Sharewear Clothing Scheme (Registered charity, number 1170084) Financial statements for the year ended 31 October 2024
| Page | Contents |
|---|---|
| 2 - 19 | Trustees’ annual report |
| 20 - 21 | Message from CEO |
| 22 | Independent examiner’s report |
| 23 | Receipts & payments account |
| 24 | Statement of assets & liabilities |
| 25 - 27 | Notes to the accounts |
Sharewear Clothing Scheme Trustees’ annual report for the year ended 31 October 2024
Full name Sharewear Clothing Scheme
Organisation type Charitable incorporated organisation
Registered charity number 1170084
Principal address
Unit 8 Roseway House, Wheatcroft Business Park, Landmere Lane, Edwalton, NG12 4DG
Trustees
Alex Hiller, Chair Stephen Ramsden Karen Veness, Secretary, from 01/07/24 Lindsey Ulanowsky, from 11/03/24 Sarah Sinclair, Treasurer George Hagen, until 08/01/24 Alison Latham Laura Fargher, until 11/03/24
Independent examiner
John O’Brien, employee of Community Accounting Plus, Units 1 & 2 North West, 41 Talbot Street, Nottingham, NG1 5GL
Governance and management
The charity is operated under the rules of its constitution adopted 8 November 2016 and most recently amended 14 July 2020.
Trustees are recruited either informally, having volunteered with us, having expressed an interest in our work or through responding to a recruitment advert on our social media channels. We have developed a Trustee induction presentation and prospective Trustees who are new to the organisation are invited to attend a Board meeting as a visitor prior to committing to joining.
Objectives and activities
Our Charitable purpose is to provide ‘The relief of hardship among people in need by providing such persons with clothing, bedding and any other such suitable equipment and services that they could otherwise not afford due to lack of means’.
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit
Our operational team comprises 5 (3.2 WTE) staff and 20 volunteers working at our Client Access and Distribution Centre overseen by a team of 6 volunteer trustees. Service users can select clothing directly from our Client Access Centre either in person or through pre-arranged collections organised on their behalf via our 'Click and Collect' facility. Our distribution, bulk delivery and outreach operate via a separate dedicated service and we continue to work with many local and national organisations across the East Midlands, South Yorkshire and North London, ensuring that our clothing is distributed to as many people as possible in need of Sharewear assistance and support.
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During this reporting period we have continued to highlight the issues surrounding clothing poverty, and raise awareness through interviews in the local and national press alongside our on-going social media campaigns. Our CEO, Louise Cooke, has organised, attended and been involved in several local and national events and was again named as one of the Big Issue Top 100 Changemakers in January 2024.
Between Nov 2023 and Oct 2024 25,736 people were supported with Sharewear Clothing, selecting 166,231 donated items, ensuring that 77.1 tonnes of clothing and bedding were saved from entering landfill as a result. These figures help to illustrate the impact of our work, not only in enabling the Right to Clothing of our service users but also illustrating the true scale of our operations in terms of need and sustainability.
We continue in our mission to ensure that we are the space where Clothing Poverty meets Clothing Waste, campaigning to ensure that everyone has the Right to Clothing.
Public benefit statement
The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit, 'Charities and Public Benefit'.
Statement from the Chair of the Board of Trustees
Sharewear’s last operating year was a significant one for many reasons. Our tenth anniversary saw a hugely successful gala dinner in March which was attended by our first Patron, Professor Veronica Pickering, the newly appointed Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, alongside a further birthday celebration attended by many of those who have supported Shareware over the last 10 years. A number of tenth anniversary fundraising events raised further income and awareness, supported in
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no small measure by a number of activities by individuals to raise vital funds. Our work could not continue without the generous support and efforts of you all.
Operationally, a significant focus of the year has been the move to the new premises at Wheatcroft which have enabled us to provide a more efficient and welcoming environment for clients, staff and volunteers alike. The need to recruit and retain volunteers to service levels of demand continues, however. Alongside this there has been some organisational restructuring including the creation of a new Operations Manager role and the appointment of two new members of staff; a driver and more recently a fundraising coordinator, all enabled by the support of our funders and donors. Despite the inevitable disruption caused by the move, over 25,000 individuals were supported over the period by Sharewear. The problem of clothing poverty does not abate, however, and our Chief Executive Louise Cooke, continues to campaign and raise awareness about this critical social issue. Sharewear is uniquely positioned to respond to this crisis and in the process address the significant negative sustainability impacts of clothing by diverting over 77 tonnes of clothing from landfill.
The Board of Trustees have continued to support this work, and we were pleased to welcome Lindsey Ulanowsky and Karen Vennes to the Board. There is a need to further strengthen the membership of the Board of Trustees, and this will be a priority action for us in the short-term. We continue to see the value in recruiting members of the Board from our networks of people who believe passionately in the work that the charity undertakes and who possess particular skills which will ensure there is a wide-ranging expertise in our membership. Potential members are proposed and vetted by the Board and the Chief Executive before being proposed for appointment at the Annual General Meeting. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow members of the Board of Trustees for that time, commitment and hard work.
This annual report further details the many wonderful activities and developments that have taken place over the course of the last year. Whilst the charity is relatively well-placed financially and in its resource base to continue its work, sustainable funding remains a challenge in developing a long-term strategy to respond to the growing clothing poverty crisis. A focus on securing such funding alongside other sources of revenue such as the ReLived scheme remains a critical priority. However, on behalf of the Board of Trustees, we are committed to building on the excellent foundations in place to ensure the long term success of Shareware in supporting the most vulnerable in society, and extend our thanks to all those who have supported Shareware, in whatever form that support took, over the course of the last year.
Alex Hiller Chair of the Board of Trustees
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Summary of the main achievements during the period
The achievements of Team Sharewear are incredible every year, however this reporting year marked a very special milestone for us as we celebrated our 10[th] Birthday in March 2024. Marking the year was made all the more extraordinary by the amazing lengths our staff, volunteers and supporters went to in not only getting fully behind our 10 for10 fundraising campaign but also pulling off another seamless premises move in August and continuing to provide the dignity of clothing choice to thousands of people. Here are just a few highlights:
November 2023 - Saw the start of an exciting new fundraising collaboration for Sharewear with Run for Charity. Our first event was at Alton Towers 5km where 12 year olds Archie, Hannah & William were Jogging for Joggers- £1,090 was raised, enabling us to purchase 180 pairs of joggers (an additional 20 pairs were also purchased thanks to some generous virtual gift donations), enabling 200 people to have the gift of a functional and comfortable pair of much sought after jogging bottoms in time for Christmas.
During November 2023 – 2,800 people selected 13,596 items of clothing and 7 tonnes of donated items were saved from entering landfill.
Sharewear Founder & CEO Louise Cooke was interviewed by BBC Radio Nottingham talking in particular about the need for male clothing in the region and how the wider community can work together to get essential basic clothing to those who need it. The Sherriff of Nottingham Shaguftah Quddoos paid us a visit, keen to learn more about our work and offer her support.
So many of our supporters give so generously at Christmas time, in December 2023 we were thrilled with the delivery of hand knitted hats from Hucknall Craft & Chat and Byron Stitchers groups featured at the Hucknall Christmas Tree Festival.
It was wonderful to restart our bulk outreach deliveries to Remar Nottingham, a charity we supported throughout the pandemic lockdowns to get clothing to people in need. Jo transferred her meticulously collated order from our van straight into theirs, so that the adults and children's clothing can be chosen and worn as soon as possible.
Angela from Mansfield Child Protection Team collected their completed order of top up grab-bags for children being taken to safety, enough clothing for 44 children and young people for their first day or two before more clothing can be sourced. Our team members have been working on this order across the last few weeks. Some have
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also purchased the underwear and socks needed to complete the order while we were waiting for the #SecretPantsa donations to arrive. Huge thanks to the social workers supporting these children and to our team and clothing donors for making this vital work possible.
January 2024 - or as we have come to know it at Sharewear- 'Manuary'. Another frosty referral session today, with 42 people served. Many hats, scarves, gloves, winter boots and warm blankets have been chosen to help our service users through these coldest weeks - in their own homes! However, the favourite find of the day is another of your #Manuary donations. One mother and wife was excited to find a suit to match her husband’s measurements! He has been hoping for a suit for special occasions and she believes he will love it.
CEO Louise Cooke was recognised for the second time as one of The Big Issues' Top 100 Changemakers for 2024 for her continued work alleviating clothing poverty. Having previously been honoured in 2020 the timing of this latest recognition was perfect at the start of our 10[th] birthday celebrations.
WELCOME to the team Andrew! In February we added a part-time paid driver to our operations team. Andrew delivers our bulk outreach orders to organisations across the East Midlands, South and West Yorkshire and north London; collecting ReLived by Sharewear donations from subscribing businesses and their 'sponsored' schools; picking up donations from the drop-off points listed on our website, and collecting from those people who currently act as mass collectors for their neighbourhood, such as the Burton Joyce Massive and St Paul's - Boundary Road. #TeamSharewear just
got a little bit bigger!
March marked not only our 10[th] Birthday, but also saw us host our very first fundraising Gala Dinner. During a fantastic evening of celebration and reflection we welcomed many of our volunteers, partner organisations supporters, corporate partners and fellow collaborators and we were delighted to announce the appointment of our first Patron, Professor Veronica Pickering, the newly appointed Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire at our ten-year gala dinner. We're absolutely thrilled to have Veronica on board and to be the first charity to ever have her patronage. This is particularly exciting as we look forward to the next phase of our development.
The event also marked the premier of our 'Stepping out of the Shadows' ten-year photo exhibition, highlighting the transformative effect that Sharewear Clothing has had on the lives of some of the families we have supported.
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We hosted a further birthday celebration with several of our volunteers founding members who had been unable to attend the dinner as every single person who has been involved at Sharewear over the past 10 years has been part of our legacy and as we look forward to the next stage of our development it certainly seemed fitting to reflect on how far we have come, which would not have seemed possible when we started in a family garage with a few boxes of clothing before moving to a church hall in 2015.
In April our monthly ReLived collection day brought in a varied selection of much needed items across the range that literally went straight on to our rails, with much of the stock being chosen by clients the very next day!
The baby and toddler coats from Bluecoat Sixth Form were put straight to use on our rails, and the single bedding sets from Roythornes Solicitors immediately replenished a shelf that had just emptied. Meanwhile the children's and adults clothing from Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University included gold-dust items like brand new joggers and a prom suit.
Our ReLived subscribers are an absolutely essential cog in our wheel alleviating clothing poverty because the clothes brought in by the employees, customers or stakeholders always get put into immediate action as they're processed separately from general donations. There have been times when certain clothing of a certain
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size is needed to finish an outreach order, or for an on-site client who's just missing that one size they really needed, and up pops the missing item in the ReLived clothing being processed!
May 2024
"They only had what they stood up in."
After a heartbreaking forcible eviction a family of 5 across 3 generations are now having to live in a studio bedsit.
Their diligent support worker, who collected the family's order today, praised their resilience despite barriers being placed before them. Including their teenager being excluded from school for not having the correct footwear.
Whilst their support worker is pursuing suitable housing for them our team were able to at least help with suitable clothing, pyjamas and footwear thanks to your generous donations.
With Prom season upon us, our annual 'Make Prom Fair' campaign continues to ensure that more young people are able to attend their school prom thanks to the generosity of our clothing donors in providing prom suitable dresses, shoes, bags and suits. No-one should be denied the opportunity to celebrate their academic achievements due to lack of means and our high quality occasion wear allows referring schools and partner organisations to help us make this happen.
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Several exciting events also happened in May including a service of Thanksgiving at St Judes Church Mapperley and Fundraising Football Match between Tophouse Charity FC & Football for Charities FC.
During May 2,688 people selected 16,271 items of clothing and 7 tonnes of donated items were saved from entering landfill.
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June marked our annual Clothing Poverty Awareness Week, the highlight of which heard several powerful client testimonials as told by support workers and staff at our partner schools, hospitals and organisations including The Jericho Road Project, Nottingham University Hospitals Trust & The Bulwell Academy.
There were also some wonderful fundraising musical events hosted by Bulwell Riverside Community Choir & Torkard Ensemble.
This post from our Facebook page on 19[th] June is served as a timely reminder of how our clothing can help transform lives:
"Released from prison - setting up home - rebuilding life" One gentleman today arrived with a referral from Probation Services and his support worker had written this in the referral reason column.
Having recently been moved into his own accommodation after 19 years in prison, he admitted that things had moved on out there and that rebuilding his life was his main priority.
He was most pleased with a 3-piece suit and all of his casual outfits. Generous clothing donations are literally helping people dealing with #UKClothingPoverty start again.
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July 2024
"She's starting out again."
Family Support Worker, Charley, travelled over 50 miles from Staffordshire to collect an order for a woman she is supporting. After searching for somewhere that provides clothing free of charge and not being able to find anything in her area she went above and beyond to make sure the needs of her service user were met. This shows how few organisations there are that take clothing donations and provide them directly to people living in #UKClothingPoverty
With a plan to bring donated clothing from their team and place orders for service users that can be collected together, we hope to continue to serve the Staffordshire Family Action team.
In July we also made our first ever delivery to Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, with enough clothing for 50 people leaving the discharge unit without adequate clothing. How did this come about? A ward manager from the very first ward we supported with clothing at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust recently spoke at the Barnsley hospital about the impact of our clothing support to #EndPJParalysis particularly in elderly patients, for the last seven years. As a result, the Barnsley team requested our support, initially for their patients being discharged.
During July 2,442 people selected 16,486 items of clothing and 7 tonnes of donated items were saved from entering landfill.
During August (which is traditionally a slightly quieter month for us - as the team take turns to take much needed holiday), it was all systems go as our most ambitious and meticulously planned premises move to date finally got underway (more about this is September…) It was all assisted by extra volunteers being drafted in for the heaviest day of the move with help from A 2 Anywhere Removals, Positive Momentum and VINCI staff, amongst the dedicated staff and volunteer team who ensured that the huge task of moving across the city to a much larger premises at Edwalton went smoothly.
The finale of our NottingJam music events turned out to be the perfect day! The incredible level of organisation by WSO Nottingham volunteers and The Pit at Newstead's staff team and non-stop event management throughout the day (and night) resulted in the best Sharewear fundraiser ever! The initial amount raised on the night was an amazing £1,316 with more funds following. A huge thank you to all of the incredible bands who took part in the event - Cookie, Most Ugly Kid Duo, Matt Johnson, Morris & Watson, King of Rome, Joe Solo, Lawrence County and Andrea Kenny.
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Sharewear Clothing Scheme Single Bedding I SHAREVIEAR onMNGOIME 12
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In September we celebrated the official launch in our new HQ which would not have been possible without the generosity of The Wheatcroft Foundation in providing us with our brilliant premises for the next 4 years. Without this support we would not be able to provide such a large, warm and welcoming space for our staff, volunteers and service users. It was our absolute honour to welcome our Patron, His Majesty's Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, Professor Veronica Pickering; Deputy Lieutenant Mark Goldby - our Ambassador Lead, representatives from Nottinghamshire County Council and Councillor Andy Brown, Mayor of Rushcliffe Borough Council. They were joined by Councillor Neil Clarke, Leader of Rushcliffe Borough Council and other councillors, some of our ReLived members, representatives from our container points, Lyfcycle Nottingham Soroptimists Rotary Club of Nottingham, The Centre for Social Justice, The Randal Charitable Foundation, and benefactors. Our team greatly appreciated the time that all our guests took to ask them details about our work, and what support we need.
The Robin Hood Half Marathon which takes place in September marked our last major running event of the year, taking a Team of 10 (including our mascot RuFuS) on a tour pounding the streets of Nottingham in an effort to raise £1,000 towards our total for the year! We also had 6 marshals supporting the team out on the course and in what will hopefully be an annual event for the Sharewear calendar!
We were also incredibly proud of Matthew and his companion Simon who completed 15 consecutive days of their 38-day hike and are over a third of the way through their epic 500 mile Camino challenge during September.
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During October 2024 "Booktober" was launched, encouraging our supporters to hold book sales to raise funds for us.
Lisa from Nottingham Contemporary collected a top-up order of children's clothing age 1-6 for their Early Years Sensory Workshops that are provided free of charge. With children outgrowing sizes rapidly between these ages they set up a clothes swap that we help
to replenish. By reducing barriers to taking part, we hope to help the little ones explore and engage in the fun, sensory-rich environment provided at these sessions.
Rounding this reporting year off in style, on 18[th] October after an epic 38 consecutive days of hiking, Matthew Mcfarlane and his hiking partner Simon had covered 780 km or 485 miles to make it to their destination of Santiago de Compostela!
Along the way Matt and Simon have managed to raise the largest amount ever achieved in a single Just Giving challenge! This amazing feat will ensure that we are able to keep stocked up on in demand items such as socks, pants and jogging bottoms for many months to come, which we simply would not be able to do without such dedication from our supporters.
We hope this gives you a flavour of some of the achievements of Sharewear Clothing Scheme this year. It cannot be overstated that as a horizontal organisation everything is very much a team effort and we are immensely proud of the part that every single staff member, volunteer and supporter plays in our mission to alleviate clothing poverty and change lives through offering dignity of choice.
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Financial review
We ended this financial year with a surplus of £9,405, with an income of £171,298 and expenditure of £161,893. We had several key fundraising events this year and also additional expenses incurred with our premises move.
Our initial projection of £140,000 expenditure for the year was exceeded, in part due to these costs but also the additional costs of staging our 10-year gala dinner, although the funds raised somewhat mitigated these expenses. Reduced rental costs in the coming year thanks to our move will allow us the freedom to shift our focus into funding additional staff posts to facilitate expansion of our services in order to continue to meet the growing demands placed upon us.
At the end of a very busy year, our cash funds were £83,806 which represented that we had remained consistent and stable in our financial position in comparison to previous years.
The charity’s policy on reserves
Our policy is to maintain at least 6 months of projected annual running costs in our bank account to cover unforeseen events and unexpected costs and to ensure that our work can continue. This policy is reviewed by Trustees on an annual basis. We endeavour to set a budget based on the previous year spend and any upcoming projected expenses as part of our strategic plans for the growth of our operations.
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Risks
Whilst our financial position has continued to remain relatively stable throughout this financial period, it remains consistently difficult to identify funders who will offer sustainable sources of core funding which puts an additional strain on the ability to plan our long term strategy for sustainable growth, when the demand on our services continues to increase due to the on-going cost of living crisis. We are consistently working at capacity and unable to plan for expansion to meet the growing needs in this sector while this situation persists.
A Risk Register is now held and is reviewed at each trustee meeting in order to identify and monitor any situations which may develop and potentially pose a reputational, staffing, safety or financial risk to the organisation.
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Acknowledgements
We simply could not undertake the work we do without the dedication of our staff, volunteers and trustees. We must also offer a huge thank you to all of our grant and corporate funders and supporters, regular donors, clothing donors, Clothing Swaps, Sharewear One Lottery players, ReLived Subscribers and Sharewear partner schools, Community Franchisees, benefactors, fundraisers, event organisers and the many businesses who continue to support us each year.
This year we also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to all of the table sponsors at our 10 year gala fundraising dinner and those who donated raffle and auction prizes for the event.
We are also incredibly grateful for all of the churches and businesses who continue to allow us to house clothing containers on their car parks in order to enable our clothing donors to continue to support us following our recent premises move. Our work simply would not be possible without your generosity and we would like to thank the following organisations, businesses and individuals:
47 Degrees Coffee 500 Acts of Kindness A 2 Anywhere Ltd Aldridge Traffic Solutions Ashbrook Junior School Bamboo Clothing Bang the Elephant Brewing Co Bees Knees Preloved Boutique Bestwood Village Miners Welfare BNI UK & Ireland (Nottingham Business Team Chapter) Bulwell United Reform Church Bulwell Riverside Community Choir Bunches Burton Joyce Residents- Sally's Crochet Workshop Byron Stitchers Canal House Cub Rocks Character.com Community Foodparcels Conscious Closet Connect Cafe, Netherfield Crazy Little Sing Called Pub- (Abi Moore) Delta Hotels Douglas Kitcher Leeds English Language/Literature and Creative Writing- UoB Experian Ezekial Bone F4C- Football for Charites FC Facepainting by Eileen C Forecast Designs
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Food Doctors Freeths Freakshow Treats Fox & Grapes, Sneinton Gedling Bourough Council Glade Hill Primary School Get a Better Car Hazaar Hillside Primary & Nursery School Hooleyloop Hucknall Craft & Chat Group Impacd CIC Julie Hesmondhalgh John Griffin Joy's Poems Lindsey Ulanowsky -Decathon Challege Logo Me Up Loughborough High School LuceFit LYFCYCLE Mapperley & Arnold Rotary Club Matt McFarlane- Camino Fundraiser Mark Dennison MG Event & Sound Midland Commercial Cleaners Mocean Fitness New Life Baptist Church Nottingham Building Society Nottingham City Care Partnership Nottinghamshire Freemasons Nottinghamshire Federation WI Nottingham Girls Academy Nottingham Rotary Nottingham Soroptomists Nottingham Trent University Business School Our Lady of the Perpetual Succour Church, Bulwell Pellacraft Positive Momentum Random Surfer Ravensworth Rd Methodist Church Richard & Lisa Smith-Williamson- Year of Fundraising Reloved Sale (St Marks Church, Woodthorpe) Robert Mellors School Roythornes Solicitors Run for Sharewear Runners Sateda Sherwood Methodist Church Shipley Country parkrun Showcase Cinema Derby
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Skills Holidays Southwell Methodist Church (and Paul) Southwell Minster School St John Houghton VC Academy St Judes Church, Mapperley St Martins Church St Patricks VCA SWISH The Sherwood Exchange The William Gunn Pub Tesco,Hucknall Tophouse Charity FC Torkard Ensemble Unite NG57 Widows Sons Masonic Biker Group VINCi (Jake Askew) Ward Recycling We Shall Overcome- Pit Music Festival Fundraiser Wheatcroft Property William (donation) Wimbledon Foundation
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:
Signed ______ Date _ Alex Hiller, Trustee
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Message from the CEO
November 2023 to October 2024 was the most transitional period in Sharewear’s ten-year history, where we restructured our staff roles for maximum efficiency and relocated premises to improve the client experience. With the dignity of choice still at the heart of all we do, the move to larger premises was to enable us to more easily display more of our stock – making our vast range of clothing options more accessible to those clients referred to our face-to-face service. As always at Sharewear, each opportunity brings its own challenges – and the greater amount of stock displayed was no exception. We saw a huge increase in the need for more volunteers, to facilitate a greater number of clients all inside the premises at the same time as each other, all choosing from a greater amount of clothing on display. Although we have been able to recruit volunteers successfully in the first few months of this current reporting year, the need remains ongoing. We also learned that, to ensure our clients can safely access our new premises on a shared site, a wider variety of volunteer roles are needed, such as chaperones. This also became the case for safe transportation of donated clothes to our room upstairs, which again requires volunteers undertaking a wider range of tasks.
For the first time since we first began running a bulk outreach service to other organisations (2018), we had to pause our deliveries to organisations that need male clothing, due to the ten-year ongoing shortage of good quality male clothing donations. This had an impact of the total number of people we were able to support, and meant that of the 25,000+ people we supported, only 9,000+ were men and boys. It’s vital to make clear that this is not because we had less males requesting our support through our face-to-face service and through the organisations we deliver outreach to, but because we simply didn’t have sustainable bulk supplies of male clothing, so had to limit access to it. This was even more the case as 40 new referral agencies joined us during this period, all referring people into our face-toface referral sessions – our primary service.
As our ReLived ESG membership scheme continued to grow, Roythornes Solicitors, Experian and Nottingham Business School (NTU) all renewed their annual memberships, allowing Robert Melllors Primary School, Bluecoat Sixth Form and St Patrick’s CVA to also continue as members. Freeths Solicitors and Skills Holidays joined as brand new members, enabling Ashbrook Junior School and Nottingham Girls Academy to take part. Together, our ReLived members donated a total of 1,724kg (1.7 tonnes) of clothing.
Our tenth birthday year proved several things yet again:
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We simply couldn’t support even a fraction of the people we do without our incredibly dedicated volunteers.
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Clothing poverty is still universally disregarded as a major problem in the UK, in spite of us raising the profile of it since 2018, and appearing in a variety of national press to highlight the issue.
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The lack of importance attributed to clothing poverty continues to negatively impact our finances.
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Our biggest strength – that we will support anyone in financial difficulty regardless of their demographic group or the cause of their financial difficulty – remains the
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biggest barrier to greater financial support for our work. Because we do not focus on solely one ‘client group’ we remain locked out of applying to sources of funding that benefit organisations working with those individual groups. The assumption being made by funders that, because we don’t concentrate only on that one group, this must mean that we don’t support that group at all. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. In this respect, our tenth birthday year was the most financially frustrating from a grants point of view, and the current year already indicates no improvement in that situation.
Louise Cooke, Founder & CEO, Sharewear Clothing Scheme
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Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of Sharewear Clothing Scheme for the year ended 31 October 2024
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Sharewear Clothing Scheme (the charity) for the year ended 31 October 2024.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the trustees of the charity you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’). I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiner’s statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
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accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
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the accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns 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.
Signed ____ Date _______ John O’Brien MSc, FCIE Employee of Community Accounting Plus
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Sharewear Clothing Scheme Receipts & payments account for the year ended 31 October 2024
| 2023 Total Unrestricted Funds Funds £ Note £ Receipts 113284 Grants & donations 2 40143 - Fundraising 12485 1463 Sales & fees 22981 180 Bank interest 235 - Sale of van 164 114927 Total receipts 76008 Payments 534 Advertising/ promotional 755 1731 Auto 381 240 Bank charges 80 - Clothing purchases 1992 - Computer costs 20 - Equipment, repairs & renewals 1350 845 Fundraising & publicity 6916 1876 Insurances 466 4178 Legal and professional fees 5258 6116 Office/ general administrative expenses 2686 1405 Phone costs 1691 - Relocation costs 5690 32375 Rent 7435 1429 Sundry - 898 Travel and accommodation 1175 3559 Utilities 8076 - Volunteer uniforms 748 67450 Wages, NI & pension 23697 122636 Total payments 68416 (7709) Net receipts/(payments) 7592 82110 Cash funds at start of this period 41789 - Transfers between funds (333) 74401 Cash funds at end of this period 3 49048 |
2024 Restricted Total Funds Funds £ £ 95290 135433 - 12485 - 22981 - 235 - 164 95290 171298 - 755 3910 4291 - 80 39 2031 459 479 - 1350 - 6916 845 1311 816 6074 222 2908 - 1691 788 6478 20222 27657 - - - 1175 4723 12799 500 1248 60953 84650 93477 161893 1813 9405 32612 74401 333 - 34758 83806 |
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Sharewear Clothing Scheme Statement of assets and liabilities at 31 October 2024
| 2023 | 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | Cash assets | Note | £ |
| 74153 | Bank accounts | 83547 | |
| 248 | Cash in hand | 259 | |
| 74401 | 83806 | ||
| Other monetary assets | |||
| 1430 | Debtors | 4 | 4972 |
| 1430 | 4972 | ||
| Assets retained for the charity’s own use | |||
| Emergency door shutters, purchased Jan 2022, | cost £4,543 | ||
| Laptop, purchased Dec 2020, cost £499 | |||
| General equipment | |||
| Liabilities | |||
| (2587) | Creditors | 5 | (3117) |
| (2587) | (3117) |
These financial statements are accepted on behalf of the charity by:
Signed _____ Date _____ Sarah Sinclair, Trustee
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Sharewear Clothing Scheme Notes to the accounts for the year ended 31 October 2024
1. Receipts & payments accounts
Receipts and payments accounts contain a summary of money received and money spent during the period and a list of assets and liabilities at the end of the period. Usually, cash received and cash spent will include transactions through bank accounts and cash in hand.
2. Grants & donations
| National Lottery Community Fund Gemini Trust Randal Charitable Foundation JN Derbyshire Trust Sundry grants & donations The Jones 1986 Charitable Trust Funds analysis Opening balance £ Restricted funds Driver fund 9177 OM salary 1360 Shakers/volunteer uniform 459 Van running costs fund 2018 Hospital fund 4992 Older Persons fund 6920 Repair what you wear fund 4385 Male clothing 39 Womens wardrobe 3262 3 Year expansion fund - Cost of Living fund - Southglade - 32612 Unrestricted funds General 38049 Designated: ReLived 3740 41789 |
Unrestricted £ - 3643 - - 33475 3025 40143 Receipts (Payments) £ £ 11273 (20504) - (828) - (500) - (2254) - (4994) - (739) 2000 (3025) - (39) - (3173) 29298 (11856) 32719 (25565) 20000 (20000) 95290 (93477) 69608 (62719) 6400 (5697) 76008 (68416) |
Restricted £ 32719 31273 29298 2000 - - 95290 Transfers £ 54 - 41 236 2 - - - - - - - 333 (333) - (333) |
Total £ 32719 34916 29298 2000 33475 3025 135433 Closing balance £ - 532 - - - 6181 3360 - 89 17442 7154 - 34758 44605 4443 49048 |
Total £ 32719 34916 29298 2000 33475 3025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 135433 |
3. Funds analysis
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Sharewear Clothing Scheme
The transfers from the General fund to the driver fund, shakers/volunteer uniform, van running costs fund and hospital fund are to cover the deficit on these funds which has now ceased.
The specific purposes for which these funds are held:
-
OM salary – to fund salary for Out-reach Coordinator
-
Older Persons fund – funding for our hospital work- salary & van running costs
-
Repair What You Wear fund – funding to facilitate sessions dedicated to specific upskilling of volunteers
-
Women's Wardrobe – to fund our female only client sessions on Thursdays
-
3 Year expansion fund – funding for salaries to enable expansion of our services
-
Cost of Living fund - to back-fill core costs and pay for salaries and ongoing core costs to fund increasing demand on our services due to the cost of living crisis
4. Debtors - Prepayments
| Insurance Office/general admin expenses Rent Vehicle running costs |
£ 98 344 3857 673 |
|---|---|
| 4972 |
5. Creditors
| HMRC & pension Independent examination fee |
£ 2469 648 |
|---|---|
| 3117 |
6. Trustees’ remuneration
Trustees received no expenses, remuneration or benefits in this period.
7. Related party transactions
There were no related party transactions in this period.
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Sharewear Clothing Scheme
8. Glossary of terms
Creditors: These are amounts owed by the charity, but not paid during the accounting period.
Debtors: These are amounts owed to the charity, but not received in the accounting period.
Prepayments: These are services that the charity has paid for in advance, but not used during the accounting period.
Restricted funds: These are funds given to the charity, subject to specific restrictions set by the donor, but still within the general objects of the charity.
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