Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir CIO Annual Report for 2024
The UK economy has grown at a lacklustre 1%pa in real terms for about three years now, and the consequence for discretionary businesses like media/entertainment, live/recorded music in particular, is clear. The heady days of ten years ago seem long gone: penny-pinched clients are the order of the day. And the Pandemic still hangs over the business, which has slowed dramatically after the clearing of the “Pandemic Backlog” in 2022-24.
Considering all this, Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir is not doing badly. Performance & Recording fees, for example, were up over 40% on 2023, in spite of the fact that we were more selective about gigs we accepted.
Three highlights in 2024 were: the recording session in June with the LSO under the baton of Dr André Thomas at the Barbican for a new gospel album to be released sometime in 2025, our first appearance at the Wintershall Passion Play on Good Friday in Trafalgar Square, and our performance on Main Stage at the Greenbelt Festival (“Dream On”) with Rev Ayla Lepine from our partner church St James’s Piccadilly.
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 act to get everyone in the zone – were all mainly unchanged. In 2024, once again, our sound came together even more, audiences grew significantly on 2023, 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 we continue to tweak the formula.
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 and acoustic challenges have finally been met. As for S@SJ, we have been boosting promotion of it on and off line to increase its audience and impact, as has St Martin’s itself, with significant results. We no longer worry about its attendance and now look forward to a point where somehow, somewhere, Gospel Evensong catches on in another church.
Our prison work for the chaplaincies of most of Greater London’s HMPs (Wandsworth, Pentonville, Wormwood Scrubs, Brixton, Downview, plus Rochester), which consists of regular small performances at morning services and full choir performances on special occasions, hit its stride in 2024 when we did seventeen such gigs. The number will be higher in 2025. We continue to look for opportunities to work in London’s remaining HMPs (Belmarsh/Thameside/Isis, High Down and Feltham YOI). SSGC members continually report this work to be the most fulfilling in SSGC.
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; Joe Stilgoe’s Christmas Show at the Hammersmith Lyric; ITV1’s Royal Christmas Carols at Westminster Abbey at which we sang with JP Cooper; several performances for charities in (mainly) church settings; gospel workshops in churches and community settings; and many others besides.
A very important step in our development was the employment on a freelance basis, for 1-2 days per week, of our principal Choir Director Clarence Hunte. This marks an important step in our professionalisation, and in our recognition that our founder/manager Miko Giedroyc has hit the age of retirement.
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 2024 those donations, plus the net fall in cash over the year of £12k, essentially paid for S@SJ, for SSGC management and promotion, and for the subsidy element in charity events which we decide to support at a loss (over £30k in 2024). In 2025 and going forward, however, it is likely that we will further step up expenditure on promotion and 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 2025.
Miko Giedroyc, Board Member and General Manager Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir July 25[th] , 2025
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, Choir Director, 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-sanctuary-gospel-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 2024 December 31st 2024
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 |
12,165 | - | - | 12,165 | 5,000 | ||||
| Donations byMGDG/DUAJ & FamilyTrusts | 8,000 | - | - | 8,000 | 5,500 | ||||
| Performance & RecordingFees | 42,614 | - | - | 42,614 | 29,792 | ||||
| CD Sales | 22 | - | - | 22 | - | ||||
| Gift Aid & Tax Reclaim | - | - | - | - | 12,412 | ||||
| Other | 100 | - | - | 100 | 267 | ||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) | 62,901 | - | - | 62,901 | 52,971 | ||||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||||||||
| - | |||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| Sub total | - | - | |||||||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
|||||||||
| 52,971 | |||||||||
SatSJ Live Outdoor Events |
11,544 | 11,258 | |||||||
| All Other Performers' Fees | 50,961 | 35,549 | |||||||
| PR/Comms/Social Media | 5,628 | 2,709 | |||||||
| Other Bought-In Services | 516 | 256 | |||||||
| Other(incl central mgmt) | 6,339 | 375 | |||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| **Sub total ** | 74,988 | 50,147 | |||||||
| 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 |
|||||||||
| 50,147 | |||||||||
| - 12,087 | 2,824 | ||||||||
| - | - | ||||||||
| 14,661 | 11,837 | ||||||||
| 2,574 | 14,661 |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| CCXX R1 accounts (SS) Categories B1 Cash funds |
1 Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Barclays Bank Current Account |
Unrestricted funds to nearest £ 2,574 - - 2,574 OK |
25/07/2025 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 B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use |
Details Details Details Details Signature |
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) |
|||
| Date of approval | |||
| MichalGDGiedroyc | July25th 2025 | ||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
25/07/2025
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 2024.
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 25th July 2025