011, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and UK Tax Legislation. We evaluated management’s incentives and opportunities for fraudulent manipulation of the financial statements (including the risk of override of controls). Appropriate audit procedures in response to these risks were carried. These procedures included:
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our Auditors' Report.
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Independent Auditor’s Report to the Trustees of Localgiving Foundation for the year ended 31 March 2023(continued)
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the Charity’s Trustees, as a body, in accordance with part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Charity's Trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditors' report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Group, the Charity and the Charity’s Trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
05-06-24 Goodman Jones LLP Chartered Accountants 29/30 Fitzroy Square Statutory Auditors London W1T 6LQ
Goodman Jones LLP is eligible for appointment as auditor of the Charity under of section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006
19
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3. Consolidated statement of financial activities Incorporating income and expenditure
| activities Incorporating income and expenditure |
|
|---|---|
| General Designated Restricted Funds Funds Funds Notes £ £ £ Income from: Donations 3 Donations 812 6,777,749 - Grants - - 1,466,011 Trading activities Other income 4 253,375 404 234,568 - - - Total 254,591 7,012,317 1,466,011 Expenditure on: Raising funds 6 1,485,831 - - Charitable activities 7 39,029 6,245,225 1,336,817 Other expenditure - - - Total 1,524,860 6,245,225 1,336,817 Net Income (1,270,269) 767,092 129,194 Transfers between funds 16 - - - Net movements in funds (1,270,269) 767,092 129,194 Reconciliation of funds: Total funds brought forward (522,622) 157,685 1,402,526 Total funds carried forward 16 (1,792,891) 924,777 1,531,720 |
Total funds |
| Year Year ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ |
|
| 6,778,561 5,964,034 1,466,011 1,530,000 487,943 404 354,700 - |
|
| 8,732,919 7,848,734 |
|
| 1,485,831 1,270,964 7,621,071 6,759,076 - - |
|
| 9,106,902 8,030,040 |
|
| (373,983) 181,306 - - |
|
| (373,983) 181,306 |
|
| 1,037,589 1,218,895 663,606 1,037,589 |
The notes on pages 25 to 43 form part of these financial statements.
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4. Charity statement of financial activities Incorporating income and expenditure
Total funds
| Year | Year | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General | Designated | Restricted | ended | ended | ||
| Funds | Funds | Funds | 31/03/23 | 31/03/22 | ||
| Notes | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| Income from: | ||||||
| Donations | ||||||
| Donations | 812 | 6,754,895 | - | 6,755,707 | 5,964,034 | |
| Grants | - | - | 1,466,011 | 1,466,011 | 1,530,000 | |
| Trading activities | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Investment income | 12,417 | - | - | 12,417 | 24,155 | |
| Other income | 404 | - | - | 404 | - | |
| Total | 13,633 | 6,754,895 | 1,466,011 | 8,234,539 | 7,519,189 | |
| Expenditure on: | ||||||
| Raising funds | 659,975 | - | - | 659,975 | 817,536 | |
| Charitable activities | 16 | 6,683,840 | 1,446,649 | 8,130,505 | 7,280,213 | |
| Other expenditure | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Total | 659,991 | 6,683,840 | 1,446,649 | 8,790,480 | 8,097,749 | |
| Net Income | (646,358) | 71,055 | 19,362 | (555,941) | 579,560 | |
| Transfers between funds | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Net movements in funds | (646,358) | 71,055 | 19,362 | (555,941) | 579,560 | |
| Reconciliation of funds: | ||||||
| Total funds brought forward | 981,866 | - | 1,402,526 | 2,384,392 | 2,963,952 | |
| Total funds carried forward | 16 | 335,508 | 71,055 | 1,421,888 | 1,828,451 | 2,384,392 |
The notes on pages 25 to 44 form part of these financial statements.
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5. Consolidated balance sheet
Total funds
| Total funds | |
|---|---|
| Notes Fixed Assets: Tangible fixed assets 11 Total fixed assets Current assets: Debtors 13 Cash at bank and in hand Total current assets Liabilities: Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 14 Net current assets Total assets less current liabilities Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year 15 Total net assets Funds: 16 Non-controlling interests – shares in subsidiary General funds Designated funds Restricted funds Total funds |
Year Year ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ |
| 2,558,057 2,654,575 |
|
| 2,558,057 2,654,575 |
|
| 891,502 1,062,464 1,147,053 750,982 |
|
| 2,038,555 1,813,447 |
|
| (1,628,261) (1,370,528) |
|
| 410,294 442,919 |
|
| 2,968,351 3,097,494 (2,304,742) (2,059,906) |
|
| 663,609 1,037,589 |
|
| 3 (1,792,891) - (522,622) 924,777 157,685 1,531,720 1,402,526 |
|
| 663,609 1,037,589 |
|
The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Trustees and signed on their behalf by:
T Latchford
Chair of Trustees
Date: 04-06-24
The notes on pages 25 to 44 form part of these financial statements .
22
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6. Charity balance sheet
Total funds
| Total funds | |
|---|---|
| Notes Fixed Assets: Tangible fixed assets Investments 11 12 Total fixed assets Current assets: Debtors 13 Cash at bank and in hand Total current assets Liabilities: Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 14 Net Current Assets Total assets less current liabilities Creditor: amounts falling due after more than one year 15 Net assets Funds: 16 General funds Designated funds Restricted funds Total funds |
Year Year Ended Ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ |
| 2,557,508 102 2,653,024 102 |
|
| 2,557,610 2,653,126 |
|
| 1,863,848 2,146,549 695,190 642,116 |
|
| 2,559,038 2,788,666 |
|
| (983,445) (997,494) |
|
| 1,575,583 1,791,172 |
|
| 4,133,193 4,444,298 (2,304,742) (2,059,906) |
|
| 1,828,451 2,384,392 |
|
| 335,508 981,866 71,055 - 1,421,888 1,402,526 |
|
| 1,828,451 2,384,392 |
|
The financial statements were approved and authorised for issue by the Board of Trustees and signed on their behalf by:
T Latchford
Chair of Trustees
Date: 04-06-24
The notes on pages 25 to 44 form part of these financial statements .
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7. Consolidated cash flow statement
| Notes Cash flows from operating activities Net cash from/(used by) by operating activities 18 Cash flows from investing activities Purchase of tangible fixed assets Net cash used in investing activities Cash flows from financing activities (Loans repaid)/loan advances (Net cash used in)/net cash from financing activities Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year Cash and cash equivalents brought forward Cash and cash equivalents carried forward 19 |
Year Year Ended Ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ |
|---|---|
| 466,600 (279,820) |
|
| (10,549) (109,378) |
|
| (10,549) (109,378) |
|
| (59,980) (45,857) |
|
| (59,980) (45,857) |
|
| 396,071 (435,055) 750,982 1,185,037 |
|
| 1,147,053 750,982 |
|
The notes on pages 25 to 44 form part of these financial statements .
24
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8. Notes to the financial statements
1 General Information
Localgiving Foundation is an unincorporated Charity registered at the Charities Commission with Charity number 1132411 (England and Wales) and SC047395 (Scotland) which is governed by its Trust Deed dated 21 October 2019. The Charity’s objectives are set out in the Trustees’ Report from page 1.
2 Accounting Policies
Basis of preparation of the financial statements
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019) (“Charities SORP”).
The financial statements have been prepared to give a 'true and fair' view and have departed from the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 only to the extent required to provide a 'true and fair' view. This departure has involved following the Charities SORP (FRS 102) effective 1 January 2019 rather than the Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice effective from 1 April 2005 which has since been withdrawn.
Localgiving Foundation meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the Charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
Basis of consolidation
The Statement of Financial Activities (SOFA) and Balance Sheet consolidate the financial statements of the Charity, its wholly-owned subsidiary undertaking Localgiving Ltd, and its 97% owned subsidiary Imapctful Group Limited on a line-by-line basis.
Going concern
The Charity is reliant upon voluntary income, in the form of donations from individuals, membership fees, and grant funding for specific programmes. Income across all of these streams has grown over the last 5 years. The Trustees are confident based on performance since the balance sheet date that there will be further increases in income over the next twelve months and beyond.
The Trustees have carefully managed the Charity through the recent challenging times, which have greatly impacted the plans for the Charity in a number of ways, such as the inability for the Charity to launch its planned subsidiary to undertake weddings to generate income at its historic property. The operations of the Platform have not been adversely affected and has seen an increase in donations. Overall, the Trustees have ensured there has been strong growth throughout the pandemic period and beyond and a secure and solid financial base to the Charity.
After reviewing expected expenditure, expected income, and the future plans of the Charity, the Trustees consider that the Charity is a going concern.
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Notes to the financial statements
Accounting policies (continued)
Income
All income is recognised once the Charity has entitlement to the income, it is probable that the income will be received, and the amount of income receivable can be measured reliably.
Grant income is recognised once the above criteria have been met, together with any performance conditions attached to the grant. Grant income received is deferred only when the Charity has yet to fulfil the performance conditions.
Donation income from the platform is recognised once the above criteria have been met, together with the donor successfully completing the online donation process via the Localgiving website.
Membership subscription income is recognised in the period in which the services are provided on an accruals basis with amounts received in advance being shown in deferred income.
Commission income is recognised upon completion of the grant payments to the designated charities.
Interest receivable
Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the Charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the Bank.
Expenditure
Expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all costs related to the category. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular headings, they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Grants offered subject to conditions which have not been met at the period end date are noted as a commitment but not accrued as expenditure.
Support costs are those costs incurred directly in support of expenditure and allocated across the key objects of the Charity and include overall management of the Charity. Governance costs are those associated with the governing of the Charity not relating to fundraising, charitable activities or day to day management.
Governance costs comprise the management and administration cost for the running of the Charity.
All resources expended are inclusive of irrecoverable VAT.
Operating leases
Rentals under operating leases are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities incorporating Income and Expenditure Account on a straight-line basis over the lease term .
Fixed asset investments
Fixed asset investments are initially measured at transaction price excluding transaction costs and are subsequently measured at fair value at each reporting date. Changes in fair value are recognised in net income/(expenditure) for the year. Transaction costs are expensed as incurred.
26
,
Notes to the financial statements
Accounting policies (continued)
Intangible fixed assets and amortisation
Intangible assets are initially recognised at cost. After recognition, under the cost model, intangible assets are measured at cost less any accumulated amortisation and any accumulated impairment losses.
All intangible assets are considered to have a finite useful life. If a reliable estimate of the useful life cannot be made, the useful life shall not exceed ten years.
Amortisation is provided on the following basis:
Website development 20% straight-line
Tangible fixed assets and depreciation
Depreciation is charged so as to allocate the cost of assets less their residual value over their estimated useful lives, using the straight-line method.
Depreciation is provided on the following basis:
Office Equipment 30% straight-line Fixtures & fittings 20% straight-line Land & Buildings 2% straight-line
The assets’ residual values, useful lives and depreciation methods are reviewed, and adjusted prospectively if appropriate, or if there is an indication of a significant change since the last reporting date.
Freehold land is not depreciated. Gains and losses on disposal are determined by comparing the proceeds with the carrying amount and are recognised in profit or loss.
Included within Land and Buildings is Shurland Hall, which has not been depreciated. The Trustees have obtained a third-party professional valuation of the property which is in excess of its carrying value. As a result, the Trustees do not consider deprecation of the building to be appropriate.
Cash at Bank and in hand
Cash at bank and in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.
Financial instruments
The Group has elected to apply Sections 11 and 12 of FRS 102 in respect of financial instruments.
Financial assets and financial liabilities are recognised when the Group becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Financial liabilities and equity instruments are classified according to the substance of the contractual arrangements entered into. An equity instrument is any contract that evidences a residual interest in the assets of the Group after deducting all of its liabilities.
The Group’s policies for its major classes of financial assets and financial liabilities are set out below.
27
,
Notes to the financial statements
Accounting policies (continued)
Basic financial assets
Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Impairment of financial assets
Financial assets, other than those held at fair value through income and expenditure, are assessed for indicators of impairment at each reporting date. Financial assets are impaired where there is objective evidence that, as a result of one or more events that occurred after the initial recognition of the financial asset, the estimated future cash flows have been affected.
If an asset is impaired, the impairment loss is the difference between the carrying amount and the present value of the estimated cash flows discounted at the asset’s original effective interest rate. The impairment loss is recognised in net income/(expenditure) for the year.
If there is a decrease in the impairment loss arising from an event occurring after the impairment was recognised, the impairment is reversed. The reversal is such that the current carrying amount does not exceed what the carrying amount would have been, had the impairment not previously been recognised. The impairment reversal is recognised in net income/(expenditure) for the year.
Derecognition of financial assets
Financial assets are derecognised only when the contractual rights to the cash flows from the asset expire or are settled, or when the Charity transfers the financial asset and substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership to another entity, or if some significant risks and rewards of ownership are retained but control of the asset has transferred to another party that is able to sell the asset in its entirety to an unrelated third party.
Basic Financial Liabilities
Basic financial liabilities, including trade and other creditors are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.
Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Derecognition of financial liabilities
Financial liabilities are derecognised when the Charity’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.
28
,
Notes to the financial statements
Accounting policies (continued)
Financial instruments (continued)
Liabilities and provisions
Liabilities are recognised when there is an obligation at the balance sheet date as a result of a past event, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefit will be required in settlement, and the amount of the settlement can be estimated reliably. Liabilities are recognised at the amount that the Group anticipates it will pay to settle the debt or the amount it has received as advance payments for the goods or services it must provide. Provisions are measured at the best estimate of the amounts required to settle the obligation. Where the effect of the time value of money is material, the provision is based on the present value of those amounts, discounted at the pretax discount rate that reflects the risks specific to the liability. The unwinding of the discount is recognised within interest payable and similar charges .
Pensions
The Charity’s subsidiary operates a defined contribution pension scheme and the pension charge represents the amounts payable by the Group to the fund in respect of the year.
The contributions are recognised as an expense in the statement of financial activities when they fall due. Amounts not paid are shown in accruals as a liability in the statement of financial activities. The assets of the plan are held separately from the Group in independently administered funds.
Taxation
The Charity is exempt from Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax on its charitable activities however the subsidiary’s activities fall within the scope of Corporation Tax.
Fund accounting
General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the Charity and which have not been designated for other purposes.
Designated funds are held by the Charity for a purpose designated by the Trustees. The designated funds represent online donations that have been set aside to pay out as grants to local charities and the costs associated with carrying out this service.
Restricted funds are funds which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors or which have been raised by the Charity for particular purposes. The costs of raising and administering such funds are charged against the specific fund. The aim and use of each restricted fund is set out in the notes to the financial statements.
Investment income, gains and losses are allocated to the general fund.
Critical accounting estimates and judgements
Estimates and judgements are continually evaluated and are based on historical experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances.
Critical accounting estimates and assumptions: The Group makes estimates and assumptions concerning the future. The resulting accounting estimates and assumptions will, by definition, seldom equal the related actual results. The Trustees have not identified any estimates and assumptions that are considered to have a significant risk of causing a material adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year.
29
,
Notes to the financial statements
3. Income from donations
Group
| Income from donations | Group |
|---|---|
| Donations Grants |
Year Year ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ |
| 6,778,561 5,964,034 1,466,011 1,530,000 |
|
| 8,244,572 7,494,034 |
|
In 2023, income from donations and legacies related to the following funds:
Group: £812 (2022: £4,404) was to general funds, £6,777,749 (2022: £5,959,630) was to designated funds, and £1,466,011 (2022: £1,530,000) was to restricted funds.
4. Income from trading activities
| Income from trading activities | |
|---|---|
| Localgiving website income | Group |
| Year Year ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ |
|
| 487,943 354,700 |
|
| 487,943 354,700 |
|
In 2023, income from trading activities related to the following funds: Group : £253,375 was to general funds (2022: £354,700) and £234,568 (2022: £nil) was to designated funds.
5. Investment income
Group
| Investment income | Group |
|---|---|
| Deposit account interest Interest on loan to subsidiary |
Year Year ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ |
| - - - - |
|
| - - |
|
In 2023, investment income related to the following funds: Group : £nil (2022: £nil)
30
,
Notes to the financial statements
6. Raising funds
Group
| Raising funds | Group |
|---|---|
| Support costs | Year Year ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ |
| 1,485,831 1,270,964 |
|
| 1,485,831 1,270,964 |
|
In 2023, costs of raising funds related to the following funds: Group : £1,485,831 (2022: £1,270,964) was to general funds.
7. Charitable activities
| Charitable activities | |
|---|---|
| Group | |
| Activities Grant Support Total Total undertaken funding of costs Year Year directly activities ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/23 31/03/23 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ £ £ £ |
|
| Grants awarded to organisations Localgiving website |
- 7,159,928 417,130 7,577,058 6,724,839 44,013 - - 44,013 34,237 |
| 44,013 7,159,928 417,1301 7,621,071 6,759,076 |
|
Localgiving Foundation supports a wide range of organisations all over the UK that operate in different sectors and which have varying charitable activities. During the year, the Foundation distributed 44,393 grants to 4,130 organisations.
The Localgiving Foundation website contains information and case studies on the types of organisations supported (https://localgiving.org/) and information is also available in the Trustees’ Report. A full list of grants awarded in the year is available from the Foundation’s registered office.
31
,
Notes to the financial statements
8. Support costs
Group
| Support costs | Group |
|---|---|
| Raising Charitable Total Total funds activities Year Year ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/23 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ £ £ |
|
| Depreciation and amortisation Governance Legal and professional fees Consultancy fees Bank charges Payment provider fees Loan interest Books General expense Cleaning Insurance Repairs & maintenance IT consumables Postage & stationery Other consumables Subscriptions Premises costs Wages & salaries Advertising & marketing Travel & subsistence Staff training & welfare Charitable & political donations Utility |
107,629 - 107,629 142,730 23,130 - 23,130 29,610 14,461 - 14,461 42,630 36,968 - 36,968 232,492 11,372 - 11,372 9,444 417,130 417,130 70,062 304,817 - 304,817 264,683 180 - 180 (542) 3,044 - 3,044 (25,542) 2,351 - 2,351 15,540 1,522 17,998.00 - - 1,522 17,998.00 13,060 53,161 6,019.00 - 6,019.00 2,512 1,335.00 - 1,335.00 2,190 - - 8,439.00 - 8,439.00 10,739 4,563.00 - 4,563.00 6,930 897,170.00 - 897,170.00 477,077 17,771.00 - 17,771.00 68,453 2,513.00 - 2,513.00 16,343 4,292 1,140 19,117 - - - 4,292 1,140 19,117 6,187 (38,834) 4,787 |
| 1,485,831 417,130 1,902,961 1,341,026 |
Included in governance is Auditors’ remuneration of £21,000 (2022 - £21,000).
32
,
Notes to the financial statements
9. Staff costs and trustee remuneration
Group
| Staff costs and trustee remuneration | Group |
|---|---|
| Staff costs Wages & salaries Social security costs Pension costs Number of employees Charitable activities |
Year Year ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ |
| 796,599 403,839 83,593 16,067 34,686 8,553 |
|
| 896,259 447,078 |
|
| 14 11 |
|
| 14 11 |
|
There was one employee who received total employee benefits (excluding employer pension costs) in the year in the band £60,001 - £70,000 (2022 – two employees in band £60,001 - £70,000), one employee in the band £100,001 - £110,000, and one employee in the band £110,001 – £120,000.
Total remuneration, including employer’s NIC and employer’s pension contributions, in respect of key management personnel totalled £541,916 (2022: £300,166)
There was no Trustees’ remuneration for the year ended 31 March 2023, nor for the year ended 31 March 2022. In addition, there were no Trustees’ expenses paid for the year ended 31 March 2023, nor for the year ended 31 March 2022.
33
,
Notes to the financial statements
10. Intangible fixed assets
| Cost At 01/04/2022 At 31/03/2023 Amortisation At 01/04/2022 At 31/03/2023 Net book value At 31/03/2023 At 31/03/2022 |
Group |
|---|---|
| Website Development Goodwill Total £ £ £ |
|
| 727,431 283,624 1,011,055 |
|
| 727,431 283,624 1,011,055 |
|
| 727,431 283,624 1,011,055 |
|
| 727,431 283,624 1,011,055 |
|
| - - - |
|
| - - - |
|
Goodwill arising on the acquisition in a prior year of the share capital of Localgiving Ltd has been fully written off in the year of acquisition following an impairment review in that year. The Charity has no intangible assets in either the current or prior years.
34
,
Notes to the financial statements
11. Tangible fixed assets
| Group | ||
|---|---|---|
| Office equipment Land & Buildings Furniture & artwork Plant & Machinery Total £ £ £ £ £ |
||
| Cost At 31/03/2022 Additions Disposals |
36,265 2,325,408 367,632 134,447 2,863,752 561 (7,936) - - - - 10,549 - 11,110 (7,936) |
|
| At 31/03/2023 | 28,890 2,325,408 367,632 144,996 2,866,926 |
|
| Depreciation At 31/03/2022 Charge for year Depreciation on Disposal |
22,992 - 142,963 43,221 209,176 6,441 (7,164) - - 73,526 - 26,890 - 106,857 (7,164) |
|
| At 31/03/2023 | 22,269 - 216,489 70,111 308,869 |
|
| Net book value At 31/03/2023 |
6,621 2,325,408 151,143 74,885 2,558,057 |
|
| At 31/03/2022 | 13,273 2,325,408 224,669 91,226 2,654,575 |
|
| Charity | ||
| Office equipment Land & Buildings Furniture & artwork Plant & Machinery Total £ £ £ £ £ |
||
| Cost At 31/03/2022 Additions Disposals |
18,832 2,325,407 367,632 134,447 2,846,318 - - - 10,549 10,549 - - - - - |
|
| At 31/03/2023 | 18,832 2,325,407 367,632 144,996 2,856,868 |
|
| Depreciation At 31/03/2022 Charge for year Disposals |
7,110 - 142,963 43,221 193,294 5,650 - 73,526 26,890 106,666 - - - - - |
|
| At 31/03/2023 | 12,760 - 216,489 70,111 299,360 |
|
| Net book value At 31/03/2023 |
6,072 2,325,408 151,143 74,885 2,557,508 |
|
| At 31/03/2022 | 11,722 2,325,407 224,669 91,226 2,653,024 |
|
35
,
Notes to the financial statements
12. Fixed Asset investments
Localgiving Foundation owns 100% of the issued £1 ordinary share capital of Localgiving Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 07111208). Localgiving Ltd operates a website which allows donors to make charitable donations to small charities and community groups.
The results of Localgiving Ltd are included in the consolidated financial statements.
Localgiving Foundation also owns 97% of the issued £1 ordinary share capital of Impactful Group Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 13976603). Impactful Group Limited was incorporated on 15 March 2022 and is currently dormant. The figures of Impactful Group Limited are included in the consolidated financial statements.
13. Debtors: amounts falling due within one year
| Group Charity |
|
|---|---|
| Year Year Year Year ended ended ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ £ £ |
|
| Trade debtors Other debtors Amount due from Localgiving Ltd Prepayments and accrued income |
86,137 219,129 86,137 193,093 80,005 86,621 80,000 80,000 - - 982,701 1,121,453 725,360 756,714 715,010 752,004 |
| 891,502 1,062,464 1,863,848 2,146,550 |
14. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
| Group Charity |
|
|---|---|
| Year Year Year Year ended ended ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ £ £ |
|
| VAT payable Trade creditors Social Security and other taxes Other creditors Loans and overdrafts Accruals and deferred income |
9,461 47,689 - - 38,225 142,539 26,552 138.324 117,080 10,298 24,209 - 245,092 133,839 78,914 40.355 796,615 796,615 796,615 796,615 421,788 239,548 57,165 22,200 |
| 1,628,261 1,370,528 983,455 997,494 |
|
36
,
Notes to the financial statements
15. Creditors: amounts falling due after more than one year
| Group Charity |
|
|---|---|
| Year Year Year Year ended ended ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ £ £ |
|
| Loan | 2,304,742 2,059,906 2,304,742 2,059,906 |
| 2,304,742 2,059,906 2,304,742 2,059,906 |
The loan is secured by way of first legal mortgage over the property.
37
,
Notes to the financial statements
16. Statement of funds
Group statement of funds
| Group statement of funds | |
|---|---|
| At 01/04/22 Incoming resources / other gains/losses Resources expended Transfers At 31/03/23 £ £ £ £ £ |
|
| Unrestricted funds General fund Designated fund – online donations Restricted funds Wales Development Magic Little Grants |
(522,622) 254,591 (1,524,860) - (1,792,891) 157,685 7,012,317 (6,245,225) - 924,777 33,449 40,000 (48,338) - 25,111 1,369,077 1,426,011 (1,288,479) - 1,506,609 |
| Subtotal restricted Total funds |
1,402,526 1,466,011 (1,336,817) - 1,531,720 |
| 1,037,589 8,732,919 (9,106,902) - 663,606 |
|
Charity statement of funds
| Charity statement of funds | |
|---|---|
| At 01/04/22 Incoming resources / other gains/losses Resources expended Transfers At 31/03/23 £ £ £ £ £ |
|
| Unrestricted funds General fund Designated fund – online donations Restricted funds Wales Development Magic Little Grants |
981,866 13,633 (659,991) - 335,508 - 6,754,895 (6,683,840) - 71,055 33,449 40,000 (48,338) - 25,111 1,369,077 1,426,011 (1,398,311) - 1,396,777 |
| Subtotal restricted Total funds |
1,402,526 1,466,011 (1,446,649) - 1,421,889 |
| 2,384,392 8,234,539 (8,790,480) - 1,828,451 |
|
38
,
Notes to the financial statements
16. Statement of funds (continued)
General fund (unrestricted) represents the general operating funds of the Charity.
Online donations fund (designated) represents online donations that have been set aside to pay out as grants to local charities and community groups.
Wales Development (restricted ) represents funding for a regional development programme in Wales and remaining funds are due to be spent on capacity building for local charities in that region.
Magic Little Grants (restricted) represents monies received to deliver a small grant programme. This programme has been supported by six different trusts: Postcode Society Trust, Postcode Neighbourhood Trust, Postcode Community Trust, People’s Postcode Trust, Postcode Places Trust and Postcode Local Trust.
17. Operating lease commitments
At the reporting end date, the company had outstanding commitments for future minimum lease payments under a non-cancellable operating lease which expires in March 2021.
| Year Year ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ |
|
|---|---|
| Not later than 1 year Later than 1 year and not later than 5 years Total commitment |
- - - - |
| - - |
|
39
,
Notes to the financial statements
18. Reconciliation of net movement in funds to net cash flow from operating activities
| activities | |
|---|---|
| Year Year ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ |
|
| Net income for the year (as per Statement of Financial Activities) Adjustment for: Depreciation charges Loan interest Gain on sale of fixed assets (Increase)decrease in debtors Increase/(decrease) in creditors Net cash provided by/(used in) operating activities |
(373,983) (181,306) |
| 106,857 304,817 148,215 288,838 772 (5,485) 170,962 (143,814) 502,569 (386,268) |
|
| 711,995 (279,820) |
|
19. Analysis of cash and cash equivalents
| Analysis of cash and cash equivalents | |
|---|---|
| Cash in hand Total |
Year Year ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ |
| 1,147,053 750,982 |
|
| 1,147,053 750,982 |
|
40
,
Notes to the financial statements
20. Analysis of net assets between funds
Analysis of net assets between funds - current period
| General | Designated | Restricted | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funds | Funds | Funds | ||
| £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| Fund balances at 31 March 2023 are represented | ||||
| by: | ||||
| Fixed assets | 2,558,057 | - | - | 2,558,057 |
| Current assets | (417,942) | 924,777 | 1,531,720 | 2,038,555 |
| Creditors due within one year | (1,628,261) | - | - | (1,628,261) |
| Creditors due after more than one year | (2,304,742) | - | - | (2,304,742) |
| (1,792,891) | 924,777 | 1,531,720 | 663,606 |
Analysis of net assets between funds - prior period
| General | Designated | Restricted | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Funds | Funds | Funds | ||
| £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| Fund balances at 31 March 2022 are represented | ||||
| by: | ||||
| Fixed assets | 2,654,575 | - | - | 2,654,575 |
| Current assets | 253,236 | 157,685 | 1,402,526 | 1,813,448 |
| Creditors due within one year | (1,370,528) | - | - | (1,370,528) |
| Creditors due after more than one year | (2,059,906) | - | - | (2,059,906) |
| (522,621) | 157,685 | 1,402,526 | 1,037,589 |
41
,
Notes to the financial statements
21. Related party disclosures
The Localgiving Foundation owns 100% of the called-up share capital of Localgiving Ltd. The Chairman of the Localgiving Foundation, Tom Latchford, is also a director of Localgiving Ltd.
Localgiving Ltd acts as an agent for the Localgiving Foundation to receive online donations and grant funding, and to pay grants to local charities on behalf of the Localgiving Foundation. The transaction costs of this income and expenditure are recharged to the Localgiving Foundation by Localgiving Ltd.
During the year, £6,754,895 (2022: £5,959,629) in online donations and £1,466,011 (2022: £1,530,001) in grant funding was received by Localgiving Ltd on behalf of Localgiving Foundation. Localgiving Ltd paid out £7,558,024 (2022: £6,995,660) in grants to local charities and recharged £565,865 (2022: £579,528) in transaction fees, which are eliminated upon consolidation. At 31 March 2023 Localgiving Ltd owed £218,946 (2022: £17,981) to the Localgiving Foundation, representing online donations and grants received not yet awarded as grants to local charities.
Localgiving Foundation has also advanced a loan to Localgiving Ltd. At the balance sheet date, an amount totalling £786,713 (2022: £1,121,453) owed to Localgiving Foundation including accrued interest of £307,694(2022: £295,277) was included within debtors. There is no security on this loan and no fixed repayment date (although it is considered to be long-term funding byu the Trustees, there is no fixed repayment and so it has been included within the Charity’s own balance sheet within debtors due within one year).
At the year end, Localgiving Foundation owed a total of £3,101,357 (2022: £2,856,521) to a Trustee that was provided as a bridging loan at significantly better terms and rates than other financing options available to the Localgiving Foundation at the time or after. Interest is payable at 9.75% per annum and £948,396 (2022: £643,579) of cumulative interest has been accrued. The loan is secured by way of a legal charge and repayable on flexible terms without penalty in 31 months from the balance sheet date.
The Localgiving Foundation owns 97% of the called-up share capital of Impactful Group Limited. The Chairman of the Localgiving Foundation, Tom Latchford, is also a director of Impactful Group Limited. At the balance sheet date, an amount of £97 was owed by Impactful Group Limited to Localgiving Foundation.
42
,
Notes to the financial statements
22. Subsidiaries
The wholly owned subsidiary, Localgiving Ltd (company number 07111208), maintains and operates the donations platform through which the Foundation receives donations and disburses grants. The database is run on a commercial basis for which the company receives commissions and other related income from the Foundation and other member charities. The results of the subsidiary are summarised below:
| Total funds | Total funds | |
|---|---|---|
| Year Year ended ended 31/03/23 31/03/22 £ £ |
||
| Profit and Loss Account Turnover Cost of sales |
1,041,388 (44,013 901,071 (34,237) |
|
| Gross profit | 997,375 866,834 |
|
| Administration expenses Other operating income |
(825,843) (460,045) - - |
|
| Operating profit | 171,532 406,789 |
|
| Interest receivable Interest payable |
3 (12,534) 9,001 (24,155) |
|
| Profit before tax | 159,001 391,635 |
|
| Taxation | - 6,617 |
|
| Profit after tax Balance Sheet Fixed assets Debtors Bank Creditors less than 1 year |
159,001 398,252 549 10,352 451,863 (863,849) 1,551 37,368 108,866 (391,112) |
|
| Net current liabilities | (401.634) (244,878) |
|
| Creditors greater than 1 year | (786,713) (1,1,03,472) |
|
| Net liabilities | (1,187,798) (1,346,799) |
|
| Share capital Profit and loss account |
5 (1,187,803) 5 (1,346,804) |
|
| (1,187,798) (1,346,799) |
||
43
,
Notes to the financial statements
22. Subsidiaries (continued)
The 97% owned subsidiary, Impactful Group Limited (company number 13976603), was incorporated on 15 March 2022 and has not yet begun to trade. The results of the subsidiary are summarised below:
| Year ended 31/03/23 £ 100 100 100 - 100 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Balance Sheet Debtors |
||
| Net current assets | ||
| Net assets | ||
| Share capital Profit and loss account |
||
44