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## **Trustees' Annual Report for the period**
||Period start date|Period start date|||Period end date|Period end date||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||1|January|2023||31|Dec.|2023|
|**From **||||**To**||||
## Section A Reference and administration details
|**Charity name**
**Other names charity is known by**
**Registered charity number (if any)**
**Charity's principal address**|
AtaLoss.org|
AtaLoss.org|
|---|---|---|
||||
||
AtaLoss||
||||
||1169269||
||||
||
PO Box 824||
||Chichester||
||||
||**Postcode**|PO19 9WW|
## **Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**
|1
2
3
4
5
6
7|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for**
**whole year **|**Name of person (or body) entitled**
**to appoint trustee (ifany)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Yvonne Lorraine
Tulloch|Founder &
Executive Chair|||
||Luke William Richmond|Treasurer|||
||Carol Jane Oundjian||||
||Andrew Shaw||||
||Rebecca van der
Westhuizen||To 6/3/23||
||James Normand||||
||||||
**Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)**
**Name Dates acted if not for whole year**
## **Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
|**Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**|**Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**|**Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**|
|---|---|---|
|**Type of adviser**
**Name**
**Address**|||
|**Auditor**|Gerald|Williams|
||||
||||
||||
**Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)**
Jane Lloyd Woodward – Executive Director & Secretary to the Board
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Ata **Loss** .org Trustee Report for 2023
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**Section B Structure, governance and management**
## **Description of the charity’s trusts**
Type of governing document
Constitution
- (eg. trust deed, constitution)
A charitable incorporated organisation whose only voting members are its How the charity is constituted charity trustees.
- (eg. trust, association, company)
Trustees are appointed by the charity trustees for a period of one year by Trustee selection methods a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity (eg. appointed by, elected by) trustees. Selection is based on skills, knowledge and experience needed for effective governance & administration of the CIO.
## **Additional governance issues (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant, about:
- policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
- the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
- relationship with any related parties;
- trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
Trustees receive an induction pack based on Charity Commission guidelines and are offered opportunities to attend further training throughout the year.
The CIO has a board of reference consisting of a wide range of people with a variety of experience including marketing, finance, health and governance. Each trustee is required to register any interests annually. The ROI (Register of Interests) is held and updated by the Secretary.
All activities carried out by the CIO are risk assessed with particular focus on events where there may be vulnerable people i.e. those who have been bereaved.
Safeguarding policies are in place to cover any contact that trustees, contractors and volunteers may have with individuals who are bereaved as we consider them to be ‘vulnerable’ adults. DBS checks are carried out at enhanced level where appropriate.
The trustees consider the major risks to which the charity is exposed when updating its strategic plans. These include internal and external risks that, if occurring, would be likely to affect finance and resources, staffing, the security and use of our data, reputation, and other aspects of the work of the charity. The trustees are satisfied that procedures and systems are in place to monitor and control these risks, to mitigate any impact that they may have on the charity in its future operations.
## **Section C Objectives and activities**
**Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document**
The objects of AtaLoss are:
- the relief of sickness and preservation of health by, but not limited to, relieving the mental, emotional and physical distress of persons suffering from bereavement, significant loss or family breakdown; and
- to educate and raise awareness on matters of bereavement, significant loss, and family breakdown.
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## **In its purposes and principles document, the CIO explains how it delivers it objects;**
**AtaLoss’ VISION** is for nobody in the UK, suffering a bereavement, to be left floundering or alone. The charity’s focus is on bereavement by death (including pregnancy) but in the case of children and young people we extend our work to parental separation.
## **AtaLoss’ AIMS** are:
- Signposting bereaved people in the UK to support services and information, for timely and holistic support, to relieve the impact and knock-on effects of bereavement.
- • Training and resourcing to support bereaved adults, children and young people for increased and improved community bereavement support, especially through churches and Christian organisations.
- Collaborating with others to improve accessibility to bereavement support across the UK, and understanding of the impact of bereavement, at the time of death and in the longer-term, including in the relationship to mental ill-health and other damaging outcomes.
## **AtaLoss’ ACTIVITIES** to achieve the charity’s aims are:
- **1) Signposting** bereaved people across the UK to the range of support services and information, for easy access to relevant, available support and up-to-date information, by means of our bespoke website www.AtaLoss.org
- **2) Training** to increase understanding of how to support bereaved adults and build capacity for supporting them in local communities, in particular through our Loss and Hope churches project – including supporting children and young people through loss through our ListeningPeople project.
- **3) Educating** , all sectors about the misunderstandings, misconceptions and wider impact of loss and raising awareness of the issues and costs of unsupported loss in and to society.
- **4) Resourcing** bereavement support, in particular churches in support of bereaved people in their communities and youth leaders in supporting children and young people through loss.
- 5) **Supporting** bereaved people directly across the UK by running _The Bereavement Journey®_ programme online, and enabling its provision in person or online by churches and Christian organisations in all communities across the UK.
- 6) **Collaborating** with other organisations where that will achieve benefits to bereaved people, and mutual benefit by shared promotion and/or more efficient use of resources to achieve our aims.
- 7) **Initiating** projects that help us to achieve the charity’s objectives.
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**Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)**
AtaLoss was founded by Yvonne Tulloch in 2016. Having been suddenly widowed, she became acutely aware of the many problems that bereaved people face and of how the impact of bereavement can be worsened due to lack of understanding, but alleviated by finding support. Up to and including 2022, the charity was achieving its objectives by: **1)** Providing a comprehensive bereavement information and signposting website, aiming to be reliable (up-to-date and accurate) and directing easily via filters to appropriate, local and national support. **2)** Delivering bereavement support by way of a national, on-line 6- session support programme called _The Bereavement Journey_ . **3)** Through the charity’s ListeningPeople project, training professionals who encounter children and young people to support them through loss. **4)** Training and equipping churches in becoming ‘bereavement friendly’ through the charity’s Loss and Hope project, in particular resourcing and supporting them to provide _The Bereavement Journey_ support programme for bereaved people in their communities. **5)** Responding to the increased need for bereavement support and information as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially following decades of ‘death denial’, and the UK Commission on Bereavement’s report in September 2022. Following the UK Commission on Bereavement’s identification of the need for more bereavement support, signposting and community provision, where they highlighted the work of AtaLoss and called for all sectors to work together, in 2023 the subject of death and grief began to open up and the work of AtaLoss became more recognized. AtaLoss was turned to for a large number of media interviews on radio and TV, resulting from our own press releases on grief, as well as by invitation to comment on national tragedies, and we became the ‘go to’ organisation for several media outlets. Having fully revised and updated _The Bereavement Journey_ films in 2022 to be more inclusive in content and style, with an added Session and including material to support unresolved loss, we revised its dedicated website and all the materials in early 2023 with new branding and promotional materials, re-positioning the programme around supporting the nation’s past as well as current bereavements, and we created a more comprehensive Leaders’ Pack with detailed instructions to make it more straightforward to run. The revision also included requirement for our training, safeguarding measures and use of the materials provided, and a registration process to ensure consistent, quality delivery. Rather than this reducing the number of locations running _The Bereavement Journey_ as we had expected, the number increased, and by the end of the year over 200 courses were registered (existing and new) with a new Taster Leaders’ Pack being ordered on average every day. By the end of 2023 _The Bereavement Journey_ courses were supporting several thousand beneficiaries across the UK, mostly in person but with some online, with corresponding orders being received for the new materials, increased numbers of church leaders attending our ‘Bereavement Friendly Church’ webinars (to learn how to support bereaved people more widely), and comprehensive feedback processes were in place which were beginning to report GPs, Social Prescribers
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and Funeral Directors confidently referring people. The update of _The Bereavement Journey_ was considered a huge success with great potential for further expansion to achieve the charity’s objectives, and it began to raise the charity’s profile and reputation significantly. As a result, having always reached out, during 2023 key stakeholders began approaching AtaLoss. We trialed an online _The Bereavement Journey_ partnership with WAY, and we secured some significant partnerships, including a corporate partnership with Irwin Mitchell and a signposting partnership with one of the new ICBs (Frimley), and ended the year with further partnership conversations in place. We also contributed to the National Bereavement Alliance’s review of the Bereavement Care Standards (established in 2014), helping to shape them to now include our new model of structured volunteer community support; we contributed to research, including that by Theos; and were invited to attend and present at several Bereavement Forums and conferences, including at Exeter University with our Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, with the UK Commission on Bereavement having identified the need for signposting, several public health and other bodies began investing in their own, limited signposting, unaware of the value of our own service. And with death and grief now on the public radar, several organisations began engaging with death without consideration of bereavement implications. The charity therefore recognized the urgency of raising awareness of our ‘gold standard’ signposting and of partnership conversations as soon as possible. Despite the charity’s growing success, 2023 was another challenging year for funding, but we were maintained by some loyal individual donors, ongoing funding from the 54:2 Trust, a one-off donation from Dignity Funeral Directors, and much welcomed one off, then 3-year, funding from Benefact Trust. With increased resource sales and webinar training revenue from the growth of _The Bereavement Journey_ , we finished the year with more than 5 months’ reserves, but still with very little committed future funding for securing staff. At the end of the year it was felt that after 7 years of working hard to increase bereavement support in a culture where death has been taboo (the very thing we have been trying to change always standing against us) the landscape is now changing quickly, due in part to the charity’s own successful awareness raising, and that the need for AtaLoss’ services will be considerable going forward, especially as several of the better known bereavement charities have long waiting lists. It was also acknowledged that whilst the relationship of unsupported bereavement to mental ill-health has yet to be recognized, AtaLoss has created services of signposting and structured volunteer community support that will help alleviate the nation’s bereavement problem as well as prevent mental health and other societal problems.
However, funding for bereavement support per se remains limited and especially for the pioneering services of AtaLoss, even though they:
- align with the NICE public health hierarchy, of information and community support interventions taking pressure off specialists and therapists
- • prevent escalation of many of society’s social issues, including mental ill-health
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- are being increasingly respected and directed to by GPs, social prescribers and Funeral Directors.
The CEO and trustees therefore ended the year hoping to seek substantial investment in the charity for greater promotion and capacity, expecting the culture to continue to change with increased opportunity to achieve the charity’s objectives, and with the hope that the criteria of funders would in turn be extended. Also, with plans for how AtaLoss.org could be monetized from its growing use by professionals and businesses.
## **Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include further statements, where relevant, about:
Volunteers are increasingly involved with AtaLoss in our expanding _The Bereavement Journey_ structured volunteer community support programme, using prescribed programme materials, and with required training and support, and safeguarding procedures that exceed national expectations.
- policy on grantmaking;
- policy programme related investment;
- contribution made by volunteers.
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## **Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year**
- The AtaLoss.org signposting website continued to develop. By the end of 2023 its directory of support services exceeded 1800 UK listings, including many valuable local initiatives, and with all checked regularly for updates and accuracy.
- There was a significant step up in development of the Loss and Hope project with the revised _The Bereavement Journey_ support programme finalised, piloted nationally online in early 2023, trialed in 25 locations from April-July, refined and then launched officially in September 2023, with requirement for training and registration for consistent national delivery.
- Processes were established alongside the new _The Bereavement Journey_ programme for recording the number, locations and attendance of courses, and for receiving comprehensive feedback for continual revision and updating of the programme’s online Leaders Pack.
- • _Introducing The Bereavement Journey_ webinars commenced showcasing the programme to 1000+ potential leaders.
- • 23 _Bereavement Friendly Church_ webinars were delivered training over 300 church leaders.
- • 3 central, online _The Bereavement Journey_ courses were delivered to over 132 beneficiaries, many in tragic bereavement circumstances, including some high profile murders – and training new leaders.
- • 2 leading bereavement charities discussed partnering with the charity’s national online _The Bereavement Journey_ course and we received interest from 6 countries for running _The Bereavement Journey_ abroad.
- • 15 _ListeningPeople_ webinars and several in person and online training events were delivered, training scores of teachers and youth leaders in supporting children and young people through loss, with emergency consultancy offered in some locations. And the Tough Stuff journals were renewed.
- • Our PR was extended with 9 articles and 137 radio and TV interviews, including BBC 2, BBC 4, LBC and GB News. By the end of 2023 several stations were considering AtaLoss as the ‘go to place’ for commentary on any news story or awareness day related to bereavement, including Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine.
- • A focus on collaboration resulted in several new Ambassadors, corporate partnership with Irwin Mitchell, a signposting partnership with Frimley ICB, several sector associations and presentations - plus articles written for our signposting and information website.
- • We contributed to the National Bereavement Alliance’s review of the Bereavement Care Standards (established in 2014), enabling them to incorporate our new model of structured volunteer led community bereavement support.
- • Content was developed for the Loss and Hope website, including case studies of effective initiatives to resource churches in supporting bereaved people.
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- The Loss and Hope team taught at 21 theological colleges, Christian conferences and events.
- With the AtaLoss.org website evolving during 2023, and the parttime appointment of a Digital Marketing Manager, our social media grew considerably. There was a significant increase in website traffic and referrals from mental health organisations, which meant our campaign to raise awareness that grief can be mistaken for mental illness and also become mental ill-health continued.
- Our ‘gold standard’ signposting of www.ataloss.org received two awards: Best UK Bereavement Information Provider Organisation 2023 and Best UK Bereavement Signposting Services Organisation 2023 - and we provided signposting for the National Grief Awareness Week in December 2023.
- 2 Part-time support staff were appointed, and the hours of our administrative staff were extended.
- • A transition of website domains and emails to Microsoft 365 took place but in September rather than August, adding to the Autumn workload.
- A comprehensive review was conducted of our policies, updating them where required and adding new policies where needed.
- The Trustees met to consider monetising the www.AtaLoss.org and identified 11 potential areas, including signposting partnerships, affiliate sales and corporate sponsors. However, it was acknowledged that the current website was limited in its ability to accommodate many of these areas.
- It was recognised that our staffing levels are insufficient with the growth of demand for our services and the subject of grief and bereavement opening up after many years of taboo, and that major investment was needed in securing staff longer term and in IT equipment and automated systems for the future.
## **Section E Financial review**
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## **Brief statement of the**
The charity has a policy of holding a minimum of 3 months’ reserves. This correlates with the maximum staff notice.
## **charity’s policy on reserves**
## **Details of any funds materially in deficit**
NONE
## **Further financial review details (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant about:
- the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
- how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
- investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.
AtaLoss has relied on individual donations and small trust funds to date, and whilst successful in achieving significant funding from Benefact in 2023 over 3 years, and in generating resource sale and training fee
income for the future - plus ending the year with over 5 months’ reserves - the charity has very little long-term funding to secure staff, at a time when greater capacity is needed for the future.
Our plans for 2024 include seeking investment for a step change for the charity to:
- recruit more staff and build capacity to meet burgeoning demand and opportunity,
- address certain worsening issues with society’s increased death engagement without bereavement awareness,
- upgrade systems, and
- establish ourselves as key players in the bereavement sector, with a significant contribution to make in bereavement support and in preventing societal issues,
in turn developing income streams and attracting further funding.
## **Section F Other optional information**
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## **Section G Declaration**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
> **Signature(s)** Y.Tulloch **Full name(s)** YVONNE RICHMOND TULLOCH **Position (eg Secretary, Chair,** CHAIR **etc) Date** 31st July 2024
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**----- Start of picture text -----**
Charity Name No (if any)
At a Loss.org
Receipts and payments accounts CC16a
For the period Period start date Period end date
To
from 01/01/2023 31/12/2023
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds Last year
funds funds funds
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Grants 22,000 95,000 - 117,000 42,000
Individuals 34,620 1,649 - 36,269 46,256
Fundraising - - 150
Events - 10,752 - 10,752 3,232
Other - - -
Fees - - 817
Sales 1,744 29,966 - 31,710 16,733
- - -
Sub total (Gross income for
AR) [ 58,364 ] 137,367 - 195,731 109,188
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total receipts 58,364 137,367 - 195,731 109,188
A3 Payments
Publicity 2,403 203 - 2,606 2,559
Website 3,730 - - 3,730 4,653
Salaries 55,533 66,821 - 122,354 101,831
Legal 534 - - 534 522
IT 8,100 620 - 8,721 2,165
PPS 1,954 8,977 - 10,932 4,589
Subsistence 17 - - 17 80
Materials 3,059 22,924 - 25,983 17,154
Travel & Accom 667 276 944 765
Events 291 340 631 155
Other 5 - - 5 742
Sub total [ 76,295 ] 100,162 - 176,457 135,214
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - - -
Total payments 76,295 100,162 - 176,457 135,214
Net of receipts/(payments) - 17,931 37,205 - 19,274 - 26,026
A5 Transfers between funds - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 31,122 23,828 - 54,950 80,976
Cash funds this year end 13,191 61,033 - 74,224 54,950
**----- End of picture text -----**
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
07/11/2024
1
|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at**|**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
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**|Signature
**Details**
**Details**
Current Account
**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
**Details**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**13,191**
**61,033**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**13,191**
**61,033**
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)
07/11/2024
2