2021-10-31-accounts - Prodigal Bikes

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Trustees Report for Prodigal Bikes - 1[ st ] November 2020 to 31[ st ] October 2021

Legal Status:

Prodigal Bikes is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), registered on 20[ th ] December 2016, registration number 1170845. It was recognised by HM Revenue and Customs as a charity for tax purposes on 23[ rd ] October 2017, effective from 21[ st ] December 2016. Prodigal Bikes is registered for VAT, effective from 1[ st ] February 2020.

Board of Trustees (at 31st October 2021):

Tim Neville (Chairman) Stephen Crane Calum McFarlane Roger Allen Jamie Bruce

Charitable Objectives:

Prodigal Bikes has two objectives; firstly we aim to provide and maintain suitable bikes, donated by the public here, to people in Africa to enable them to gain access to education, trade, employment or healthcare. Secondly, we aim to prepare the bikes here with ex-offenders and other disengaged people, to teach them basic engineering skills and inspire them towards employment in Engineering-related jobs, away from crime, homelessness and long-term unemployment. We believe this work can give them a real sense of achievement and self worth, through them making significant contributions to helping some of the world’s poorest people.

Changes to Board of Trustees

The Founder of Prodigal Bikes, Anthony Raybould, stood down from his position as Chairman of the Prodigal Bikes Board of Trustees, and from the board altogether at the July 2021 Trustee Meeting. This was for two reasons. Firstly, it freed him to concentrate more fully on his role as Operations Manager. Secondly, with two further additions to the board, it was felt the board was established enough to operate without him. Anthony will continue as secretary to the board as with his oversight he is best placed to report and record the day-to-day activities of PB.

Joining the board in July 2021 is Roger Allen, an Engineer from Leonardo and long standing friend of Tim Neville. He has many years experience as CEO of Hope 4 Kids, a charity providing orphanages and support to children in Africa and Central America.

Also joining the board in July 2021 is Jamie Bruce, the former Youth Pastor at Martock Christian Fellowship, who has previously worked alongside the Operations Manager teaching bike maintenance to youngsters from the Martock area. Jamie has many years experience in youth work, so again brings a great deal of experience to the board.

Review of Activities and Achievements for 1[ st ] November 2020 to 31[ st ] October 2021:

1. Income and Expenditure overview.

Our income increased again in this reporting period, bringing in over £28K, a 75% increase on the previous year. However, there were two periods of several months where our finances ran very low and we relied on bike sales and repairs to “get through”. These were through November and December 2020, then again from July to October 2021 before the grants for the UK work started to come through again after the worst disruptions of Pandemic had subsided. The root of the problem was that during the second lockdown, from November 2020 until May 2021, no teaching work could take place, hence no grant funding could be applied for, but we still had rent and staff costs to cover.

We were successful in obtaining several grants which funded the container to Malawi shared with another local charity, Hooke Court in Malawi. The shortage of bikes in UK bike shops and increased demand for bikes, as more people took up cycling through the pandemic, meant we sold many high-value bikes shortly after advertising them, which helped our finances a great deal.

Our major expenditure, alongside rent and staff costs, was our 50% share of the shipping costs of the container of bikes to Malawi in March 2021. We also supplied bike spares to our existing programme in Gai, North Eastern Kenya, sourced directly from a bike shop in Nairobi.

We ran one sponsored ride in June 2021, which raised £500. This paid for one of the batches of spares to support our 245 bikes in Gai.

2. Supply of bikes to Africa, and ongoing support of delivered bikes.

Through this reporting period, three batches of spares were supplied to the programme in Gai. These amounted to some £2.7k worth of spares in total. Our mechanic Solomon put us in contact with Njana Cycle Services, a bike shop in Nairobi. They have proved very reliable in supplying the parts we order for supporting the bikes in Gai. This has made a big difference to the bikes supplied back in January 2020, which are nearly all still running two years later.

Our mechanics in Kenya, Solomon and Mbiti, have been very active at their workshop at the Tei Wa Yasu clinic in Gai, Kitui County. Children bring their bikes in from the surrounding area to have new parts fitted. Solomon went for three weeks Bike Mechanic training in Nairobi at our spares supplier, Njanja Cycle Services over Easter 2021. He learnt to build wheels there, which means more can be repaired in Gai, reducing the cost of our spares. Although we have not been able to visit to independently verify the impact of the project, we see many pictures of the bikes with their new owners around Gai, so we are confident many children are benefiting from improved access to their schools.

Our Operations Manager was hoping to go out to Kenya to see the programme around Gai. This was impossible in 2020 and 2021. A trip in October 2022 to Kenya is now proposed alongside AAF volunteers.

In March 2021 we completed a batch of 120 bikes and loaded these into a 40ft shipping container at our workshop. This was then transported to Hooke Court, a residential centre in West Dorset. Our partner charity, Hooke Court in Malawi, then loaded their half of the container with teaching resources and clothing. Once Malawi re-opened its borders in July 2021, the container left Hooke Court, arriving in October 2021. Unfortunately the team from Hooke Court was unable to visit as planned, with several potential trips having to be canceled as the South African variant of Covid spread through southern Africa. As of March 2022 the container is safely locked in a compound at its destination, a school in Malawi, awaiting the Hooke Court team to arrive in July 2022. 23 of the bikes have been given out to the heads of each of the schools. The remainder of the bikes will be distributed to the teachers when the Hooke Court team arrives. Mechanics have been recruited by Hooke Court, and the container has many spares and tools inside to support these bikes for many years to come.

Our project in Gai, North Eastern Kenya. Clockwise from Top Left, John Mbiti with a spares delivery from Njanja, A girl from a local school and boys from another local school bringing their bikes in for servicing at the Sunday workshop at the Clinic, Solomon with his home-made wheel true-ing jig.

Our shipment to Malawi with Hooke Court: Top and Centre - Loading at Prodigal Bikes HQ and at Hooke Court. Bottom - three of the bike recipients - headmasters at nearby schools.

Work in South Somerset with Ex-Offenders, Long term Unemployed and Homeless people.

The work during this reporting period was severely affected by the second pandemic lockdown, which was very frustrating. By November 2020, a group of two older gentlemen and two brothers around 20 years old had formed an effective group. They were producing a large number of bikes. This group had to be suspended at the start of the second lockdown. The workshop then restarted in April 2021 with one of the brothers and a new starter, the remainder of the previous group having moved away. We worked with a youngster from the Somerset Youth Offending Teams for a few weeks in July, who went on to find a paid role in the construction industry. Through August and September the group struggled to restart, and the Operations Manager got Covid so could not teach for a couple of weeks. Finally in October a new group formed. It consisted of one the youngsters from before, plus two more who had found Prodigal Bikes and came along themselves. This group has continued into 2022 and all are showing promising signs of moving away from their previous lives towards employment in the Engineering Sector. Throughout all this time, AR has been assisted by volunteer Steve Carden, who has provided much support, collecting bikes, helping fundraise and assisting AR in the workshop. We are very grateful for his assistance.

Clockwise from Top Left - Our youngsters working on the bikes, Mountain Biking at Puddletown Forest, A Kalkhoff electric bike which we sold to pay for our spares shipments, At the start of our sponsored ride - the Jurassic Roast 49 mile ride to the coast and back from Prodigal Bikes HQ.

Future plans

With rising prices of oil and global shipping, the cost of our bike shipments are becoming a concern. Although shipments to Africa were not as badly affected as those between China and the western world, the current figure of £8k for a 20ft container with 130 bikes inside to Kenya (including import duties and insurance) is too high. With shipping prices looking like they will remain high for the foreseeable future, we will need to ship large batches of bikes, increasing to 350 at a time in 40ft Hi-Cube containers. This will roughly halve our costs per bike for shipping. In order to achieve this, we need to produce bikes more quickly and store more bikes at our workshop. Hence we are looking to open the workshop for 2 days per week and accommodate more groups from the South Somerset area. Funding for this is being applied for. We are also looking to build a mezzanine floor in the workshop to increase our bike storage to around 300 bikes, with the remainder in adjacent stores.

Work is underway for a batch of 50 bikes to go to a charity working in Eldoret, Western Kenya, Langas Gorofani Luo. They work with people living in the shanty towns around the city. They have requested bikes for the people they train, to help them reach their jobs. They have also requested a significant amount of educational resources. A partner charity to supply this equipment has been identified and the partnership formed. They are Tool Aid Ringwood, based in east Dorset They are supplying a large number of tools to equip the workshop in Eldoret, and have made a substantial donation towards the shipping costs. This container, due for dispatch later in 2022 will also contain 20 bikes for a charity called Agbel Self Help Group, who help the disadvantaged in their community about 1 hour drive south of Eldoret. The bikes will help the disadvantaged get around and reach markets where they can trade the produce they grow to generate an income for themselves.

Following a number of applications to Prodigal Bikes from charities in East Africa, a number of other charities are under consideration as recipients for bikes. We are aiming to supply one with a container of 350 bikes in 2023, alongside supporting our existing programme in Gai.

Our Operations Manager is hoping to visit Kenya in October 2022 to see the project in Gai and Eldoret, and meet in person the people involved.

We are planning to increase our teaching work to two days per week, on Wednesdays and Fridays. We are looking at working with some people with learning difficulties and working with a local organization involved with training long term unemployed people, as well as continuing with our existing group.

We also plan to run a sponsored ride to raise money for our next shipment.

Charity Accounts.

The charity’s accounts attached to this report have been prepared in line with current statutory requirements.

On behalf of the trustees

Tim Neville – Chair of Trustees, Prodigal Bikes. 12[ th ] March 2022

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of PRODIG4L WKES On accounts for the year ended 31ST OCTOBER 2021 Charity no (if any) 1170845 Set out on pages I rewrt to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above chartty (Ihe Trusn for the year ended 31 10 2018. Responsibilities and As the chanty trustees of the Trust. you are reswnsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in a(xordance wilh the requirernents of the Charities Act 2011 (Ihe Acr}. I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounls carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination. I have fOll(N the applicable Direction5 given by the ChaTity Commission under secbon 1495}Ib) of the Ad. I have compted my examination. I confim) that no material matters have come to my attention in connecth)n wrth the examination which gives me Cause to tElieve thal in. any material respect". accounting records vLYe not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the acwunts do not cord with the accounting rrdS Independent examinerfs statement I have no cOnmS and have come across no other matters in connection wlth the examination lo which attentn should be drawn in ordei to enable 8 proper understanding of the accounts to be teached. Signed: Date: )l.k. 2oz£ Name: Relevant prof¢s$lonal qualifi¢ation(s) or body (if any): FLLA Address: 21 HIfv17D S1 r} 17 Section B Disclosure Onty complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examinatK)n of charty accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). IER October 2018

CHARITY COMMISSIO FOR ENGLAND AND WALE Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period from To dlllll,2021 Section A Receipts and payments Unrestricted funds Rgstrfcted lunds Endowment funds Total lunds Last year b) the neare&t£ tothe r•rESt£ to the nearESt£ to the noarest£ A1 Recei PurC DornabS Grant Fr¢yn SomeF5et Com. Foundation Grant frtyn F le Fwfjdab'on Grant from Norman Famil TrLtst Grant trom Somerset Crimebeai Tnjst Grant from A%hworih Char. Trust Gr8nt froFn Van Neste FouTrJat&tiri Grant from Coks Medlodt Folda1 Granl froffl Gilchrist Edu(*t%wl Tnjst Grant Irotn Marsh Charitable Ttust Gen8r2tions EducAltonal Trust GrfEMd Re(lat kel arts sales and re VAT Redaim 1905 1627 4,000 3.500 1.000 000 3,000 2.000 8.000 373 1785 578 3n 1785 578 1,065 4,685 403 Sub total{Gross income for AR) 10.141 18.1 24141 16280 A2 Assot and Investment sales, Sub totsl 10.141 t8,000 141 14280 A3 Payments Bike parts & toals. LIK So1 SupFYJrt: Sp8re5 Tyaining Cont8irÉr Shippir¥J (to K4alowrl UK Training 125 6A15 1.623 700 R8ntof M)fkshop Public Liablllty Insurance VAT Paynw¥t pulty Workship Hèating 2.700 232 230 135 CCXX R1 a(XOLFnts {SSI 17106r2022

MI5c ExpendthJr* Par¢d Postsg8 763 763 526 Sub total 10282 10.000 20282 22.431 A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) Sub total 10282 10.01)0 20.282 22.431 Net of recelpts/(payments) - A5 Transfers between ndS A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end 141 7.859 6.151 413 413 6,564 413 272 8.272 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrestricted funds RestrKGted funds Endowment lunds Categories to near8st£ tg nèarost £ to neJrest£ B1 Cash fund5 Total cash fvn(ts 272 xmrfs)) Unrestri¢knl fund5 Restricted funds Endowment funds lo nearp¥tÉ to neaio$1£ 82 Other monetary assets Fund to whSch osi loptl•nal> Currerrt v?iu8 loptlonall Detzils - Za4A CCXX R2 accoutts {SSI 1710612022

Cwr•ntvalu• loptionall Details asset belong5 B4 Assets retained for the charity's own use OCK OF DONATED BICYCLES UNRESTRICTED WORKSH(F TOOLS UNRESTRICTED Fwd towhich When due lopth)nall Details B5 Llabllltles Signed by one or two Irustees Thi bèhalf of all the trustees Date of approval Swjnatttre Prinl Name CCXX R3 aixx)unts ISSI 1710612022