Charity number 1173072 (England and Wales)
and SC049523 (Scotland)
- Empowering people through writing -
TRUSTEE’S REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
21st October 2021 to 20th October 2022
1
Arkbound Foundation
Reference and administrative details
For the year ended 20[th] October 2022
Charity number 1173072 (England and Wales) SC049523 (Scotland)
Address and contact details
Arkbound Foundation Arkbound Foundation Redbrick House, York Court Rogart Street Campus 6 Wilder Street 4 Rogart Street Bristol Glasgow BS2 8QH G40 2AA 0117 4637197 0141 5724602 info@arkfound.org info@arkfound.org
Arkbound Foundation Rogart Street Campus 4 Rogart Street Glasgow G40 2AA
The trustees who served for the period of this report are as follows:-
Mike Findlay, Chair Jim Dempsey Waltraud Pospischil Amanda Thomas Michael Craig Beth Cowen Lena Gray (joined 19[th] December 2021) Anila Arshad-Mehmood (joined 14[th] January 2022) Matthew Lepley (joined 26[th] April 2022) Claire Harries (joined 28[th] June 2022) Dr Rula Al Abdulrazak (joined 4[th] October 2022) Tom Burgess (stepped down 12[th] March 2022) Eilidh Akilade (stepped down 27[th] January 2022) Ross Tanner (stepped down 27[th] January 2022)
Patrons
Anthony Hopkins CBE Jane Hatton Eoin Mclennan-Murray Lucy Watts MBE
Independent Examiner
Ahmed Khan CIMA Capital Office 124 City Rd London EC1V 2NX
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Arkbound Foundation
Report of the trustees
For the year 21[st] October 2021 - 20[th] October 2022
Structure, Governance and Management
Type of governing document: Constitution How the charity is constituted: CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) - only voting members are charity trustees Trustee selection method: Appointed through open, full board meeting decisions
Objects and activities
The charitable objects of the CIO are: -
a. TO PROMOTE SOCIAL INCLUSION for the public benefit by working with people across the UK of all age groups who are socially excluded on the grounds of disability, poverty, criminal background, ethnicity, or any other characteristic, and to relieve the needs of these groups to assist them to integrate more effectively into society, particularly by: -
i. Empowering these groups through workshops and events to convey their personal stories in a way that can be understood and appreciated by the wider community. ii. Providing mentoring whereby individuals from these groups can fairly access the means to publish their work for the wider community to read and to develop their writing skills in a manner that improves their wellbeing.
iii. Providing a means by which these groups can convey their stories through books and the media at large, thereby helping to tackle stigma, misunderstanding and discrimination. iv. Engaging these groups in discussions regarding climate change and the environment and promoting good environmental practice and awareness of related issues
b. FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION: For the public benefit to promote learning for people of all age-groups from disadvantaged backgrounds through the continued development of their individual capabilities, competencies, skills and understanding in subjects of educational value.
How the charity implemented the objectives and the main activities undertaken for the public benefit over the last year(s):
The charity is grassroots founded, with lived experience core team members, as well as equality and diversity led. It works directly with people from a range of disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds, principally those who suffer social exclusion because of poverty, disability, ethnic and any other equality rights protected features, also those with refugee status, a conviction or criminal record, addictions, drug abuse, living in poverty or being long-term unemployed.
We provide ongoing writing, mentoring and publishing support to those with experience of the criminal justice system through our Writing Within Walls project, this year running our second National Writing Competition. With 16 mentees supported and over 80 submissions to the competition, it will result in a published anthology planned for 2023. In the words of one mentee:-
“The programme has been a lifeline of hope for me. It gave me contact to the real world and that push I needed in bringing something new to my life – writing.”
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Arkbound Foundation
Report of the trustees
For the year 21[st] October 2021 - 20[th] October 2022
Our mentors themselves also come from disadvantaged backgrounds and have been supported to widen their own skills:-
“I felt like I gained skills in giving feedback and constructive criticism. I am more confident now in using my experience to enable others. The fact that I thought I was being a positive influence was good for my self-esteem.”
We ran a series of 8 writing workshops in partnership with Wild Goose café in Bristol, targeted at people with experience of homelessness. Sessions were facilitated by expert writers, allowing participants to gain a wide range of writing experience that aligned with their interests and needs. 3 participants have gone on to be mentored, with the opportunity of any written work receiving an advance royalty. The workshops were part funded by Quartet Community Foundation.
“The workshops have been great, and I have looked forward to going each time. They are interactive and have helped me to get going again with my imagination and storybuilding." – Participant
“Our first session was a full house, all keen to learn and engage, so there was lots of creative energy in the room! Sometimes people can be quite nervous about sharing things they’ve written, but the attendees were keen to take part in writing exercises and share after. There was lots of discussion about their writing, and their passion really came through, which was a real joy to see. Facilitating these workshops has been really enjoyable and has inspired me greatly. I feel writing is so important for mental well-being, so I passionately feel these workshops are so important.” - Facilitator
We managed to publish 6 titles, on themes ranging from teenage exclusion to the health impacts of COVID-19. Additional attention was given to expanding the promotional reach and distribution of each title, in part through our new distributor Gazelle and through the efforts of a dedicated promotional coordinator.
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Arkbound Foundation
Report of the trustees
For the year 21[st] October 2021 - 20[th] October 2022
Continued support and open access for people from all backgrounds to volunteer for the charity, alongside facilitating paid internships, saw the charity take on board a total of 64 people across the year. As noted by one volunteer:-
“Volunteering with Arkbound has been such an enlightening experience: I’ve gained so much insight, confidence and fulfilment in knowing what Arkbound stands for. I’ve also had the pleasure of getting to know so many people who are always supportive and helpful in every way.”
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Arkbound Foundation
Report of the trustees
For the year 21st October 2021 - 20th October 2022
The above included participation in a special initiative of the Job Center to support young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, one of whom we took on as a permanent member of the year. Later in the year, we collaborated with Graduate Career Advantage in Scotland to support the placement of one young person facing unemployment.
Governance
Over the last 12 months the charity‟s governance was stable, with meetings held at regular throughout the year. Our general board meetings take place every month. Important decisions are made by majority vote and every trustee can bring up agenda points. All meetings are properly recorded through minutes which get taken during the meetings, then circulated to all trustees a few days later, once they are written out and confirmed to be accurate.
We also advanced through regular trustee training opportunities, and every board member is made aware of the resources and regulations which are available through the CCEW gov.uk pages. Our policies get regularly updated and we have all essential ones in comprehensive forms, like safeguarding, data protection, complaints, conflicts of interests, expenses, volunteering, together with internal contacts, designated persons, as well as outside contacts for emergencies.
Achievements and performance
Amongst our titles published, we supported the Bristol BAME author Ros Martin and her book “Before I am Rendered Invisible”, which was released during Black History Month 2022. By presenting the author‟s personal journey, the book throws a harrowing spotlight on issues behind racial inequality. It was celebrated through a well-attended book launch in Bristol Waterstones, where Ros presented her inspirational volume of spoken word, social commentary, play, essay, and memoir and sold 80 signed copies of her publication at the event, with spotlights in regional media.
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Arkbound Foundation
Report of the trustees
For the year 21st October 2021 - 20th October 2022
We also celebrated the life of our late author David Onamade, who we supported while he had been homeless, employed him as admin in our Bristol office and published his book “Sorrow, Tears & Blood”. David‟s book got shortlisted for the prestigious New Kavya Prize this year and we attended the awards ceremony at Glasgow Mitchell Library.
Arkbound Foundation‟s support tackling the refugee crisis and providing a clear, unbiased picture of the overall situation has seen us support the publication of „The Five Stages of Moria by Elika Ansari:
“A multi-POV reflection of a complex and multi-faceted refugee experience, based on true stories of despair and resilience. Using the first-hand insight, the author gained in the years she spent working there as a humanitarian aid worker, she resurrects the largest refugee camp in Europe through its stories”.
We were successful in our bid to be awarded funding by the Postcode Lottery and Big Issue, receiving a grant and loan that has enabled the charity to develop significantly. Through this support, we have a stronger staff team and outreach, as well as the launch of new initiatives. Two of these include the launch of Palavro – a dedicated imprint that overcomes the former challenges of postage and distribution in Europe caused as a consequence of Brexit – as well as the launch of a brand new crowdfunding platform called Crowdbound.
The new platforms allows us to support books and projects that cover social and environmental themes. Most projects to date are related to books written by people from disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds, predominantly those have sought publication through Arkbound. It is a way to support book publication costs without being reliant on grants, whilst improving reader interest and demand for the books when published. By donating, people can receive a reward – varying from a signed copy of a book for lower amounts, to a dedicated writing session for higher amounts. Gift Aid can also be applied to some donations. Our first campaign, for the book „Invisible Schemes‟ by John McGlade, raised over its target. John noted:-
“I used Crowdbound to launch my first crowdfunder effort for my novel, 'Invisible Schemes', and also in support of a charity initiative called 'Power Over Poverty'. I hit my target in 10 days, three weeks inside the target date! The site played in a big part in my success - I found it easy to use, and the team was helpful with a query that I had. I would recommend this site to anyone running a crowdfunding effort!” – John McGlade, author of Invisible Schemes
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Arkbound Foundation
Report of the trustees
For the year 21st October 2021 - 20th October 2022
The site had some initial launch teething problems but despite this has been an overwhelming success. 90% of subsequentcampaigns have reached or surpassed their targets, with the remainder still raising more than 50% and going ahead. User feedback has been excellent, and it has enabled us to raise additional
amounts in donations whilst also covering the charity‟s publishing costs. We plan to introduce new elements and to expand promotion, further building on Crowdbound‟s success.
Crowdbound has also enabled publication of other books from different publishers by authors experiencing disadvantage or under-representation, including one in support of our founding grant makers - the Princes‟ Trust, with this and other book projects part-funded via a grant made by Amazon‟s Partnerships. Arkbound Foundation has also enabled the support of a tree planting initiative in Nepal, providing an additional £1000 in funding.
Our environmental efforts, following on from the leading projects last year and recognition by the United Nations Environmental Programme, have also included running our own tree planting project in Bristol, comparable to our last „Oakupy‟ planting round, with 1000 native saplings scheduled for collection in November.
Operational support and development of projects has been further bolstered by funding from the Big Issue, who continue to provide on-going advise to help the charity reach its targets. Examples of success in our presence and operations include a Japanese company buying the translation rights to „Great Adaptations‟, a book we published last year and promoted widely, together with our nomination as one of the top 100 UK social enterprises: Top 100 social enterprises in UK revealed: NatWest SE100 2022 | The Social Enterprise Magazine - Pioneers Post.
This August we were also chosen as a Finalist for the Social Enterprise Champion Award: The 2022 Social Enterprise Awards Scotland Shortlist - Social Enterprise Awards Scotland with an awards ceremony at the Scottish Parliament. This continues a series of award-winning selections for the charity.
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Arkbound Foundation
Report of the trustees
For the year 21st October 2021 - 20th October 2022
Overcoming challenges and obstacles
Continuing impacts from COVID-19 and Brexit represented challenges to the charity‟s operations, both on a staffing and income level. We managed to overcome these by continuing to offer staff the chance to work from home. With Brexit, it became the case that books sent to customers in Europe were subject to import fee tariffs, something that was both a disruption and a financial drain with around 28% of our books ordered by European customers in 2022, which could only be circumvented by creating a dedicated imprint (Palavro) in Europe, with printing and distribution within the EU to those customers.
We have found throughout this period a shift in the needs of our beneficiaries, represented in part by the worsening of a cost of living crisis. This has made it necessary in many cases to focus our attention on improving access to essential services, by working closely with other organisations. Likewise we have found a greater need to enhance the ways in which writing can improve mental health, confidence and community connections – drawing more on its individual therapeutic elements than the wider, societal changes it can make. Nonetheless, we succeeded in holding book launches again, which were well attended and featured publications covering wider social themes. We continued providing frequent free events and engagement opportunities online, like in the year before, and increased our outreach through facilitating multiple ways (all social media channels, YouTube, TikTok) to get informed about and to engage with meaningful content.
Recognising the impacts of cost of living, we have kept pace with inflation and ensured all our staff receive the current Living Wage, whilst also offering expanded hours to key staff. This has, in turn, increased our charity‟s running costs, which has put pressure to ensure our regular monthly income continues to build in line with our business plans and the requirements of our investment.
Operationally, we hope to address the following challenges next year:-
-
High staff turnover – we have to date used an employment model of part time, remote based hours. Increased funding can allow us to increase staff hours to improve retention and more closely implement the sociocratic governance method we aspire to (https://www.sociocracyforall.org). The flexibility of remote based work should not be removed, but greater levels of structured supervision and training will sought to be provided to core staff.
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Reliance on grant income – we will focus on expanding book sales through adequate promotion and distribution, developing our corporate sponsorship offering through enhanced outreach to organisations, together with ensuring all aspects of our business plan are implemented.
-
No dedicated fundraising – despite the aim of reducing reliance on grant income, we recognise the importance of a diverse array of grants that can, where possible, support projects. For that reason, next year, we will ensure there is a dedicated fundraising plan with professional assistance.
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Arkbound Foundation
Report of the trustees
For the year 21st October 2021 - 20th October 2022
Financial review
The Arkbound Foundation aims to keep at least three months running costs in reserves, so as to cover emergency or unexpected costs. We have managed to continue doing that throughout this period.
During the last financial year, we were able to arrange two social investment loans, which both came together with a grant and free training support, which covered the extra costs of the loan repayment interests. The loans - a total of £95,000 - provided security for Arkbound Foundation‟s outreach plans, improved staff and human resources capacity, and updated our organisation‟s financial image on a cooperate level. The grants received alongside these totalled £55,000, with a further £31,250 received in other grants across the year. We also received an extra £17,437 on support to deliver salaried employment training opportunities through the DWP Kickstart Scheme, which makes it a total of £103,687, most of it received as restricted fundings. The principal single source of income, except our social investment loans, was through grants.
Even though the economic climate has not been favourable, we managed to make a move away from the unpredictability of grants with new incentives, like through establishing Crowdbound - our own crowdfunding platform - and by drawing upon growing trading income and improving networking links to cooperate sponsorship partners.
The charity‟s principal expenditure was direct project delivery costs from book publications, workshop delivery and mentoring. The secondary expense was staff salaries for administration and coordination, followed by office rent (loan repayments as single expense came up higher than rent). As before, all these areas were kept at a very economical level, under the principle that internal operational costs must always come second to actually delivering projects that generate social impact.
Independent examiner
Ahmed Khan was appointed as independent examiner for the charity in this period.
This report was approved by the trustees on 21[st] November 2022 and signed on their behalf by:
Digitally signed by 74ef7043-33ec-4669a919-795576a923fe DN: cn=74ef7043-33ec-4669a919-795576a923fe Date: 2022.11.23 18:06:08 Z
_________,
Chair of Trustees
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Independent examiner’s report
To the trustees of the Arkbound Foundation
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Arkbound Foundation („the charity‟) for the year ended 20th October 2022, which are set out on pages 12 to 17.
Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner
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 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 material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
-
(1) Accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
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(2) 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.
Date: 18[th] November 2022
Ahmed Khan CIMA Capital Office 124 City Rd London EC1V 2NX
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Arkbound Foundation
Receipts and payment account
For the year ended 20[th] October 2022
| 12 months to 20/10/2022 Total £ |
12 months to 20/10/2022 Total £ |
Restated [Period in last accounts] Total£ |
Restated [Period in last accounts] Total£ |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receipts | ||||
| Donations and corporate sponsorships | 30,045 | 36,089 | ||
| Grants(1) | 103,687 | 56,718 | ||
| Revenue from book sales and publishing | 19,848 | 16,500 | ||
| Support in kind | 2,388 | 1,038 | ||
| Ebay sales | 924 | 0 | ||
| Crowdbound | 2,457 | 0 | ||
| Loans | 95,000 | 0 | ||
| Receipts | 254,349 | 110,345 | ||
| Total | 254,349 | 110,345 | ||
| Payments | ||||
| Book publication costs (all elements) | 32,986 | 18,578 | ||
| Advertising and promotion | 4736 | 3,341 | ||
| Writing and journalism workshops | 5349 | 2,870 | ||
| Staff salaries | 48,254 | 36,460 | ||
| Volunteer and trustee expenses | 2105 | 1,772 | ||
| Mentoring network costs | 6098 | 4,809 | ||
| Office rent | 5614 | 2,243 | ||
| Insurance | 257 | 150 | ||
| Postage and stationery | 2056 | 1,390 | ||
| Website costs | 1480 | 465 | ||
| Equipment and materials | 1720 | 1,206 | ||
| Environmental projects | 6477 | 7154 | ||
| Membership fees | 270 | 0 | ||
| Small grants and prizes(2) | 2500 | 1,591 | ||
| Fundraising costs | 8650 | 9,490 | ||
| Loan repayments | 9640 | 0 | ||
| Total payments | **138,192 ** | 91,669 |
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Arkbound Foundation
Receipts and payment account (cont.)
For the year ended 20[th] October 2022
| Net receipts / (payments) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cash funds at 21~~st~~October 2021 |
51,268 | |
| Cash funds at 20~~th~~October 2022 | 116,157 |
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Arkbound Foundation
Balance sheet
As at 20[th] October 2022
| Current assets Debtors: amounts falling due within 1 year(3) Cash at hand and in bank Creditors: amounts falling due within 1 year(4) Net current assets Total assets less current liabilities Total net assets Charity funds Restricted funds(5) Unrestricted funds(6) Total funds |
11,278 116,157 116,157 21,948 |
2022 £ 127,435 105,487 105,487 83,958 21,529 105,487 |
0 51,268 51,268 (0) |
2021 £ 51,268 |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 51,268 | ||||||
| 51,268 36,600 12,668 |
||||||
| 51,268 |
The notes on pages 15 to 17 form part of these financial statements.
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Arkbound Foundation
Notes to the financial statements
As at 20[th] October 2022
| (1) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grants received | |||||
| Name of source | Amount received | Funding purpose | |||
| (£) | |||||
| Old Possum‟s Charitable Trust | 5000 | Writing |
Within Walls project | ||
| (restricted) | |||||
| Quartet Community Foundation | 5000 | Writing | workshops | ||
| (restricted) | |||||
| Amazon Literature Partnerships | 5000 | Publishing (restricted) |
|||
| Big Issue Access | 21,250 | Core operations, workshops |
|||
| and | staff | (restricted) | |||
| Big Issue Invest | 5000 | Core | operations | ||
| (unrestricted) | |||||
| People‟s Postcode Lottery | 45,000 | Core operations, business |
|||
| plan (restricted) | |||||
| Kickstart | 17,437 | Employment and training |
|||
| (restricted) | |||||
| (2) | |||||
| Grants given | |||||
| Recipient name | Amount given | Funding purpose | |||
| (£) | |||||
| Jasami Publishing | 800 | Book | publishing | ||
| Glacier Trust | 1000 | Tree planting | |||
| Prince‟s Trust | 500 | Supporting young people in |
|||
| publishing | |||||
| Govanhill Community Center | 800 | Supporting disadvantaged |
|||
| people into writing | |||||
| Arts Alliance | 750 | Supporting placement for |
|||
| disabled carer |
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Arkbound Foundation
Notes to the financial statements (cont.)
As at 20[th] October 2022
| (3) Debtors Due within 1 year Trade debtors Prepayments and accrued income Grants (4) Creditors Due within 1 year Book royalties Loan repayments (5) Restricted funds Current year Writing Within Walls Creative Writing Mentoring Book publishing Writing workshops Staff Work placements |
2022 (£) 6068 210 5000 11,278 2022 (£) 2100 19,848 21,948 |
2021 £ 0 0 0 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 2021 (£) 0 0 |
|||
| 0 Amount (£) 10,000 8500 12,986 7000 28,035 17,437 83,958 |
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Arkbound Foundation
Notes to the financial statements (cont.)
As at 20[th] October 2022
| (6) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted funds | ||
| Current year | ||
| Source | Amount | |
| (£) | ||
| Big Issue Invest | 5000 | |
| Sponsorships | 5000 | |
| Donations | 11,529 | |
| Total | 21,529 |
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