2024-06-30-accounts

Leeds & Skyrack Lions Club

Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1181586

Trustee Report and Financial Statements For the twelve month period to 30 June 2024.

Leeds & Skyrack Lions Club Charitable Incorporated Organisation

1. Reference and administrative details of the charity and trustees.

During the period ending 30 June 2024 the following were appointed by members to be trustees of the Club.

President

P Sandeman

Secretary

J Fellows

Treasurer

R J Carter

Trustee Member

J H Butterfield

Charity Registered Number 1181586

Bank

National Westminster Bank PLC

Web Site : https://leedsandskyrack.lionsclub.co/

President’s Correspondence and e-mail address

Address: 5 Parklands Avenue Leeds LS17 6TB

Phone: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

2. Trustees’ Report

The Trustees present their Trustee Report together with the financial statements of the Leeds & Skyrack Lions Club Charitable Incorporated Organisation (the Charity) for the period 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024.

The trustees confirm that this Trustee Report and supporting financial statements of the Charity comply with the current statutory requirements of the Charity’s governing document and recommended best practice.

3. Structure, Governance and Management

The Leeds & Skyrack Lions Club was registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on 16 January 2019. The Leeds Lions Club was originally Chartered on 4 December 1953. The Leeds Skyrack Lions Club was originally Chartered on 5 May 1959.

The Leeds and Leeds Skyrack Lions Clubs formally combined on 1 July 2020 and we operate as the Leeds & Skyrack Lions Club CIO. New Trustees and Club Officers were appointed from that date and appropriate facilitating CIO changes were actioned.

The Constitution sets out that a minimum number of Trustees should be three and that the President, Secretary and Treasurer are all mandatory trustees. Members have agreed the appointment process in accordance with the Constitution.

The Trustees ensure that the Club is managed in accordance with the members agreed Constitution and Legislation.

The Charity has appropriate insurance cover for its activities and Lions Clubs International MD 105 provides this.

4. Grants and Charitable Objectives

The club operates across the core area of the City of Leeds. The club supports worthy local causes and charities and Lions charities nationally and internationally.

All club members are volunteers and they work without any financial reward and are independent of all politics or religion.

The charitable objectives of the Leeds & Skyrack Lions Club are the relief of poverty and the support of those in need and by providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief, including in particular:

• the advancement of citizenship by: promoting the principles of good citizenship

• encouraging members to take an active interest in the civic, cultural, social and moral welfare of the community;

• providing a forum for the open discussion of all matters of public interest; provided that partisan politics and sectarian religion shall not be debated by members;

• encouraging service-minded people to serve their community without personal reward and encouraging the promotion of high ethical standards in commerce, industry, professions, public works and private endeavours;

• supporting youth to develop their skills, capacities and capabilities to enable them to participate in society as mature and responsible individuals;

• promoting the Voluntary Sector for the public benefit by associating with local authorities in a common effort to advance education and provide facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation or other leisure time occupation to improve the conditions of life of people in local, national and international communities;

• promoting volunteering;

• the relief of poverty and the relief of those in need in particular by providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief;

• the advancement of health or the saving of lives by preventing avoidable blindness, assisting disabled people to lead independent lives or helping to prevent or manage health issues;

• promoting for the benefit of the public the conservation protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment; and/or

• promoting community participation in healthy recreation.

The Trustees consider all applications for support received by the CIO in accordance with our grant making policy. Recommendations are made to all members who together make the final decisions regarding supporting or not supporting requests for a grant. Under the terms of the Clubs’ Constitution, Trustees and members can apply funds at their discretion, making grants where they believe that their contribution will make a real difference. We only make grants in furtherance of our priorities for the support of our charitable objectives.

The number of applications that can be supported is, of necessity, limited to the amount of funds available for distribution in any one year. As there are Lions Clubs throughout the UK, applications from the local Leeds area are generally given priority.

Trustees also consider international funding requests referred to them by the Lions International organisation; applications for support and/or grants are all considered on their own merits, following investigation by the Trustees and club members.

However, given that most of the available funds are raised within the local community, those applications that are local are given special consideration. The following are examples of areas adopted for support:

• Local charities - youth groups, groups working with the elderly, residential and nursing homes, disabled and individual appeals;

• Youth and children’s organisations - sport related groups or individuals, scouting and guiding, youth club activities; young people undertaking overseas assignments;

• Community facilities – provision and maintenance of Defribulator Equipment, aid for disadvantaged, elderly, homeless individuals and families, village hall projects.

The above priorities in this policy are reviewed every year (or more often if deemed appropriate by the Trustees), and they may be changed in accordance with the Trustees’ view of the most effective application of available funds at any point in time.

The trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 4 of the Charities Act 2006 to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit, and we explain how this is achieved in this report.

All the administration expenses of the CIO are funded 100% by the member’s own direct donations to the Club. These funds are held in a separate Business Administration and Reserve Bank Account.

All money raised by the Club from members of the public is used exclusively for charitable purposes and is held in a separate Charity Bank Account.

The trustees confirm that the CIO does not have any outstanding liabilities or debts.

Charitable Funds raised

The impact of Covid 19 health emergency during 2020/2022 resulted in limited fundraising from the local community due to ongoing restrictions. This has continued to have an on-going impact on our ability to raise and distribute funds during 2023/2024 along with the impact of cost of energy and living pressures on personal budgets. Inflation, economic and geopolitical uncertainties have also provided challenges as the cost of running the Charity and fundraising has increased. At the same time individual’s personal budgets available to support all types of charitable donations have generally reduced.

During 2023/2024 the Club met regularly and has restarted fundraising.

In October 2022 the Club hosted an international Carousel meeting of Lions Clubs from Helsinki, Bourge en Bresse, Parma Farnese, Haarlem, Stuttgart and Mechelen in Leeds. The delegate Clubs generously made financial donations to the Leeds & Skyrack Lions Club for Charitable Activities here in Leeds. These Charitable funds were awarded to local organisations in September 2023 and details are included in this report.

In addition to raising charitable funds we continue to deliver a wide range of volunteer service activities and provided community support, including on-going defibrillator Maintenance and work with Sightsavers.

1 July 2023 – 30 June 2024

£1444.18

1 July 2022 – 30 June 2023 £5620.11

1 July 2021 – 30 June 2022

£1683.70

1 July 2020 – 30 June 2021

£1555.42

1 July 2019 – 30 June 2020

£3468.71

1 April 2018 – 30 June 2019

£4536.55

Charitable Donations

Members have provided over 1500 hours of Volunteer Service to the local community in addition to the following financial donations in the period. Brief details of the recipients or organisation are detailed below to indicate the range of activities supported.

St Georges Crypt, Leeds

Candlelighters Trust, Leeds

Home Start, Leeds

LCIF Donation for International Disaster Relief

Carousel Haarlem Lions Charity Donation, Netherlands

Thorn Rural Disabled Lions Sports Day

Lions MD Youth Charity

Recycling Used Spectacles for Third World Countries

Leeds & Skyrack Lions Club collects over twenty thousand pairs of used spectacles, which we help to process each year. A team of Lions and other volunteers in recycling workshops sort and examine all the spectacles donated. Sorted pairs of glasses are then graded prior to distribution for reuse worldwide.

Up-to-date information about this and all the Clubs wide-ranging activities are available at

https://leedsandskyrack.lionsclub.co/

Membership

Membership of the Leeds & Skyrack Lions Club Charitable Incorporated Organisation at the end of June 2023 was 12. All members are volunteers and we aim to meet once per month to take part in fundraising and social activities. New volunteers and members are always most welcome.

Signed

Treasurer and Trustee

Date: 23 March 2025

Leeds Skyrack Lions Club

Registered Charity Number 1181586

CHARITY ACCOUNTS FOR THE PERIOD ENDING 30 JUNE 2024

INCOME

TOTALS £

Fund Raising & Donations Received

1444.18

(From Christmas Appeal, plus Other Donations)

DONATIONS MADE IN YEAR TO 30 JUNE 2024

Lions MD Youth Charity 82.00 St Georges Crypt Donation Leeds 250.00 Candlelighters Trust Leeds 3000.00 Home Start Leeds 250.00 LCIF Donation for International Disaster Relief 250.00 Carousel Haarlem Lions Charity Donation Netherlands 440.19 Thorn Rural Lions Sports Day 150.00 4422.19

Direct Costs 919.86. (Includes Print, Equipment, Equipment Storage, Information Commission Registration, etc.)

Brought Forward Charity Account Bank Balance 01.07.2023 Change over year Carry Forward Charity Account Bank Balance 01.07.2024

5587.01 3897.87 1689.14

MEMBERS BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION ACCOUNTS FOR THE PERIOD ENDING 30 JUNE 2024

INCOME	TOTALS £
Total Members Personal Donations	971.50
EXPENDITURE
Members Donations to Lions International / UK	1041.44
Web Site Fees	99.00
Meeting Room Costs	260.00
Carousel Haarlem Club Gifts September 2023 Delegates Non Charity Cost	92.41
Engraving 5 Presidents Nameplates for Chain of Office	14.00
Total	1572.43
Brought Forward Members Business Admin Account Bank Balance 01.07.2023	3501.15
Change over year	600.93
Carry Forward Business Members 01.07.2024	2900.22
Carry Forward Business Members Reserve Non Charity Bank Account (£11.80)

These accounts have been prepared from the books, papers and confirmation of expenditure supplied by our members on a receipts and payments basis. The balance of the funds is cash at bank are shown. They show a true and fair view for the period ending 30 June 2024 Members of the club have agreed these accounts and statements.

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