Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir CIO Annual Report for 2023
A year ago we hoped that the trend of “business back to normal” continued, and it did: we did roughly the same number of gigs in 2023 as in 2022. But the Pandemic being behind us as far as we were concerned was not so for some of our clients: the live music business is still working through a backlog of postponed gigs, and in prisons, Pandemic regimes still apply, though because of staff shortages rather than viral risk. Our devout hope now is that there is no recession.
The three significant milestones in 2023 were: the concert last November with the LSO under the baton of Dr André Thomas at the Barbican, the premiere at St Martin-in-theFields of the third part of our Christmas Trilogy (“The Love That Moves The Stars: The Magis’ Nativity”), and the expansion of prison ministry into HMPs Brixton, Wormwood Scrubs and Woodhill.
The essential elements of our flagship event Soul at Saint James – gospel/soul music and spoken word, an outdoor “festival” atmosphere, free (with optional donation), street food and drink, no spoken ministry but a place for anyone from any background to feel welcome and comfortable, important and relevant themes, top quality performance and production, an opening workshop to get everyone singing – were all unchanged. In 2023 our sound came together even more, audiences grew significantly on 2022, we had a series of wonderful partner charities, and our investments in infrastructure in conjunction with our partners in S@SJ, St James’s Piccadilly, occurred and have been a success. And yet the courtyard is still not full, which is what we want. So in 2024 we will be replacing most workshops with support acts, and redoubling our efforts to promote S@SJ creatively.
Gospel Evensong at St Martin’s, a full setting of the traditional Anglican evensong liturgy with original settings (by our band leader Peter Yarde Martin) of Preces, Responses, the Lord’s Prayer, the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis, continues successfully in spite of acoustic challenges. We hope to be live streaming it in October 2024, and boosting promotion of it on and off line to increase its audience and impact. Otherwise at St Martin’s we are looking forward to doing more concerts and creative productions after the premiere of The Magis’ Nativity.
Our prison work in HMPs Wandsworth and Pentonville consists of regular small performances at the latter at morning services and full choir performances at both when staffing permits. Similarly, now, at HMPs Brixton and Wormwood Scrubs.
There were other performances of note too: the commemoration of Black History Month at St Mary’s Kilburn with a series of workshops and a plenary service; both nights of Joe Stilgoe’s Christmas Show at the Hammersmith Lyric; BBC1’s Festival of Remembrance at the Albert Hall at which we sang with Mica Paris; ITV1’s Royal Christmas Carols at Westminster Abbey at which we sang with Freya Ridings; gospel workshops in churches and community settings; and many others besides.
Our finances remain stable, underwritten by donations from one of our board members and his family, which are made to ensure that there are always cash reserves of at least £2000 in SSGC’s bank account. In 2023 those donations essentially paid for S@SJ, for SSGC promotion, and for the subsidy element in charity events which we decide to support at a loss. Once again these amounted to around £20k in 2023. In 2024 and going forward, however, it is likely that we will step up expenditure on promotion and on
creative management as we raise SSGC’s artistic profile and widen its impact, all in pursuit of its charitable purposes and mission. This will need new external funding, and we will be pursuing this too in 2024.
Miko Giedroyc, Board Member and General Manager Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir June 28[th] , 2024
Appendix: for our registration number, address, trustee names and charitable purposes, see https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charitydetails/5112712/charity-overview. For our mission and a summary of activities, see https://soulsanctuarygospel.com/about-the-soul-sanctuary-gospel-choir/. The choir’s day to day activities are managed by its General Manager, its Events Manager and its Comms Manager, who are answerable to the Executive Committee (which consists of both Choir Directors, Band Leader and General Manager). This is in turn answerable to all members, through informal channels, and through an Annual Choir Meeting, and to the six-member Board. See https://soulsanctuarygospel.com/about-the-soul-sanctuarygospel-choir/people/. The recruitment of trustees is in full compliance with Charities Commission recommendations. Our Modus Operandi, including our policies on Safeguarding, the management of conflicts of interest and Health & Safety, is written up in full in our Handbook which is available to all members.
Charity Name No (if any) Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir CIO 1176630
Receipts and payments accounts
CC16a
For the period Period start date Period end date To from January 1st 2023 December 31st 2023
Section A Receipts and payments
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ |
Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ |
Total funds to the nearest £ |
Total funds to the nearest £ |
Last year to the nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Donations by90PoWM Trust |
5,000 | - | - | 5,000 | - | ||||
| Donations byMGDG & FamilyTrusts | 5,500 | - | - | 5,500 | 11,500 | ||||
| Performance & RecordingFees | 29,792 | - | - | 29,792 | 26,824 | ||||
| CD Sales | - | - | - | - | 10 | ||||
| Gift Aid & Tax Reclaim | 12,412 | - | - | 12,412 | - | ||||
| Other | 267 | - | - | 267 | 1,137 | ||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) | 52,971 | - | - | 52,971 | 39,471 | ||||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| Sub total | - | - | |||||||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
|||||||||
| 39,471 | |||||||||
SatSJ Live Outdoor Events |
11,258 | 12,166 | |||||||
| All Other Performers' Fees | 35,549 | 27,595 | |||||||
| PR/Comms/Social Media | 2,709 | 2,735 | |||||||
| Other Bought-In Services | 256 | 322 | |||||||
| Other | 375 | 32 | |||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| **Sub total ** | 50,147 | 42,850 | |||||||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
|||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | |||||||
| Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end |
|||||||||
| 42,850 | |||||||||
| 2,824 | - 3,379 | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| 11,837 | 15,216 | ||||||||
| 14,661 | 11,837 |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| CCXX R1 accounts (SS) Categories B1 Cash funds |
1 Barclays Bank Current Account Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
Unrestricted funds to nearest £ 14,661 - - 14,661 OK |
30/06/2024 Restricted funds Endowment funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - OK OK |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - | ||||
| - |
| Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets |
Signature Details Details Details Details |
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 MichalGDGiedroyc |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| When due (optional) |
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| Date of approval | |||
| MichalGDGiedroyc | June28th 2024 | ||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
30/06/2024
2
Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir Trust
I report to the trustees on my examination of the account s of the Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir Trust (the Trust) for the year ended 31[st] December 2023.
Responsibilities and basis of the report
As the charity trustees of the Trust 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 Trust’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 examiners 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:
-
Accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act, or
-
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 Name Edward David Griffiths Professional Body Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy Membership No 00006890 Address 11 Northwick Park Road, Harrow, HA1 2NY Date 5th July 2024