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Trustees Report, July 31[st,] 2019 to July 30[th] , 2020
This is the 3rd report submitted by The Marketing Academy Foundation and covers the period July 31[st] , 2019 to July 30[th] , 2020.
1. Introduction
The Marketing Academy Foundation exists to enable careers starts in the marketing industries for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The marketing industry offers a range of interesting jobs and provides people with satisfying, long term careers. But, by its own admission, the industry does not reflect broader society in terms of the makeup of its workforce. It is more white, more middle class, more Russell Group University educated than the population. The industry knows that this bias means they are missing out on talents, skills and perspectives that comes from having a more diverse and inclusive workforce.
Talented young people who are less advantaged than the average often find marketing a hard industry to break into. They lack knowledge of it and lack the social capital that might make gaining that knowledge a little easier. And often, their formal educational achievements are not as strong as those of young people from more advantaged backgrounds. The
Marketing Academy Foundation is dedicated to helping talented young people from challenging backgrounds gain that first, vital job opportunity in the industry.
We mostly do this by securing 12-month, salaried jobs (apprenticeships) for our beneficiaries in the marketing departments of leading companies (hosts), where they learn through a combination of hands-on job experience and formal training. At the end of this 12-month period, the young person has a substantial body of achievements to put on their CV, ensuring they can compete with their peers on a more equal footing. They also have the opportunity to study for a nationally recognised qualification in marketing, and most do. It is a high quality, high intervention but low volume approach, justified by the outcomes we are achieving (see below).
2. How we secure and fund the opportunities for our beneficiaries.
Last year we reported we were moving to a fully funded model where the host company pays for the direct employment costs of the ‘apprentice’ (wages, tax, NI, pension) and pays
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The Marketing Academy Foundation a fee for recruiting the young person and helping to support them with training, mentoring and job-hunting skills across the year. The model is proving successful with 5 funding host companies enrolled up to and including y/e 30th July 2020.
3. The apprenticeships we secured over the fiscal year.
In last year’s report we noted the commencement of 1 apprenticeship at Karmarama (Accenture Interactive) and two at Nationwide, with all three young people completing their apprenticeship year in fiscal 2019/20. Two apprentices started at The Prince’s Trust, and we added two more host companies, Amazon and Nomad foods, taking two apprentices each, starting this fiscal.
Over the 12-month fiscal period 9 young people, placed at 5 different host companies, fulfilled the bulk of their apprenticeship year. The cohort of 9 represents a 30% increase on
the number of apprenticeships in 18/19. We have ambitions to continue this steady increase in apprenticeships and widen the services we provide ensuring we fulfil our purpose for more young people, in a variety of ways (see below).
The apprenticeships were delivered at 5 different host companies:
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Karmarama;
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Nationwide;
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The Princes Trust;
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Nomad Foods;
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Amazon.
Bar The Prince’s Trust, all the other hosts were fully funded, reinforcing our belief that our financial model is a sustainable one,
allowing us to fulfil our purpose but with less reliance on continuous fundraising. Within that, two hosts employ the apprentices directly while the remainder fund us to be their employer, with the charity seconding the apprentice back to the host for the 12-month period.
We are intent on broadening the number of host companies and the 20/21 report will feedback on the addition of new hosts acquired.
4. The outcomes for the fiscal year 2019/20 – 100% Successful outcomes and 86% Successful Outcome Plus.
We consider an outcome successful if an apprentice completes the 12-month apprenticeship. This is recorded as Successful Outcome . Additionally, we continue to monitor the progress of our graduating apprentices to see if they gain long term employment after completing the programme and record this as Successful Outcome Plus.
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The table below shows start/graduation dates for individuals whose apprenticeship year is substantially in fiscal 2019/20 and where known, the Successful Outcome and Successful Outcome Plus. Within this last category, we also record whether long term employment was found with the host or another company.
| APPRENTICE HOST COMPANY START/COMPLETION DATE SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME PLUS JOB WITH |
APPRENTICE HOST COMPANY START/COMPLETION DATE SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME PLUS JOB WITH |
|---|---|
| T | Karmarama May 19/April 20 YES YES Host |
| A | Nationwide July 19/July 20 YES YES Host |
| T2 | Nationwide July 19/July 20 YES YES Host |
| R | Prince’s Trust July 19/Oct 20 To be reported 20/21 n/a n/a |
| S | Prince’s Trust Sept 19/Oct 20 To be reported 20/21 n/a n/a |
| M | Nomad Foods Jan 20/Jan 22 To be reported 20/21 n/a n/a |
| U | Nomad Foods Jan 20/Jan 22 To be reported 20/21 n/a n/a |
| T3 | Amazon Feb 20/Feb 21 To be reported 20/21 n/a n/a |
| M2 | Amazon Feb 20/Feb 21 To be reported 20/21 n/a n/a |
And we achieved ‘Successful Outcome Plus’ for previous graduating apprentices We noted in last year’s report that the employment outcomes were to be reported in fiscal 2019/20 and we are delighted to report Successful Outcome Plus for ¾ graduating apprentices who finished their apprentice years just before the close of the 18/19 fiscal.
Apprentice A – Successful outcome in 18/19. Successful Outcome Plus in 19/20 attained as employment obtained after the apprenticeship at The Financial Times.
Apprentice K2 – Successful outcome in 18/19. Chose a role as a carer in a charity, so this was not a “successful outcome plus” as the individual did not progress their career in marketing.
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Apprentice M – Successful outcome in 18/19. Successful Outcome Plus in 19/20 as employment obtained in a marketing role at Tapi Carpets.
Apprentice V - Successful outcome in 18/19. Successful Outcome Plus in 19/20 employment obtained in a role at advertising agency VCCP.
5. Supporting the apprentices to gain formal qualifications
In addition, we encourage each of our apprentices to enrol for a formal marketing qualification.
Apprentices A, T2, M, R, T3 and M2 all enrolled for CIM Level 3 in Marketing Award.
A, T2 and R all completed and passed, with 2 distinctions and 1 merit pass. Apprentices M, M2 and T 3 all passed Part 1 of the course with Distinction and will complete Part 2 of the course in Oct/Nov, so the final results will be reported in 20/21.
Apprentice S enrolled on the IDM Award in Digital Marketing, passing with distinction. As ever we are grateful to both CIM and IDM for their continued support of our charity and their generous support and help with their courses.
6. The support we provide to the apprentices across the 12 months
As well as enrolling the apprentices on a formal qualification, we enrich their 12 months of work experience with in-house training, mentoring and job-hunting coaching towards the end of the apprenticeship. This additional level of training and support is designed to equip our beneficiaries with knowledge, confidence, and contacts, so that they can compete equally in the jobs market going forward.
Below, we outline what was provided, but in many instances, we needed to change our approach in response to COVID 19 and the imposition of full or partial lockdown for the final quarter of the fiscal period.
i) Coping with COVID 19, work from home and lockdown
On the 23[rd of] March 2020 the Prime Minister announced the 1[st] lockdown and work from home order. All the host companies where our apprentices were placed complied immediately and all 9 of our cohort were sent home to work. This was a necessary but disruptive reality. For the apprentices into the last 3-6 months of the programme it was far from ideal, but they at least knew their job and their colleagues, both of which eased the new work from home regime. However, for the four apprentices who had started in Jan/Feb 2020 this turn of events was unsettling. They had to learn the job, at home, alone, without the organic learning and companionship that an office environment provides.
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The new reality provoked two questions.
i) Should we continue with the apprenticeships as planned or pause and resume once life returned to normal?
ii) If we decide to continue, how can we best support our apprentices to manage the new working reality?
The charity staff, trustees and host companies debated and concluded that continuing with the apprentice programme as planned was the best course of action. There was no certainty about when lockdown would end, and it was deemed better to continue than to pause for an unspecified amount of time.
But the support the charity and the hosts gave the apprentices evolved. The hosts all provided IT equipment at home and appropriate office furniture if required. The charity supplemented this by purchasing a folding desk and chair for 1 apprentice. Hosts instituted weekly 1-2-1 online catch ups and included the apprentices in all online team meetings.
The charity likewise evolved the face-to-face training sessions which happened every other month to fortnightly online sessions and instituted a bi-weekly phone call with each apprentice to check on welfare.
The apprentices adapted surprisingly well to the new working conditions – and while not as rich an experience as working in an office – all progressed and continued to remain involved in and engaged by daily tasks.
ii) Bespoke training
In addition to enrolling the apprentices onto a formal qualification, we provide a programme of bespoke training. Initially, this was a 6-part series of full day face-to-face sessions, covering key aspects of the marketing mix (what is a brand, how do you develop a marketing plan, how do you develop a paid/owned/earned media plan, how do you develop creative ideas). This was designed and delivered by TMAF staff and leading industry practitioners.
Post lockdown, we evolved to fortnightly online sessions of shorter duration, splitting the planned curriculum down into 2.5-hour modules. The sessions continued to cover key elements of the marketing mix but were supplemented with sessions covering personal development (understanding your values and work style, defining your leadership style, how to be effective at work, how to be resilient).
We conducted a small piece of qualitative research in the summer of 2020 to gauge satisfaction with the in-house training. The apprentices reported that they appreciated the sessions, finding them useful and interesting and, when interactive, fun. We are evolving the programme to ensure interactive exercises and group work are a bigger part of all sessions going forward.
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iii) Mentoring
Within the first 3 months of becoming apprentices, we provide each apprentice with two mentors. We draw our mentors from attendees of The Marketing Academy’s Scholarship Programme, supplemented with practitioners from top creative agencies. These mentors have between 5-10 years’ experience at leading firms. Over the course of the year our apprentices were mentored by people from Bird’s Eye, McCann, Bloom and Wild, BT, Eurostar, Creature and Facebook.
iv) Employability training
As each apprentice approaches the final 3 months of their 12 -month programme, we work with them to improve their job-hunting skills. This involves coaching sessions on writing a compelling CV and cover letter, how to prepare for interview and live interview practice sessions. Graduating apprentices T, A and T2 didn’t need the training as they were taken on permanently by their hosts. But apprentices R and S have both received the training and we are delighted to say secured employment, although the outcome fell in fiscal 20/21 and will be formally documented as an outcome then.
We have also written guides to accompany the training sessions, on each of the key areas outlined above. We provide these guides to all the candidates we interview for apprenticeships, whether they go on to be recruited or not.
Our experience is that the calibre of CV writing and interview performance is variable among our applicants. Given the competitiveness of the job market, we feel this is a critical area of improvement for our beneficiary pool. We continue to explore ways to provide practical help and advice on this to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds seeking careers in marketing.
With the aim of helping individuals secure a job in marketing even if we were not the provider of the opportunity, we had set up a full day’s pilot employability bootcamp, “Be the One” on Saturday March 28[th] , 2020. This was to be a live event modelled on the employability programme offered for the past two years for our graduating apprentices and was to involve a total of c. 30 volunteers and 10 participants. Beneficiaries were drawn from applicants who were shortlisted, but ultimately unsuccessful, in securing one of our apprenticeship roles. On March 11 (ahead of the government’s announcement on a national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic) we elected to cancel the event due to our concerns about the safety of bringing so many people from different households together in close proximity. Whilst being proud of our pro-active decision, being unable to run this bootcamp is one of our biggest disappointments of the year. We continued to help the participants with advice and offering them other opportunities, and in several instances, we supported them into work or they secured apprenticeships with us. It is a matter of much regret that we lost touch with a small number. We were unable to reinstate any form of bootcamp pilot until February 2021, when we did a very small virtual event and which we will cover in next year’s annual report.
v) Donation to another organisation
We supported The School of Communication Arts, a not-for-profit “Ad school” with an outstanding reputation, by donating £2,000 for their scholarship fund to enable individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds take their course. Their purpose aligns exactly with ours.
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7. Fundraising
Over the course of the 19/20 fiscal, we raised £23,912 through our fundraising activities. This was generated by a large donation and two fundraising events:
• A ticketed fundraising event organised by The Marketing Academy Foundation - “Breakfast with Mary Portas”, with Mary kindly donating her attendance.
• Voluntary donations from attendees of “leadership accelerator” a free event run by Sarah Ellis of Amazing If. We are very grateful to Sarah, who has run this event annually and those who chose to donate to us at her invitation.
• A donation from The Marketing Academy. We are very grateful for their help in cash and in kind.
We are enormously grateful to all the individuals and organisations who give us such significant, generous, regular and unstinting support. Additional funds were secured via ad hoc donations across the year and by donated speaker’s fees from our trustees, volunteers and staff, whose generosity is also much appreciated.
We hope to become less dependent on fundraising as our funded apprenticeship model takes hold. But whilst we are in an interim stage and whilst we build up a desired reserve, we will continue to fundraise. We also value fundraising activities in generating engagement of supporters and building the profile of the charity.
To that end, towards the end of the reported period we initiated a fundraising idea called The MAFTAS (The Marketing Academy Foundation TV Awards). We asked volunteers to remake a famous TV ad, starring themselves, and fundraise by asking their personal networks to donate to see the finished effort. The initiative was off to a flying start by the end of July 2020 and full results will be reported in 20/21.
8. Our ambition for 2021 and beyond
Increasing the number of apprenticeships we can offer remains our primary objective. We believe it is the surest way of helping young people from disadvantaged backgrounds get started on careers in marketing.
We had hoped to secure 12 apprenticeships over the course of 19/20, but COVID-19 slowed progress in the final quarter. Two hosts who would have supported four apprenticeships put the initiative on hold due to the pandemic, so we feel that our targets would have been reached or exceeded under normal circumstances. At the time of writing this report, our activities seem to be holding steady during the lifetime of the pandemic, which we are surprised and pleased to report. However, despite Pandemic-led uncertainty we have set the objective of 9 to 12 apprenticeships running during 20/21. Thereafter, we hope to continue
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our previous pattern of growth, achieving a 20-30% in apprenticeships.
We will also explore the feasibility (resource wise) of extending our services, potentially including a rebooted Be the One programme.
9. Financial results, July 2019 to July 2020.
Total income for the charity in the reported period was £142,262 up 107% from £68,754 in the prior year. Whereas last year the income from host companies was 46% of the total, this year, host income constitutes 83% of the total, demonstrating that the charity’s plan to migrate to a fully commercially funded model and become less dependent on fundraising income is being realised.
In this fiscal, total expenses were £125,863 (22% higher than £103,490 spent last year). Last year the gap between income and expenditure was met by cash reserves, whereas in this fiscal we had a surplus of £16,399. It is also pleasing to note that our expenditure has not increased in line with our income, moving the charity towards a financially sustainable model with the critical mass it needs to be independent of any need for fundraising.
This income was made up as follows:
| INCOME | £ |
|---|---|
| Host company funding | 118, 350 |
| Event ticket sales | 4,150 |
| Donations | 19, 762 |
| TOTAL | 142,262 |
And expenditure was made up as follows:
| EXPENDITURE DIRECT TO BENEFICARIES | £ |
|---|---|
| Beneficiary wages and salaries | 74,941 |
| Donation scholarship for the underprivileged | 2,000 |
| Training material and expenses | 6,234 |
| Travel and living expenses | 2,482 |
| Total | 85,657 |
| INDIRECT EXPENSES | £ |
| Wages and salaries management | 28,716 |
| Meeting and event costs | 6,122 |
| Misc costs | 1,893 |
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| Accountancy and legal fees | 3,475 |
|---|---|
| Total | 40, 206 |
We were pleased to conclude the year with a financial surplus, and the Trustees have decided to implement a reserves policy, ensuring that funds be set aside. The purpose would be to keep the charity open for a year in the event of a period of financial challenge such as no host income and either no apprentices or only apprentices completing their years being supported. In this context, management activities would be contributed on a voluntary basis. The cost of operating at this minimal level would be c. £6k pa. It is the intention to build larger reserves over time to ensure greater resilience of the charity.
We remain focussed on ensuring our time and expenditure is directed towards beneficiary activity. We estimate that 75% of staff time was spent on finding hosts and direct beneficiary activity. The remaining 25% of time was spent on fundraising and admin. We estimate 87% of our expenditure was focussed on beneficiary activity. Whilst this is in line with ratios for many well-run top charities, it is, of course, our ambition to reduce the amount of time spent on fundraising and admin further over the next fiscal, which will be easier as we scale.
SIGNED ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Sherilyn Shackell, Chair of Trustees.
Registered charity number: 1173977. Office address: 15E Charlotte Place, London W1T 1SP.Registered office address: 4A Bridge Street, Newbury, RG14 5EX.
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THE MARKETING ACADEMY FOUNDATION 1173977
Receipts and payments accounts CC16a
For the period Period start date Period end date
To
from 31/07/2019 31/07/2020
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
142,262 - - 142,262 68,754
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total (Gross income for
142,262 - - 142,262 68,754
AR)
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- - - -
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total receipts 142,262 - - 142,262 68,754
A3 Payments
Total beneficiaries cost 85,657 - - 85,657 68,972
Management costs 28,716 - - 28,716 23,950
Travel and meeting costs 6,122 - - 6,122 1,505
Office costs 1,025 - - 1,025 498
Advertising 117 - - 117 444
Bank charges 414 - - 414 452
Management support services 2,500 - - 2,500 3,750
Professional Fees 975 - - 975 3,539
Interest 44 44 0 -
Other Business expense 293 - - 293 380
Sub total [ 125,863 ] - - 125,863 103,490
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - - -
Total payments 125,863 - - 125,863 103,490
Net of receipts/(payments) 16,399 - - 16,399 - 34,736
A5 Transfers between funds - - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 31,595 - - 31,595 66,331
Cash funds this year end 47,994 - - 47,994 31,595
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CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
26/05/2021
1
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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B1 Cash funds |
Details Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details Details Details Signature |
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ 47,994 - - - - - 47,994 - 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 S Shackell N Ford |
Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | |||
| OK | |||
| Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - - - - Current value (optional) - - - - - Current value (optional) - - - - - - - - - When due (optional) Date of approval 7/5/2021 7/5/2021 |
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
26/05/2021
2
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees/ Charity Name members of The Marketing Academy Foundation On accounts for the year 31 July 2020 Charity no 1173977 ended (if any) Set out on pages 1-2 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
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I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/07/2020 .
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Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention (other than that disclosed below *) in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
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accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
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the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
- Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.
Signed: Date: 07 / 05 / 2021 Name: Steve Harney Relevant professional FCCA, ATT, DipPFS qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 21 Market Place Blandford Forum Dorset DT11 7AF
October 2018
1
IER
Section B Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .
Nothing to disclose
October 2018
2
IER