2025-03-31-accounts - 8 Below Husky Rescue

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8 Below Husky Rescue

Report and Financial Statements Year ended: 31[st] March 2025 Registered Charity No: 1156670

Reference and administrative information

Trustees

Timothy John Wicks, Chair of Trustees Nicola Suzanne Atkinson Jade Hayley Brightmore Lorraine Robson

Principle Office

23 Brackendale Road, Wakefield, West Yorkshire. WF2 8WA.

Correspondence Address

4 Carnelian Drive, Sutton in Ashfield, NG17 1NY

Charity Number: 1156670

Independent Examiners

Premier Tax Solutions Ltd

Trent House, 234 Victoria Road, Stoke on Trent, ST4 2LW

Report of the trustees for the year ended 31[st] March 2025

The trustees present their annual report and financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31[st] March 2025. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the accounts and comply with the charity’s constitution & the Charities Act 2011 and the statement of recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities.

Structure, governance and management

8 Below Husky Rescue is an unincorporated association registered Charity, number 1156670, was constituted 10[th] February 2014 and established on 14[th] April 2014. Prior to this date we ran as a rescue for a year. When we recognised how successful both re-homing rates and donated income from supporters had become, the next step was to register with the Charity Commission in England and Wales. It would allow us to be seen as a registered charity, which would open up more avenues for us such as apply for grants and funding and eventually gift aid on donations. We also felt that with the transparency required from charity status and the appointment it would put people at ease more when it comes to fundraising and donations as being a standard rescue with no charity status has no official governance.

New trustees are appointed by the current trustee board based on their commitment to the charity. Trustees will continually serve unless either party decide to terminate their position for the good of the charity. The constitution requires the charity to run on a minimum of 3 trustees. We currently have four with Timothy Wicks having the deciding vote if required. There are no plans to increase our board of trustees in the coming financial year.

All trustees give their time freely and no trustee remuneration was paid during the year. Details of trustee expenses and related party transactions are disclosed in note 2 to the accounts. Trustees are required to disclose all relevant interests and register them with the Chairman.

Risk Management

The Trustees actively review any major risks which the Charity faces on a regular basis and believe that maintaining reserves at current levels, combined with an annual review of the controls over key financial systems, will provide sufficient resources in the event of adverse conditions. The Trustees have also examined other operational and business risks faced by the Charity and confirm that they have established systems to mitigate the most significant risks.

Objectives and activities for the public benefit

The objects of the Charity are to promote humane behaviour towards animals and sled dog breeds by providing education to orders and potential owners, to prevent neglect and suffering to animals. The Charity also provides security, protection and care appropriate for such dogs which need care and attention by reasons of sickness, maltreatment, poor circumstances and ill usage. The trustees confirm that they have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the Charity’s aims and objectives and in planning future activities.

The Charity carries out these objects by:

Seeking new homes for the dogs by publicising via social media and attending events. We advertise on our website and use posters to do this.
Providing education and advice regarding animal welfare.
Home checking foster/adoption homes to match the dog’s requirements.
Transporting dogs to their foster/adopted homes.
Rehoming dogs and providing lifetime backup should they require assistance at a future date and provide permanent support to those dogs that cannot be rehomed.
Undertake checks and provide support throughout fosters and adoption continuing post adoption.
Pay for all veterinary treatment required whilst dogs are in our care and in some cases post adoption.
Highlighting dogs that are under our care that have been in rescue for some time or is an urgent case that needs help as part of our social media campaigns.
Offering breed specific advice to the public via the telephone, social media and at events.

Grants Received

During this financial year no Grants were received.

Achievements and Performance

During 2024-2025 we experienced continued pressure on our rescue, the pandemic resulted in a lot of dogs missing out on socialisation and the results of this continue to be seen to date in rescues. The cost-of-living crisis across the UK continues to put pressure on households resulting in high private number for relinquished dogs and more pound stray dogs needing our help with behaviour issues due to the lack of socialisation along with dogs needing veterinary care from basic levels of vaccinations, parasite treatment and neutering/spaying to more complex urgent care of undiagnosed lumps, dogs showing significant illness and trauma and dogs having to have emergency treatment due to lack of cares from owners who left the condition to get worse with no treatment – this puts a strain on us financially.

We continued with our largest in person fundraising events Leeds & Bakewell Camp and Open Day with great success, all our supporters had an amazing time and help raised vital funds for our rescue, 2024-2025 continued to see a big demand for our online fundraising which initially was implements back during the pandemic but as it has been received so well by our supporters, we have continued this with great success to help raise vital funds – these included the online fundraising of auctions and raffles, virtual challenges and regular online dog shows and taking part in the national Big Give Christmas Campaign – we will continue with this moving forward.

We predicted that the number of dogs during 2024-2025 and beyond would see significant increases, with current levels of dogs needing our help quadrupling from pre-pandemic levels. Many arriving needing medical treatment, parasite treatments, microchipping and spay/neutering, we have over 600 dogs waiting to come into rescue due to private relinquishes, this doesn’t include the daily calls from council pounds needing our help to secure a safe rescue space or the dogs serving their 7 statutory days would be euthanised on day 8 due to overcrowding and lack of space.

Our online store sales have seen significant increase of order volumes, which brings additional revenue to our rescue. We plan to add more items in the coming year to our online store.

Taking on a part time staff member on the rehoming team has seen positive results, allowing us to carry out admin tasks and physical tasks such as dog assessments much easier, offering more flexible meet and greets with potential owners which has helped with an increase of dog’s numbers successfully rehomed.

It is important to us that our supporters know we are responsible with their donations which is why we renewed with the Fundraising Regulator and continue to be officially recognised by HMRC for Gift Aid claims, our plea’s to supporters to sign up for this has been successful, in the coming year we are going to look at trying to increase more regular donations through

monthly standing orders and ask for the Gift Aid sign up as this will give us more stability with regular donations.

Financial review

The principal funding sources are general donations, sponsorship of specific dogs in care, donations received from adopters when the dogs are rehomed, income generated from fundraising events and income generated from the sale of merchandise.

Merchandise sales account for approx. 16% of our total income. This is not yet substantial but has grown rapidly from previous years. It is possible in the future; a trading subsidiary of the Charity may be needed.

Donations are higher than last year, but we continue to try to make reductions in costs where possible.

We continued our registration for Gift Aid with HMRC and have been able to make a direct claim of £1,328.07 for supporters who are Gift Aid registered, moving forward we want to prioritise informing supporters of the gift aid options when making donations via various platforms.

Longer term the Charity would like to obtain grant funding for specific projects and establish a relationship with longer term sponsors.

All funds are used to further the goals and objectives of our Charity and help as many dogs as we are able.

Reserves policy

During the year it has been the intention that all funds generated are expended in accordance with the objectives of the Charity and continue to maintain the equivalent of 4 months operating costs into reserves. This would act as a buffer if there was a drop in income or allow the orderly winding down of the Charity if required.

Future Plans

Our aims for next year are: -

To increase social media presence even more to generate more followers
• To increase our fundraising activities, continue to concentrate on online fundraising more as this is where our supporters seem to engage more and look at additional in-person fundraising opportunities in 2025/2026
Promote the benefits of regular giving via monthly standing orders to our rescue
Promote Gift Aid signup
Implement more training for our staff and trustees

Trustees’ responsibilities in relation to the financial statements

The trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the financial statements in accordance with the applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards. The law applicable to charities in England and Wales requires the trustee(s) to prepare the financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources of the charity for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently
Observe the methods and principles of the Charities SORP
Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent.
State whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any 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 will continue in business.

The trustees are responsible for keeping accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy the financial position of the charity and enable them to ascertain to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011 and the provisions of the governing document. 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. The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the charity and financial information included on the charity’s website.

Approved by the trustees on _____ and signed on their behalf by:

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T Wicks
Chairman
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Independent Examiner’s report on the accounts

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The Charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The Charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to:

examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act,
to follow the procedures laid down in the general directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act, and
to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.

Basis of independent examiner’s statement

My examination was carried out in accordance with general directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view.

I have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Premier Tax Solutions

_______ Premier Tax Solutions_

_30/01/2026_ Date_

Premier Tax Solutions Limited Trent House 234 Victoria Road Stoke-on-Trent ST4 2LW

8 Below Husky Rescue

Statement of Income and Expenses For the year ended 31st March 2025

*Income* Donations Merchandise Sales Investment Income Capital Grant Amortisation Revenue Grant Income *Direct costs* Veterinary fees Emergency boarding Other direct costs Fundraising Activities Wages Transportation costs *Gross Surplus* *Other Administrative expenses* Website costs Bank fees Sundry expenses Printing,postage and stationery Telephone Advertising Accountancy Insurance Depreciation *Net Surplus/Deficit* *Reconciliation of funds* Total funds brought forward Exchange of Funds Surplus/Deficit in the period Total funds carried forward	£ £ 158,073 32,261 47 190,382 29,634 30,623 19,954 20,895 16,755 29,999 147,861 *42,521* 1,756 812 6,906 7,968 2,938 395 2,458 1,867 0 *25,101* *17,420* 21,672 0 17,420 *39,092* *Unrestricted Funds* *2025*	£ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 *Restricted Funds* *2025*	*2025* *Total funds* £ 158,073 32,261 47 0 0 190,382 29,634 30,623 19,954 20,895 16,755 29,999 147,861 *42,521* 1,756 812 6,906 7,968 2,938 395 2,458 1,867 0 *25,101* *17,420* 21,672 17,420 *39,092*	*2024* *Total funds* £ 94,143 25,416 34 0 0
	29,634 30,623 19,954 20,895 16,755 29,999			119,593 7,157 22,537 9,685 20,697 9,554 24,988
	1,756 812 6,906 7,968 2,938 395 2,458 1,867 0			94,619 *24,974* 1,949 674 5,538 9,746 3,185 457 3,584 0 0
				*25,133* *-159* 21,831 -159
				*21,672*

8 Below Husky Rescue

Statement of Financial Position As at 31st March 2025

	*2025*	*2025*	*2024*
	£	£
*Fixed Assets*
Van - NU15 VYY	19,020		19,020
Depreciation	19,020		19,020
		0	0
Computer - Apple Macbook	400		400
Depreciation	400		400
		0	0
*Current Assets*
Cash at bank and in hand	39,092		21,672
*Net current assets*		39,092	21,672
*Current Liabilities*
*Total Assets Less Current Liabilities*		39,092	21,672
*Non-Current Liability*
Capital Grant	11,500		11,500
Amortisation	11,500		11,500
		0	0
*NET ASSETS*		*39,092*	*21,672*
*Capital Account*
Unrestricted funds		39,092	21,672
Restricted funds		0	0
*Balance carried forward*		*39,092*	*21,672*

Approved by the trustees on ______29/01/2026________ and signed on their behalf by:

T Wicks Chairman

Notes to the accounts

1. Accounting Policies

a) Basis of Preparation

The financial statements have been prepared under the historic cost convention, with the exception that investments are included at market value. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities and applicable UK Accounting Standards and the Charities Act 2011.

2. Trustees’ Remuneration

One Trustee is also an employee of the Charity with remuneration of £9,524 (£9,554:2024).

The Charities Commission has been consulted on this matter and have confirmed they have no objection to the employment.

All other Trustees received no remuneration (Nil: 2024).