## **The TOY Project**
## **ANNUAL REPORT NOVEMBER 2021 - NOVEMBER 2022**
## **NOVEMBER**
Starting off the year, our ‘Selfridges’ concession was very popular after its launch, as we met lots of new people and raised awareness of what The Toy Project achieves as well as the benefits of recycling toys. Great to see people of all ages and backgrounds shopping sustainably and donating!
November also saw the hand-knitted bears we sent reached the children in Uganda. Working with ‘Teddies for Tragedies’ and ‘Small Steps Project’, we sent hand-knitted teddies so that the children who live near a rubbish dump site in Masaka now have their own teddy bears to keep.
We launched our annual Christmas cards designed by Jason Donovan to raise money to support the charity and its work over Christmas. Continuing the tradition, these cards have become a favourite of our
customers and raise funds each year to support our Christmas projects.
## **DECEMBER**
The work we do wouldn’t be possible without the support we receive, which is always shown throughout December through the donations we receive and the volunteers who come back year after year. ‘Heath Mount School’ and ‘Tech Target London’ held collections of new toys for children in need this Christmas and ‘Jewish Crouch End’ collected new toys for children in need as part of their Chanukah celebrations. ‘MONAT’, our long-term sponsor, volunteered again this December wrapping presents for children this Christmas.
1
We delivered over 500 toys to our school partnership children at Brookfield, Rotherfield, DeBeauvoir, Duncombe, St John’s Holloway and The Bridge as part of our School Partnership Scheme funded by ‘The National Lottery Community Fund’. We provide new toys to children referred to us by teachers at Christmas, birthdays, and celebrations.
For children in ‘The Whittington Hospital’ over Christmas, we provided toys and games for them to enjoy over the festive period.
Thanks to everyone’s generosity and support via our ‘Amazon Wishlist’, we received lots of new toys some of which went to East London’s Mother and Baby Unit.
Unfortunately, due to the rise of Omicron, we had to close our shop on the 17th of December to keep our staff and customers safe. Even though the shop was closed, the charity was still running, and we received another toy collection from ‘Unity Work Space’.
Donations and support kept on coming! ‘Spotlight UK’, performers, and casting directors all generously donated toys
for children and families in need over the Christmas period. ‘Acquired Payments’ also held a toy
collection for us and dropped the toys off in time for them to go to children in need this Christmas. ‘Selfridges’ ordered our recycled party bags for their ‘Breakfast with Santa’ event, adding in sustainable and charitable favours for attendees extends the message of The Toy Project and our work. And ‘Ace Cafe
London’ arrived at our shop in Archway, dropping off toys ahead of Christmas,
dressed in Santa costumes on motorbikes!
Our last stop before Christmas, we provided toys to another NHS play specialist to provide toys for children in hospital over Christmas.
## **JANUARY**
Our concession at ‘Selfridges’ was very busy and popular throughout December and we were invited to make our Pop-Up permanent to
continue to help sustainable toy shopping and raise money for the charity. We are there to stay, supporting a circular economy with a charitable benefit within one of London’s largest department stores!
2
Our shop reopened in mid-January, following a renovation! Alongside the shop, our Playroom was able to reopen as a community space where people can come together through play as we move away from the isolation of the pandemic.
**FEBRUARY**
The TV Series ‘LEGO Masters’ donated their used LEGO including bricks, sets and unique builds. This significant donation went to supporting our LEGO workshops in our Playroom and to six local schools for their LEGO clubs, classrooms, and children. We are happy to see that the LEGO from the show is being recycled and going to support access to play.
Throughout February Half term, we also ran Playroom sessions Monday - Saturday to support our local community. It is great to see how popular our Playroom is and how it has become a fixture within our local community already, less than a year after opening.
Following a donation of 1,200 soft toys from ‘Asmodee Games’, children across 5 schools and
a local Adventure Centre were gifted one each to take home and keep. Saving toys from landfill and ensuring children across our local community all have access to toys is why donating unwanted items to be recycled is so important, for both individuals and large companies.
## **MARCH**
Part of our work in ensuring toys are accessible for all includes providing books to children here in the UK and abroad. In celebration of World Book Day, we made all books free of charge in our shop. We saw huge crowds and lots of children dressed up for their school’s celebrations.
3
The war in Ukraine affected people of all ages across Europe and the World. As part of our work, we sent toys to the Polish-Ukrainian border for families that had fled and were unable to bring anything with them. On top of this, we dedicated a Saturday’s sales (our busiest day of the week) to Save the Children’s Ukraine Appeal to support their incredible work. We raised and donated £2,000.
We responded to the needs of our community in March by starting a new weekly session at our Playroom. Following COVID, the number of homeschooled children has increased, and although this is a great educational option for families and children, it can mean kids are not able to access play and socialising in the same way. Because of this, we set up our Home Ed Play Sessions for homeschool families to come together, play and learn in a new and social environment.
## **APRIL**
Continuing our partnership with ‘Toiletries For The Streets’, we received lots of toiletry donations from the community. It is great to see our community continue to come together and support each other and we are very happy to play a role within this.
During April’s Easter Holiday, we hosted a playscheme with funding from Islington Council as part of the ‘Holiday Activities and Food’ programme. Our playschemes are designed to be an inclusive and supportive environment for all children. Following our successful ‘Summer of Calm’ last year, this ‘Easter of Calm’ featured Yoga, Cold Cooking, LEGO, Arts & Crafts, Animation, Printing and fabric work.
Our work with ‘Teddies for Tragedies’ and ‘Small Steps Project’ continued as hand-knitted teddies arrived in Kenya for the children Small Steps works with.
4
Our Selfridges concession continued to draw in new customers and receive donations, with mid-April marking six months since we started there, it is great to see how we have grown and the impact we are making by offering a recycled toy option and donation drop-off point to the customers at Selfridges.
## **MAY**
May marks one year since the opening of our playroom in 2021 and we were happy to see our sponsors continue to support us and all we had achieved throughout the year. Multiple playschemes, after school workshops, play therapy and sessions for babies and adults have supported people across our community of all backgrounds and ages in accessing and enjoying the benefits of play.
Our 50+ LEGO lunch sessions in partnership with Age UK also celebrated a milestone in May having run for 6 months! And our most consistent attendee finished building a Harry Potter LEGO set. Regardless of age, access to play and community sessions create new opportunities for socialising, development, and enjoyment.
This month we developed a project following funding from the London Community Foundation’s ACE Let’s Create Jubilee Fund. We produced a pantomime in partnership with artist Tim McArthur to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee in an educational and creative way. Rehearsals started at the end of May, ready for touring performances in June.
## **JUNE**
Our micro-panto toured across the local community, entertaining people of all ages with a creative and interesting performance designed to engage people in the history of England. We went to 2 hospitals, 1 community centre, 1 local
street party, 1 local arts space, and 4 schools. The aim of this project was to encourage creative exploration of history, culture, and literature. In addition to the
pantomime, our dame also visited local schools with an interactive storytelling performance where the children were encouraged to develop parts of a classic fairy tale and act out different roles.
5
‘Fair In The Square’, a local annual event also took place in June and our stall sold used and vintage bears. We used funding that we received from ‘ReLondon’ and Islington Council to promote our ‘Bear With Us’ Pots and the sustainable shopping options of shopping for used toys at the local event. Our ‘Bear With Us’ range uses bold colours and easy to understand language to engage children within the circular economy. These bears are currently on sale at our shop in Archway and at Selfridges.
## **JULY**
July started off with PRIDE weekend in London, and we had a stall in the family section. Here we were selling toys, promoting the development of our new safe space session for 9–13-year-olds, ‘SHINE’, and had our pantomime
dame, Ruby Slippers, performing songs and storytelling for younger children.
Thanks to funding from ReLondon and Islington Council to support our circular economy model, we were able to purchase a used e-cargo bike to help reduce our carbon footprint as we transport used toys! We have been able to collect donations, transport toys across sites and support families and children in donating their unwanted items and shopping pre-loved.
As the school year ended, our summer playscheme began. Our Playroom hosts our term-time sessions throughout the week and our playschemes during the school holidays.
## **AUGUST**
Our playscheme continued throughout the month of August with great success.
We provided free sessions on weekdays within a calm and accessible environment for children of all abilities and needs. We had a total attendance of 249 children throughout the month
6
of August across activities such as animation, puppet making, face painting, Africa day, and Spanish.
We launched our ‘LEGO Surgery’ at Selfridges as part of their Project Earth initiative. This bookable service allows LEGO enthusiasts to bring along their LEGO creations and get support from our own LEGO Consultant who has years of personal and professional experience building with LEGO. This service is designed to encourage people of all ages to repair and reuse the LEGO they have at home.
We created and released new sustainable
packaging thanks to funding from ‘ReLondon’ in August. In line with our ‘Bear With Us’ Pots, our new boxes and bags highlighted our message of recycling in an aesthetic and eye-catching way, encouraging people to shop used, donate their unwanted items and bring Islington residents into the circular economy.
## **SEPTEMBER**
To round off the summer, we held a Magic Workshop followed by a Magic Show at The Playroom for children aged 5 and over. Mr Magicio hosted both events which included magic tricks, singing and balloon art. As with everything we host at The Playroom, the events were free of charge and were a fun and exciting activity to share with the community.
Our Selfridges concession continued to be a success with lots of toy donations received and lots of used toys sold. In September, Jelly Cat set up a Personalisation stand where customers could order embroidery on the ear of a Jelly Cat bunny. Although this service is free, Selfridges generously suggests a £5 donation per order, and the money goes to The Toy Project! Over the course of this scheme, which ran for a total of 24 weeks, £50,581.32 was raised.
Referrals to schools started up again after Summer Holidays, and we fulfilled a lot of requests from schools across North London for new
resources.
‘Acquired Payments’ reached out to work with us again following their generous toy donation the year before. They set up a donation portal on their website using their new payments software, encouraging their potential customers to donate while testing out their new software. Raising over £100 so far.
7
## **OCTOBER**
We had a stall and a play space at The Sustainability Show at The Business Design Centre in Islington. Our stall displayed our used toys and our new sustainable packaging. We also hosted a LEGO-based workshop where we gave out preloved LEGO and instructed attendees to create a
scene that would fit into our cellophane bags to highlight the interesting and creative ways we use and reuse LEGO.
We celebrated our one-year anniversary at Selfridges. We have loved being at Selfridges, seeing regular customers come back to buy pre-loved toys, donate their unwanted toys, and support our work.
Working with ‘LEGO©’, we were happy to be a part of their ‘Rebuild The World’ competition with ten children who attended our LEGO-based sessions at The Playroom. The children built amazing LEGO creations illustrating how they would rebuild Christmas to make it even better. Some of our
entrants won the competition, receiving LEGO prize bundles and having their ideas created and displayed at the ‘LEGO’ store in Leicester Square.
Continuing our work with the prison service, we ran a LEGO session at HMP Brixton’s family day during October half term. Providing a space and activity where parents and children could spend time together and play. The LEGO was then donated to their playroom to be enjoyed by the families year-round.
At the end of October, we hosted a LEGO-based Festival at The
Playroom as part of ‘Building Bridges’, a festival designed to bring the Islington community together through play. The Festival at The Playroom consisted of three consecutive days of children building LEGO around a theme, with an exhibition on the final day where the children could invite
their adults to see their creations and buy their work. It was great to see the children create, celebrate and explore through play.
8
## **NOVEMBER**
‘Scrap Car Comparison’ worked with us launching ‘Scrap Car Santa’ which encouraged people across the country to donate their unwanted toy cars to us to support families and children at Christmas. They also ran a fundraising campaign for us, nominating us as their charity of the month for the Christmas period and raising £14,000.
We were also happy to send another shipment of barrels over once to Grenada in the Caribbean. The toys and books went to the schools we work with, the library we helped set up many years ago and to children for their Christmas presents.
Our patron, Jason Donovan, designed another set of his yearly Christmas cards. The cards with his original artwork were sold online, in our shop and at our Selfridges concession raising money to help support vulnerable families at Christmas.
Our ‘Building Bridges’ LEGO Festival continued with an inter-generational LEGO session at Goodinge Community Centre. The children who attended were paired with an older person from the community centre to build LEGO sets together. The session was very successful, and we received great feedback from the
children, their adults, and the older people, it brought people of all ages together in a fun shared activity.
Zoe, a local artist, came in and ran one of our weekly arts and crafts sessions at The Playroom. MucknBrass worked with the children to use old toys, jewellery and commonly found items to create Christmas decorations. It was a wonderfully creative session that encouraged the children to reuse preloved items in imaginative ways!
Archway is our local community, and we were proud to be a part of the Archway
Christmas Cracker this year by hosting the Bake Off (kindly sponsored by Wenzel’s The Bakers) at the event. The day before, we hosted a cake decorating workshop at The Playroom (which was kindly sponsored by James Ware, a local resident, and a friend of the charity) where children decorated cakes with the help of a local business owner, Scarlet. It was great to see all the kids come together, learn new skill and celebrate each other's baking creativity!
a
9
November began the Christmas period and the start of receiving referrals for families in need. We saw more referrals come in and provided toys to more families and organisations than in any other previous year. It is with great thanks to our donors and sponsors that we can continue supporting families and children and upscale our work to ensure we can support as many people as possible as the need for support grows. All toy and financial donations go back into our work and help make play accessible for all.
10
**The TOY Project**
**1164282**
**Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period** Nov-21 Nov-22 **To from**
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**
**189,376**
**33,574**
**1,000**
**4,500**
**5,000**
**1,500**
**5,000**
**1,500**
**1,000**
**1,500**
**9,999**
**5,000**
**5,790**
**1,674**
**266,414**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**266,414**
**147,129**
**40,000**
**9,471**
**7,338**
**7,174**
**2,040**
**6,732**
**1,771**
**1,682**
**5,862**
**5,000**
**5,789**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**
**189,376**
**33,574**
**1,000**
**4,500**
**5,000**
**1,500**
**5,000**
**1,500**
**1,000**
**1,500**
**9,999**
**5,000**
**5,790**
**1,674**
**266,414**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**266,414**
**147,129**
**40,000**
**9,471**
**7,338**
**7,174**
**2,040**
**6,732**
**1,771**
**1,682**
**5,862**
**5,000**
**5,789**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**189,376**
**33,574**
**1,000**
**4,500**
**5,000**
**1,500**
**5,000**
**1,500**
**1,000**
**1,500**
**9,999**
**5,000**
**5,790**
**1,674**
**266,414**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**266,414**
**147,129**
**40,000**
**9,471**
**7,338**
**7,174**
**2,040**
**6,732**
**1,771**
**1,682**
**5,862**
**5,000**
**5,789**
**4,391**
**244,379**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**244,379**
**22,035**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**189,376**
**33,574**
**1,000**
**4,500**
**5,000**
**1,500**
**5,000**
**1,500**
**1,000**
**1,500**
**9,999**
**5,000**
**5,790**
**1,674**
**266,414**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**266,414**
**147,129**
**40,000**
**9,471**
**7,338**
**7,174**
**2,040**
**6,732**
**1,771**
**1,682**
**5,862**
**5,000**
**5,789**
**4,391**
**244,379**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**244,379**
**22,035**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|ShopSales|**189,376**|||||||**-**|
|Funding/Donations|**33,574**|||||||**-**|
|Arrowvalves|**1,000**|||||||**-**|
|EPOCH|**4,500**|||||||**-**|
|Islington Council CommunityChest|**5,000**|||||||**-**|
|Wenzel's|**1,500**||||||||
|SGF|**5,000**||||||||
|Playtime PR|**1,500**|||||||**-**|
|Islington Borough|**1,000**||||||||
|Limi London|**1,500**|||||||**-**|
|TNL CommunityFund|**9,999**||||||||
|Islington Council/ReLondon|**5,000**||||||||
|London CommunityFoundation|**5,790**||||||||
|Other|**1,674**|||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|**266,414**|||||||**-**|
||||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||||
||**-**||||||||
||**-**|||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**-**|||||||**-**|
|**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**|||||||||
|||||||||**-**|
||||||||||
|Wages|**147,129**||**-**|||**147,129**||**-**|
|Rent(shopandplayroom)|**40,000**||**-**|||**40,000**||**-**|
|Storage|**9,471**||**-**|||**9,471**||**-**|
|Utilities|**7,338**||**-**|||**7,338**||**-**|
|Playroom Costs|**7,174**||**-**|||**7,174**||**-**|
|Website|**2,040**||**-**|||**2,040**||**-**|
|Events|**6,732**||**-**|||**6,732**||**-**|
|Transport|**1,771**||**-**|||**1,771**||**-**|
|Business Rates|**1,682**|||||**1,682**|||
|Stationaryand ShopCosts|**5,862**|||||**5,862**|||
|ReLondon Circular EconomyProject|**5,000**|||||**5,000**|||
|LCF Jubilee Project|**5,789**|||||**5,789**|||
|Other|**4,391**|||||**4,391**|||
|**_Sub total_ **|**244,379**||**-**||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**244,379**||**-**|
||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|||||||||
||**-**||||||||
||**-**||||||||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**|||||||**-**|
|**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**|||||||||
|||||||||**-**|
||||||||||
||**22,035**|||||
**22,035**||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**||**-**|
||**46,181**|||||**46,181**||**-**|
||**68,216**|||||**68,216**||**-**|
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
13/09/2023
1
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B1 Cash funds**|**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
Bank Account
Cash
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Signature|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**67,116**
**-**
1100
**-**
**-**
**-**
**68,216**
**-**
OK
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of
approval|
|||||
|||||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
13/09/2023
2
CHARITY (OMMISSION
FOR ENGLAND AND WALES
Independent examiner's report on the
accounts
Section A
Independent EXa.iner,S Report
Report to the trustees
THI Thy
On accounts for the year
ended
NCAJ IOZI
Charity no
lif any)
Set out on pages
11 rll
I report lo the Irustees on my examination of the accounts of the above
charity {"the Trust") for the year ended 14 11 10 LL
Responsibilities and
basis ol report
As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the
accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011
{"the Acl").
I report in respect of my examinalion of the Trust's accounts carried out
under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination. I
have followed all Ihe appllcable Directions given by the Charity Commission
under section 145{5llb) of the Act.
Independent he charity's gross income exceeded £250,000 and l am qualrfied to
examiner's statement undertake the examination by being a qualrfied rnember of linsert name of
applicable listed bodyll. Delete I l if not applicable.
I have completed my examination. I confimi that no material matters have
come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that
disclosed below ') which gives me cause to believe that in. any material
respect..
the accounting records wer8 not kept in accordance wlth section 130
of the Charities Act., or
the accounts did not accord with the accounting records., or
the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements
conceming the fom and content of accoLJnts sel out in the Charities
(Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement
that the accounts give a 'lrue and fair, view which is nol a matter
considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection
with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in
order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Please delete the worfs in fhe brackets if they do not apply.
Slgned:
Date:
Name:
Relevant professlonal
qualificationls} or body
lrficAgvRc4
IER
Oct 2018