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C.F. A.
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Registered Charity Number: 1163913
Report of the trustees and Financial statements for the year ended
Community Furniture Aid
REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
Registered Charity number 1163913
Registered office The Gothic, Alexandra Road, Pontycymer, Bridgend, CF32 8HB
Trustees
Mr J Cash – Chair appointed- 1.8.15 Mrs M Cash – appointed- 1.8.15 Secretary Mr M appointedresignedStirman – Treasurer 2.11.16 04.04.17 Mrs R Stirman appointedresigned2.11.16 04.04.17 Mrs A Dennis appointed- 2.11.16 retired-7.2.20 Mr G E Adamson appointedremovedMr M J Liddard 4.4.17 06.02.18 Mrs L Toy appointedMrs S 22.6.17 Heppenstall appointedMr B Tiltman 7.2.20 Miss R Davies appointedMr H 7.2.20 Marshall Mr appointedL Alleyne 7.2.20 appointed11.2.20 appointed7.2.20 appointed7.2.20
Bankers
Santander Bank Bridle Road, Bootle, L30 4GB
Bridgend Lifesavers Credit Union LTD Lifelong Learning Centre, Muirfield Close, Sarn, Bridgen d, CF32 9SW
Our Aims and Objectives
Community Furniture Aid (CFA) aims to p rovide relief and assistance for people in nee in the County Borough of B r di gend and surrounding a rea who a re poor r o in housing need, in particular by supplying them with furniture and household items.
Community Furniture Aid’s objectives a re to ensure that the right people a re getting the help that they deserve and that will be enhanced by liaising with the agencies that cater for the homeless and the poorest in our society.
The focus of ou r wo r k
CFA passes on donated furniture and accessories to people who have been allocated an empty p roperty by one of the many agencies that we have links with. The small charges we make a re to cover the cost of the van hire and fuel to collect and also to deliver the items as well as the general running costs such as insurances and fixing and cleaning anything that is not up to standard. All donated items a re checked for suitability p rior to sending out. Items cannot be reserved as our turnover of stock is swift and not every client will receive the same amount as we a re solely dependent upon donations. Furniture packs a re tailored to the individual and size of accommodation being furnished. Food parcels a re also ofered to clients via Fareshare and excess items f rom Foodbank. We now also a dd care packs for people running away from domestic abuse. These contain a few items such as perfume, make-up o r aftershave etc, so as to help them feel better about themselves. We have stuck to this model because we know it works and have not a dded any other types of help because we feel that it would detract f rom our main aim.
Who uses an d benefts r f om ou r se r vice
It is very difcult to distinguish who needs the help of CFA and it was decided that referrals f rom agencies that deal with the homeless and the impoverished would take precedence. This ensures that the right g roup of people would get the help they needed rather than individuals wanting items for personal gain. CFA now works with the following agencies when they request help: all departments of B r di gend County Borough Council, Llamau, the Wallich, the p rison service, SSAFA, Womensaid and many local hostels, Gwalia, Hafod housing, Wales and West, Hafal, Valleys to Coast, Age Concern and Gofal, the Sycamore T rust, Swansea Womensaid, South Wales police and CAB. More agencies have discovered our service and have referred clients to us within the last year including SSAFA Swansea, Mulligan centre, Victim support, Cyfe Cymru, Leonard Cheshire and the local hospital. The latest o rganisations to refer to CFA include the Care and repair team f rom the hospital and Housing Fi rst and POBL. Since its inception, CFA now only helps clients who have been referred by an agency as many self- referrals turned out to not need the items o r would not be p resent when the van turned up to deliver. After five consecutive van loads returned because clients never turned up at the p roperties, the t rustees decided that no more self-referrals would be helped as the charity had to bear the cost of the fuel and the volunteers wasted time. It was suggested that payment could be made in advance, but this would mean additional t ravel to collect it which would dd a to the overall cost.
The last yea r r eview
The last year has been extremely difcult as the charity was only able to operate for seven out of the last twelve months due to national and local lockdowns, with regards to the pandemic. We were not deemed as essential and since our volunteers came f rom multiple households and we would have had to enter peoples p roperties we were told by government ofcials that we could not operate. CFA d d i not qualify for any government o r local council g rants to help cover the regular bills such as PLI, van insurances and taxes, as we do not pay staf and own our own building. This has put a strain on our reserves and the charity ran at a loss for the financial year. We have been contacted by numerous people who have had clear outs of their properties, while they have been isolating, but we have been unable to take many of their items as our stock levels have been very high. Manning construction approached us with regards to taking a large amount of bedroom furniture of them as they a re renovating a local hotel. They also came and repaired the porch roof of the church which was paid for by a g rant from the local Co-op. The long b reak between Christmas and May 2021 meant that the volunteers could sort through all the stock and rearrange it so as to be more efcient and more items were given out to the local community to help them through the tough times, such as clothes and toys. Sadly, we discovered that many items were damaged r o missing pieces and have decided to not take any more toys as we do not want to be used as a dumping g round for people to dispose of their unwanted items when they a re not fit for purpose. We a re not being contacted as much as the majority of homeless and domestic abuse cases have been dealt with immediately by the agencies as they have been p rioritized as essential during the lockdowns and so g rants have been available to help them. This has meant that our service has not been required as much as p revious years. We will assess the situation at the end of the year to see whether this t rend continues and decide if our service is still essential. Overall, figures were down on p revious years, but that is to be expected with the country in a state of confusion. Even so we took approximately 1000 phone calls, dealt with 400 emails and over 1600 social media enquiries. This lead to us doing 119 collections and 150 people turning up at the ofce o r storage p remises to donate and 14 tonnes of items were recycled. 20 part packs were delivered and a further 17 houses were fully furnished. Since the charity was founded 7 years ago we have now fully furnished the equivalent of 502 houses with everything that someone needs to start again. Yet another volunteer has been recognized for their time and efort as they have given over 1000 hours of their time to help support the community. It was finally decided that the new p roject in Caerau will not go ahead. This was down to the fact that we have struggled to get volunteers and it was not feasible to run the main operation from Pontycymer as well as set up a second hub and rt ain the new volunteers with so few staf. The secretary’s health has also deteriorated which has meant more of the ofce work being placed on the existing few volunteers and the suitability of the new p remises was not to a good enough standard as the stock being left there would be stored in very damp conditions. CFA has gained such a good reputation that since the easing of lockdowns, we have been inundated with requests for people to donate items. Sadly, we have had to turn down 12 house clearances in the last month as we have run out of storage space.
O r ganisational st r uctu r e
CFA has a board of t rustees that consists of nine members. Two t rustees a re active on a daily basis whilst three t rustees help out on a regular basis. There a re also ten members that have an input on the day to day running of the charity.
R ese r ves policy
CFA now has a reserves policy as we have become more recognized and donations and small g rants a re logged, in the accounts section, so as to separate the funds f rom the general day to day income. These funds will be used as match funding to pay for the electric installation in the church and general maintenance of the building. Plus a small reserve will be kept for the general upkeep of the van, insurances and any unforeseen expenditure. R isk management The t rustees and management have conducted ra eview of the main policies that a re in place (Health and safety, confict of interest, financial control, equal opportunities, volunteer policy) and check them on an annual basis. rIt is ecognized that there is a need for a handling complaints policy which will be written up shortly and dda ed to the file.
P r incipal fun d ing sou r ces
We a re p roud to say that CFA is self-sustaining and although we have had some small grants, these have been used for the general upkeep of the building and to help us advertise our service so that we can reach more people. We have received two small amounts of funding this year rf om Martin Lewis and the Spar community fund which has gone towards purchasing the sterilizing equipment that we need to ensure that all products a re clean before moving them on to someone else.
T r ustee In d uction an d r T aining
Two of the t rustees have been involved with the day to day running of the charity from the beginning and have had input into which d ri ection we should be heading. All t rustees a re also kept up to date with regular meetings and contact via social media. All t rustees have also been on various jobs so as to see fi rst-hand what the charity does, so that they can deal with any questions that may a rise, in the future. Any new t rustees will be appointed rf om the existing member base and so no extra training will be necessary as they already have hands on experience with the general running of the charity. They will be given the Memorandum and rA ticles and a copy of the latest accounts. However, after a meeting with the Coalfields Regeneration T rust, it has been a dvised that we should seek a wider range of t rustees with diferent skill sets that would enhance the charity and make us more sustainable, if one of the core t rustees became ill and was unable to continue. Meetings have been a rranged with BAVO to discuss this and the possibility of mentoring the younger generation to ensure the continuation of the charity for future generations.
St r uctu r e, Gove r nance an d M anagement
The o rganization is a Charitable Incorporated rO ganisation registered on 9[th] October 2015.
Plans fo r the futu r e
Although the charity is as busy as ever, there is as significant lack of support f rom councils, politicians and other large o rganisations. Meetings have been held with the council and heads of local housing associations with no action taken. So, although the trustees will continue to give talks to anyone who will listen, the main focus will be to continue to do what we do best and that is to help the local community. The aim over the next year will be to continue to help as many people as possible and rt y and reduce our stock levels so that they a re more manageable. We will also assess whether the service is still required as it has become more noticeable that referred
clients a re becoming extremely picky about what p roducts we p rovide as we have had numerous cases where we have turned up with a van full of furniture, only to return with half a van load as the clients a re wanting b rand new o r modern items, which we have p reviously stated ra e always going to be second hand.
Public Beneft
The charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit has been noted and adhered to as CFA deals solely with helping the poorest in society to furnish their homes. After discussions with multiple agencies, our charges have been approved as no-one else can provide the same service for anywhere near the cost that we charge. By providing this service, the clients not only gain a house full of furniture, they also regain their dignity and self-esteem. Not only do we provide furniture for clients but we also provide sympathetic house clearances for those sufering with bereavement. By being non-judgemental and empathetic to everyone has led to CFA’s name being known further afield and the need for re-cycling is being accepted more and more.
Impact statement part 1 Community Furniture Aid approach to impact measurement.
Community Furniture Aid, have various methods in which they study the impact they have on the community around them and the approach to impact measurement. In the most traditional manner they keep records of all of the collections they make and deliveries to clients. As well as the number of hours the volunteers give to the charity each month as CFA recognise that time is a precious commodity. These are outputs and these alone do not make up our sole impact measurement. The impact the Community Furniture Aid has on the community on a wider scale is of equal importance. We are proud that our volunteers come from a varied background some are ex-ofenders, others physically or mentally disabled older people and long term unemployed or have been homeless and previous service users. We recognise that being an active part of the community is important and those who donate to us have told us that they appreciate that items are going to help those within the local community rather than being sold for profit. Our storage facility is a Grade 2 listed building in the heart of the village and the local community is pleased that we are working so hard to try to renovate it. These are examples of our positive approach to community inclusion. We actively review our impact measurement and ask the public via online surveys on Facebook & Twitter and face to face when helping our clients & working with agencies & social services to gather up to date information in a casual and more natural way to determine whether they feel the service is functioning in a way that best serves its purpose. If there are areas that need attention we review it and if need action is taken to improve the service.
Impact statement
How Community Furniture Aid involve our benefciaries in understanding what . impact we are making
Community Furniture Aid beneficiaries understand the impact that we a re making in several ways. rFi stly, they can see the record we have of fully furnishing up to 100 homes each year & part furnishing lots more and that their clients never have to come back to us for a second time as we p rovide such an excellent handpicked service and for them value for money and expertise f rom a team with over da ecade of knowledge. They know they a re in “safe hands” with us. We have a County wide reputation for being the most honest charity and with a “can do “attitude we help those who a re the most in need. Those too poor to buy f rom a charity shop. With a diverse board of t rustees and volunteers we represent those who a re often on the f ringes of society and this is seen by the clients and agencies who comes to us and see the impact we make.
Community Furniture Aid have used information about our impact to re-design or adjust the way we deliver our service.
Community furniture Aid used the information f rom our impact measurement to change the way we delivered our service and the number of days that we worked. After short surveys on social media & chatting face to face with clients & service users & volunteers & t rustees we found it was necessary to streamline our service to c reate “packs”. This meant that rather than clients coming to pick & choose what they wanted we decided what they needed rf om available stock ensuring it was clean & fit for purpose this reduced wastage considerably and enabled all ablebodied volunteers to be involved in more aspects of the charity. We also decided to stop taking and ofering large white goods as the local council required them to be Pat tested and have a warranty. This was not cost efective for a small charity. This was also a burden on volunteers to carry heavy items to upper foor fats, which we found to be unfair on our impact evaluation. To date we have received no complaints about this new service. To date we now save on average 30 tons per year rf om going to landfill
How Community Furniture Aid measure what might have happened to our benefciaries without our intervention.
If we had not changed the way that we delivered the service Community Furniture Aid would have been forced to close. Due to the amount of wastage we were having and the huge cost of having over 30 tons per year if taken to landfill and multiple t rips to the same clients for ddo s and ends as not all items would be in stock at the same time. We have also saved multiple tip runs by refusing white goods such as cookers, washing machines and r df i ge f reezers. However as a d ri ect impact to our beneficiaries we have located rg ants they can apply to for new white goods to replace those they may have p reviously received rf om us.
How Community Furniture Aid communicates and use our impact fndings both internally and externally.
Community Furniture Aid Is a small Charity we have regular meetings with our trustees and volunteers to discuss our impact findings and to discuss where we need to improve and rg ow. We also a re very active on social media, facebook and twitter and discuss the most recent finding of our impact findings so that those who donate, to our service as well as benefit f rom it can see how we a re growing and changing as new challenges p resent themselves. We hold an AGM as well and quarterly meetings. Volunteers a re welcome to make suggestions and we encourage new i deas and ra e always looking for new ways to improve our service as the need is constantly g rowing. Our Chairman & Secretary have recently begun to give talks to the local community councils across the County borough and church g roups including the South Of Wales Diocese Church of Wales annual meeting to discuss Community Furniture Aid and the impact it has on the community across the region and on those people who use the service and who may need to use it o r with to donate to it .
Balance Sheet as at 31 July 2021
Income
| Deliveries | £2260 |
|---|---|
| Sales | £884 |
| Donations | £603.56 |
| Fundraising | £126.1 |
| Grants | £1083.17 |
| Other | |
| TOTAL | £4956.83 |
| Expenditure | |
| Waste collection | £20 |
| water/washing | £20 |
| phone/internet | £130 |
| Vehicle costs | |
| Fuel | £380 |
| van tax | £540 |
| van insurance | £723.69 |
| Van MOT & service | £775 |
| public liability | £626.12 |
| insurance | |
| admin, paper, ink | £51.9 |
| etc | |
| website | £55.72 |
| TOTAL | £5085.23 |
Profit Year 1 £561.05 plus £2713.15 carried over from year 2 plus £4536.29 from last year plus profit from year 3 of £4325.75 so running total is £12136.24. In 2018 to 2019 we spent a lot of the grant monies and so ran at a loss of £5163.98 so the total in reserve was £6972.26. This year we made a loss of £128.40, so the total reserves stand at £6843.92 which will be set aside in reserve for future bills and match funding. £844.98 of this is ring-fenced grants.
| Aug-19 | Sep-19 | Oct-19 | Oct-19 | Nov-19 | Nov-19 | Dec-19 | Jan-20 | Feb-20 | Feb-20 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R evenue |
|||||||||||
| costs waste | 60 | ||||||||||
| collection | |||||||||||
| r wate /washing |
10 | 10 | 20 | 20 | 20 | ||||||
| r unifo ms |
|||||||||||
| r phone/inte n |
30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 40 | 30 | ||||
| et | |||||||||||
| Vehicle costs | |||||||||||
| r ca fuel |
30 | 72 | |||||||||
| van tax/ ins | 260 | . 304 64 |
|||||||||
| r Othe van |
|||||||||||
| r r hi e Othe |
40 | 40 | 80 | 90 | . 70 01 |
40 | |||||
| van fuel | |||||||||||
| M Van OT & se |
r vice |
1052 | |||||||||
| Big van | |||||||||||
| tax Big | 20 | 40 | 60 | 90 | 120 | ||||||
| van fuel | |||||||||||
| r Big van insu ance |
|||||||||||
| public liability | |||||||||||
| r d insu ance a min, |
|||||||||||
| r pape , ink etc |
tools | ||||||||||
| website | . 37 15 |
||||||||||
| r sc ap metal |
. 25 4 |
||||||||||
| Income | 260 | 570 | 530 | 800 | 450 | 490 | 770 | ||||
| donations | . 10 04 |
. 78 61 |
200 | . 30 89 |
91 | 25 | |||||
| ebay & sales | 30 | 52 | 110 | 10 | |||||||
| dr fun aisin |
33 | . 259 |
66 | ||||||||
| g co-op |
|||||||||||
| d r fun Spa |
|||||||||||
| r p oft/loss |
. 200 04 |
. 588 61 |
422 | -502 | . 102 09 |
. 396 4 |
. 812 |
66 | |||
| r unning total |
. 7172 3 |
. 7760 91 |
. 8182 |
91 | . 7680 91 |
7783 | . 8179 4 |
. 8992 |
06 | ||
| d r bal in Santan e |
. 6503 81 |
. 6542 42 |
. 6612 |
42 | . 5600 42 |
. 5660 41 |
. 5676 81 |
. 8466 |
47 | ||
| kitty | . 668 49 |
. 1218 49 |
. 1570 |
49 | . 2080 49 |
. 2122 59 |
. 2502 59 |
. 525 |
59 | ||
| Income | . 270 04 |
. 678 61 |
582 | 1000 | . 623 89 |
. 616 4 |
. 1054 |
66 | |||
| d r expen itu e |
70 | 90 | 160 | 1502 | . 521 8 |
220 | 242 | ||||
| r d ing fence |
|||||||||||
| r g ants |
|||||||||||
| d onations |
|||||||||||
| dr fun aising |
|||||||||||
| R G ANTS |
|||||||||||
| Co-op | . 1285 55 |
||||||||||
| Tesco (1000) |
. 51 01 |
||||||||||
| r Spa |
Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20
| 280 | 340 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 90 | ||||||
| 58 | 58 | ||||||
| 30 | 250 | ||||||
| 34 | 136 | ||||||
| . 564 64 |
|||||||
| 1200 | 430 | 1630 | |||||
| 40 | . 400 01 |
||||||
| 1052 | |||||||
| 265 | 265 | ||||||
| 60 | 390 | ||||||
| . 679 76 |
. 679 76 |
||||||
| . 621 12 |
. 621 12 |
||||||
| . 83 33 |
. 83 33 |
||||||
| . 37 15 |
|||||||
| . 25 4 |
|||||||
| 185 | 10 | 120 | 4185 | ||||
| 250 | . 35 25 |
. 720 79 |
|||||
| . 23 |
23 | . 156 69 |
. 272 5 |
. 654 42 |
|||
| . 104 74 |
. 397 4 |
||||||
| . 239 06 |
. 239 06 |
||||||
| 375 | 375 | ||||||
| 53 | . -822 97 |
-545 | . -273 07 |
. -431 7 |
. 0 06 |
||
| . 9045 |
0 | . 8222 09 |
. 7677 09 |
. 7404 02 |
. 6972 32 |
||
| 6 | |||||||
| . 9026 |
4 | . 8180 27 |
. 7640 27 |
. 6970 27 |
. 6779 77 |
||
| 7 | |||||||
| . 18 59 |
. 41 |
82 | . 36 82 |
. 433 75 |
. 192 55 |
||
| 185 | . 377 03 |
0 | . 406 69 |
. 802 75 |
. 6597 07 |
||
| 132 | 1200 | 545 | . 679 76 |
. 1234 45 |
. 6597 01 |
239 0. 6 0 37 5
| 08/20 | 09/20 | 10/20 | 11/20 | 12/20 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue Costs | |||||
| waste collection | 20 | ||||
| water/washing | 20 | ||||
| uniforms | |||||
| phone/internet | 40 | ||||
| Vehicle costs | |||||
| car fuel | |||||
| Merc van tax | 265 | ||||
| Merc van ins | 308 | ||||
| Merc van fuel | 50 | ||||
| Merc MOT & service | 85 | 355 | 145 | ||
| Big van tax | |||||
| Big van ins | |||||
| Big van fuel | 60 | 60 | |||
| Big van MOT & service | 190 | ||||
| PLI | |||||
| Building renovation | |||||
| Admin | 51.9 | ||||
| Tools | |||||
| Website | 55.72 | ||||
| Income | 200 | 690 | 160 | 50 | 330 |
| Donations | 150 | 25 | |||
| ebay & sales | 299 | 129 | 55 | 80 | |
| fundraising | 36.8 | ||||
| Co-op | 1083.17 | ||||
| proft/loss | 200 | 958.9 | 99 | 458.17 | -133.72 |
| running total | 7172.32 | 8131.22 | 8230.22 | 8688.39 | 8554.67 |
| Bal in Santander | 6779.77 | 7006.57 | 7026.57 | 7999.74 | 8104.74 |
| kitty | 392.55 | 1124.65 | 1203.65 | 688.65 | 449.93 |
| Income | 200 | 1175.8 | 289 | 1188.17 | 435 |
| Expenditure | 0 | 216.9 | 190 | 730 | 568.72 |
| GRANTS | |||||
| Co-op | 1524.61 | 2607.78 | |||
| Spar | 375 |
01/21 02/21
03/21
04/21
05/21
06/21
07/21
| 20 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | |||||||
| 90 | 130 | ||||||
| 265 | |||||||
| 308 | |||||||
| 50 | 40 | 140 | |||||
| 585 | |||||||
| 275 | 275 | ||||||
| 415.69 | 415.69 | ||||||
| 60 | 60 | 240 | |||||
| 190 | |||||||
| 626.12 | 626.12 | ||||||
| 1762.8 | 1762.8 | ||||||
| 51.9 | |||||||
| 55.72 | |||||||
| 80 | 140 | 300 | 310 | 2260 | |||
| 428.56 | 603.56 | ||||||
| 161 | 20 | 10 | 130 | 884 | |||
| 80.55 | 8.75 | 126.1 | |||||
| 1083.17 | |||||||
| 0 | 80.55 | 169.75 | -1792.8 | -530.69 | 310 | 52.44 | -128.4 |
| 8554.67 | 8635.22 | 8804.97 | 7012.17 | 6481.48 | 6791.48 | 6843.92 | |
| 8104.74 | 8185.29 | 8371.04 | 6608.24 | 6192.55 | 6192.55 | 5824.99 | |
| 449.93 | 449.93 | 433.93 | 403.93 | 288.93 | 598.93 | 1018.93 | |
| 0 | 80.55 | 169.75 | 80 | 160 | 310 | 868.56 | 4956.83 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 1872.8 | 690.69 | 0 | 816.12 | 5085.23 |
844.98
08/21
09/21
Revenue Costs
waste collection water/washing uniforms phone/internet Vehicle costs car fuel Merc van tax Merc van ins Merc van fuel Merc MOT & service Big van tax Big van ins Big van fuel Big van MOT & service 113 PLI Building renovation Admin Tools Website Income 30 Donations ebay & sales fundraising Co-op profit/loss running total 6760.92 Bal in Santander 5711.99 kitty 1048.93
Income Expenditure
GRANTS Co-op Spar