Time to Talk Mental Health UK
Year in Review to 5[th] April 2023
We have now completed our fourth full year as a registered charity. Our membership numbers are holding steady but whilst we are still receiving and accepting new members, we are now losing some established members. It’s hoped that this is because the now former members are no longer requiring support for their mental health.
The past twelve months has seen us raise £2,458.73 to enable us to meet running costs for the charity. The biggest source of income was a £1,500 grant from Saints and Sinners, a philanthropist group which looks to support small charities such as ourselves. This was especially welcome as we noticed a decline in the donations received from Online Shopping sources. The total was 23.7% lower than last year at £260.27. Other income included £324.85 from Just Giving, £108.17 from PayPal Giving and £44.57 from the Charities Aid Foundation.
Poetry Book royalties were much lower, perhaps understandably so, as most sales were expected soon after the book became available on Amazon. It remains available so further income is possible and will be welcome.
The grant received from the National Lottery continues to be used to support volunteers and members with counselling and workshop sessions. The sessions from Resilience Voyage were most welcome and appreciated by the members. We have now had eight volunteers either have the counselling sessions or have started them. As they are confidential, the feedback we receive will be limited to what the volunteers tell us, however they do appear to be going veery well.
Fundraising is becoming ever more difficult. The amount of money available continues to decrease at the same time as the number of people submitting applications seems to be increasing. We still find ourselves in a position where running costs are being covered but we are struggling to develop the charity further. An additional concern is the possibility of costs increasing more than we can afford. This is something we must be very careful to keep an eye on.
Our team of moderators continue to do an amazing job offering support to our members between 09:00 and 22:30 7 days a week. We are, however finding it difficult to maintain a full compliment of volunteers and as a result we are relying on those who help us more than we would like. Shifts are continuing to be covered, some on an emergency basis. This is working as well as we can hope but we are aware that we need to increase our volunteer base. Sadly, we are struggling to fill the gaps. It isn’t immediately obvious why so it’s a difficult problem to resolve. We are, therefore, extremely grateful for the support we receive from our team of moderators.
The events programme has continued to see a decline in support from the membership which is disappointing. Occasionally, we have new members that post paintings or poems that they have written which briefly revives interest, but this seems to be temporary. We will engage with members to see how they want the events to be shaped going forward so we can try to encourage interaction between members on subjects of mutual interest.
Plans for 2023-24
Our search for a dedicated funding bid writer continues and we’re looking to have someone in place as soon as possible. However, the fact that we’re a small charity and the competition for ever decreasing funds makes this a very difficult role. We will look to expand our search via new avenues
as and when they become available. It’s hoped that by collaborating with other charities of similar size that we may find the right person to support us.
We are looking to increase the possible fundraising streams that are open to us. We rely heavily on donations from online schemes from various retailers. This isn’t great as we are at the mercy of the retailers changing the terms of these streams, or even closing them. We are still hoping that people organise sponsored events for us but this isn’t always possible if our members are struggling.
We will look again at the possibility of selling TTT branded merchandise. The costs may prevent us from doing so as the lower the order, the higher the unit cost. We can’t tie up funds in merchandise if we aren’t sure that it will be sold so we must tread carefully.
Whilst the pandemic is continuing to feature less in our daily lives, events around the world are causing anxiety amongst our members. Where appropriate, we will allow our members to show support but as we’re a non-political charity, we must be very careful in our approach. Consideration will be given to a dedicated post to allow discussion if this can be done in the correct way.
Iain Hay
Finance Manager
Time to Talk Mental Health UK
17[th] May 2023
Time to Talk Mental Health UK
Financial Summary for year ended 5[th] April 2023
Income:
Total income for the 2022-23 financial year was £2,458.73, down by £7,106.50 or 74.3% on the previous year. This figure is distorted by the National Lottery Grant of £7,350 received last year. With this taken out, the income increased by £243.50 or around 12%.
The majority of the income came from a grant of £1,500 by Saints and Sinners, a group which support smaller charities. This was very much appreciated and allowed us to cover all outgoings comfortably. For a while there was some concern about our financial situation. As a result of this grant, our total donations were up £494 or 25.3% on the previous year.
The poetry book royalties fell to almost nothing (£10.87 against £251.87 2021-22) Any further income from this should be regarded as a bonus. Sadly, the sales generated are close to an end. It may be worth revisiting the project again to see if we can stimulate new sales, but we must be mindful that any new expenditure on the book needs to be weighed against the risk of not covering those costs of those additional sales.
Expenditure:
Thankfully, we haven’t been impacted by the rising prices of energy and wages. We have actually seen a reduction of overall expenditure of £673 compared to 2021-22. This has been especially welcome as it has allowed us to improve our reserves total. Stripping out the £2,640 spent on Counselling/Self Care for our members which was paid for using ringfenced money from the lottery grant, our overall expenditure for the year was £2,081.79 (21-22 £2,775.25).
The main expense for the year was the units for the Online Safeguarding training. £749.70 was spent, a small increase of 3.2% on 21-22. DBS checks were much lower at £196.56 (down 70.2%). We can expect both these figures to rise as we get more volunteers on board and are unavoidable costs.
Insurance remained the same at £212.80 for the year. This is a surprise as an increase was expected. We do need to ensure that both cost of policy and cover provided is reviewed as we get closer to renewal time. The data protection fee of £35 almost remained unchanged from last year.
Fundraising fees were down 23% at £216. This is good news, but we need to continue to ensure that these fees actually lead to increased donations, otherwise we may need to rethink whether the membership is worthwhile.
Postage and Stationery costs have both been well controlled and, as a result, the expenditure has fallen to £102.44 for the year (£158.52 for 21-22).
Website maintenance costs have fallen from £495.98 to £192.46 (down £303.52 or 61.2%). This is because some of the work has been done on a voluntary basis by a member. We need to be mindful that this might not always be the case.
The £2,640 spent on Counselling and Self Care for volunteers remains the same as 21-22. Again, this has been paid for from the Lottery grant money ringfenced for this purpose.
Whilst we have managed to grow our reserves slightly, it remains a concern that we could be susceptible to any sudden increases in costs. The current level of cash in the bank is enough to se us through another year like 22-23 but there isn’t a great deal of headroom. We’re also not in a position to grow the group as we would like which is also disappointing, but we can’t take risks in increasing expenditure currently.
Iain Hay
Finance Manger
Time to Talk Mental Health UK
17th May 2023
Balance Sheet for period 6th April 2023 to 5th April 2024
Notes
Assets
Cash In Hand and at Bank Debtors
Liabiltes Creditors-Amounts falling due within one year
Total Assets
Total Funds
balance as @ 6th April 2023
balance as @ 5th April 2024
£4,584.18 NIL £4,584.18 NIL £4,584.18 £4,584.18
£3,972.90 NIL £3,972.90 NIL £3,972.90 £3,972.90
| Income and Expenditure Statement | |
|---|---|
| 6th April 2023 to 5th April 2024 | |
| £ | |
| Opening Balance as @ 6th April 2023 | 3,972.90 |
| Income | |
| Donations - (Total from all sources £1841.78) | |
| Personal | 25.00 |
| Online Shopping (Amazon Smile Easy Fundraising) | 147.21 |
| Give As You Live | 0.00 |
| The Giving Machine | 0.00 |
| Just Giving | 15.43 |
| PayPal Giving | 1654.14 |
| Charities Aid Foundation | 0.00 |
| Grant | 0.00 |
| Sponsorship Money from Supporter | 160.00 |
| Poetry Book Royalties | 3.96 |
| Total Income | 2005.74 |
| Expenditure | |
| Counselling/Self Care | 0.00 |
| DBS Checks | 193.20 |
| Postage | 18.84 |
| Stationery | 109.65 |
| Insurance Renewal | 212.80 |
| Fundraising Fees | 216.00 |
| Bank Fees for Overseas Transactions | 5.14 |
| Training - Safeguarding Units | 249.90 |
| Training - Suicide Prevention IGPP | 118.80 |
| Website Maintenance | 235.13 |
| Data Protection Renewal | 35.00 |
| Total Expenditure | 1394.46 |
| Closing Balance as @ 5th April 2024 | 4584.18 |
Detailed Statement of Financial Actvites for period 6th April 2023 to 5th April 2024
| Apr 23-Apr 24 | |
|---|---|
| Incoming Resources | |
| Capital Introduced (11th February 2019) | NIL |
| Fundraising - Donations | £1,841.78 |
| Fundraising - Poetry Book Royalties | £3.96 |
| Sponsorship Money from Supporter | £160.00 |
| Adjustment | NIL |
| Total Incoming Resources | £2,005.74 |
| Resources Expended | |
| Disclosure Service DBS checks | £193.20 |
| Mod Thank You Gifts | NIL |
| Website Maintenance | £235.13 |
| Safeguarding Training | £249.90 |
| Suicide Prevention Training Course | £118.80 |
| Bank fees for overseas transaction | £5.14 |
| Insurance Costs | £212.80 |
| Fundraising Fees | £216.00 |
| Counselling/Self Care - (Lottery funded) | NIL |
| Data Protection fee | £35.00 |
| Postage | £18.84 |
| Stationery | £109.65 |
| Adjustment error when paying expenses | £0.00 |
| Total Resources Expended | £1,394.46 |
| Net Income(Expenditure) | £611.28 |
Apr 22-Apr 23
NIL
£2,447.86 £10.87 NIL NIL £2,458.73
£196.56 £391.56 £192.46 £749.70 NIL £5.27 £212.80 £216.00 £2,640.00 £35.00 £100.44 £2.00 £0.00 £4,741.79 -£2,283.06
Unrestricted Funds General Funds
Restricted Funds General Funds
Total Funds
Net movement in funds included in the above are as follows
Unrestricted Funds General Funds inc Debtors cleared
Restricted Funds General Funds
Total Funds
| As @ 5th April 2024 £4,584.18 £0.00 £4,584.18 Incoming £2,005.74 £0.00 £2,005.74 |
Net Movement £2,681.28 -£2,070.00 £611.28 Outgoing £1,394.46 £0.00 £1,394.46 |
As @ 6th April 2023 £1,902.90 £2,070.00 £3,972.90 |
|---|---|---|
| Movement in Funds £611.28 £0.00 |
||
| £611.28 |