Alike Annual Report and Accounts. Year Ended 31st March 2022.
INDEX
TRUSTEE REPORT 2 - 42 INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT 43 - 44 FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS 45 - 47 ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS 48 - 49 TRUSTEE APPROVAL 50 - 51
ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022
Executive Summary
The period from April 2021 to March 2022 saw Alike thrive despite multiple external factors, and begin to enact our mission. Alike’s charitable objectives are to relieve those in need by reason of ill-health by developing and facilitating peer support services for people diagnosed with cancer [and other serious illnesses] and their families and friends, in particular (but not limited to) by developing and making available a digital application to connect those in need with each other. This year, we turned our focus to creating more public and stakeholder exposure to Alike, growing the users on the app, as well as ensuring we were building fundraising capacity to sustain the app, and grow our organisational activity. From inception, our method of fulfilling our mission has been through the use of digital products. Alike’s main offering has been defined since the ideation phase as a peer support platform, built purposefully for people facing a cancer diagnosis. Through the tireless work of the team we have a fully functional app on both Apple and Android platforms, with a large and growing community of cancer patients and survivors, who continue to see the benefits of this innovative platform.
Following a successful fundraising boost in Q1 and Q3 during this year , we then turned our attention to communications, partnerships and maintaining the app, which were key parts of our KPIs for the financial year. Our financial objective during this period was to continue to develop relationships with major donors to ensure that the Alike app would continue development, and not stagnate, and that we could maintain and improve the experience of our new community. Over the past financial year we have increased our income by 67%. As a small team, still reliant on volunteers, pro-bono and low-bono work, aligning to strict not-forprofit regulations and with limited income, this is a significant achievement worth celebrating. Given the sector-wide impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that still continues, this is even more of a success.
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ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022 INTRODUCTION alike.
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1. Introduction
The period of April 2021 to March 2022 saw exceptional growth and development for Alike in the face of an uncertain environment. Many charities and not-for-profit organisations continued to work within a challenging and competitive funding environment as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these challenges, and our limited capacity, we further demonstrated our determination, resilience, and innovation. This Annual Report reflects on a year of truely enacting our mission, and reviewing the organisation as a whole in addition to specific objectives and achievements.
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1.1 Chair’s Statement
As we close this financial year it is important to reflect. It has been an extremely impactful year for the charity, and we have had an active app available, growing the community, for this whole year. This has allowed us to continue the journey of delivering our vision for cancer patients and survivors.
At this point last year, we were beginning to emerge from a global pandemic that drastically affected the isolation cancer patients suffer and as we continue to emerge from the pandemic, it is clear that the path forward remains unclear, and fraught with challenges, particularly for smaller organisations around fundraising, development and strategic planning. Brad and the Alike team have consistently shown dedication, resolve and determination to fulfill our mission and find new and creative ways to not only sustain Alike’s activities, but also seek to scale our work to support more people and continue to grow our community.
The hard work shown by the team has rightfully been recognised by the likes of the BBC and the Evening Standard, as well as in a recent presentation to the late HM Queen Elizabeth II.
In the same spirit as last year, the challenges we face have only strengthened our resolve to truly succeed in our mission and as Chair of the board of trustees I can say I continue to be extremely proud of the work achieved by the team, and excited to see what the upcoming year brings.
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Dr. James Parker
CHAIR
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1.2 Founder’s Statement
Every day, I tap on the Alike icon on my phone and open up the app we created. And every day, it’s a surreal feeling. It fills me with immense pride: not just because it’s my vision, but because it demonstrates the hard work of so many people who have been impacted by cancer and who understand our mission. Being part of this digital community, as a survivor of cancer myself and as its founder, is a unique feeling. It’s what motivates me to continue our essential work for people impacted by this disease. This year gave us invaluable insight into our mission and the platform we provide. It has illustrated the need for a dedicated peer support space for the cancer community. Now, it’s time to meet the challenge of sustaining that space and scaling it to help more people. As a small lean organisation, we’re agile and responsive to our challenges.
This year has seen us learning on the ground, adapting to the demands around us, and developing as people, professionals, and an organisation. Whilst our actions, strategy, and delivery methods might change, our ambition, determination, and mission have not, and never will. This next year, we’ll explore creative ways of working and nurturing new and current relationships to scale and sustain Alike’s work. As always, I am forever grateful to the board, the team, the partners, the supporters and the community for believing in Alike’s vision and working together to build something truly game-changing for people diagnosed with cancer.
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Brad Gudger
FOUNDER
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ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022 2. PURPOSE, IMPACT, AND TESTIMONY alike.
ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022
2.1 Purpose
Alike’s purpose is simple: to provide connection for everyone impacted by cancer. As custodians, it is our duty to safeguard this mission and ensure that every action taken by the charity fundamentally serves this purpose. From inception, our method of fulfilling our mission has been through the use of digital products. Alike’s main offering has been defined since the ideation phase as a peer support platform, built purposefully for people facing a cancer diagnosis. Our mission encompasses commitments to centre lived experience in meaningful conversations, to break down social stigmas associated with cancer, and to redefine what it means to be a cancer patient and survivor.
This financial year, our main focus has been:
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Building our credibility within the sector
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User acquisition
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Fundraising and financial sustainability
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Cementing trust with our users and partners
As we face the twin challenges of the new normal of life after COVID-19 and life with cancer, we’re more committed than ever to providing a safe space for the cancer community. During this year, our key learning is that we’re more certain of our purpose than ever before.
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2.2 Impact
Our impact has been focused in three key areas:
- How our app can benefit the cancer community 2. How we can represent our cancer community 3. How we work within our sector
Our impact on the digital cancer community
We delivered both iOS and Android native platforms at the beginning of 2021. By March 2022, we saw a user base of 2,000, a 122% in user growth compared with March 2021. This is a major validation of the concept behind the app, which was echoed in our engagement with app users. Elements of this feedback have been highlighted within the Testimonies section below.
We’re a digital-first organisation with a native app, but we still have a long way to go in using this position to effectively demonstrate and measure our impact. Despite this limitation in data collection, our impact during this period has been phenomenal, particularly in relation to our organisational size and turnover.
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2.2 Impact
Our impact on cancer community representation
We were able to highlight the lived experience of community members from extremely underrepresented groups, including survivors of colour, non-binary survivors, and people living with rare cancers. These nascent community champions served as spokespeople in major press engagements, including BBC television interviews and World Cancer Day events with Amanda Pritchard, CEO of NHS England. To be able to facilitate this kind of representation speaks to our impact, and is the beginning of our vision to centre lived experience, to break down social stigmas associated with cancer, and to redefine what it means to be a cancer patient and a survivor.
Our impact in the sector
There are around 620 different organisations in the UK serving people impacted by cancer. The cancer charity sector is dominated by respected, long-standing organisations such as Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support. In this environment, our impact came from our ability to speak with lived experience and our focus on digital-first. By March 2022, we had signed agreements with leading organisations such as Teenage Cancer Trust and Young Lives vs Cancer (formerly CLIC Sargent). We have also engaged with Sarcoma UK, The Ellen Macarthur Cancer Trust, Teens Unite Fighting Cancer, and the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust.
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2.3 Testimonies
We have gathered testimonies from members of the UK cancer community to reflect the impact of the Alike app. These testimonies are drawn from qualitative interviews with the community, and feature cancer patients and survivors from a variety of backgrounds with differing diagnoses.
Our app is available 24/7. So each day, we learn about new stories, new experiences, and gain new insight into how we help people diagnosed with cancer. We’ve gathered testimonies from members of the UK cancer community and our partners to reflect this.
USER OF THE ALIKE APP
“I’ve been using the Alike app for a while now and it’s so special having a space full of people who understand and know exactly what you are going through.”
Adil, 31
ALIKE PARTNERS
“Alike’s app compliments our work and will really help reach every young person diagnosed with cancer. We supported Brad throughout his experience of cancer. It has been a privilege to witness his hard work and determination come to fruition.”
Teenage Cancer Trust
“Alike is the first innovation we have supported created by a patient. Through lived experience and patient engagement, they have found a unique way to use typical communications technology and tailor it to support a community with specific needs.”
NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme
Teenage Cancer Trust
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ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022 3. VALUES AND WAYS OF WORKING alike.
ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022
Our Philosophy
Alike was created with the intention of doing charity differently. We take inspiration from sleek, modern technology start-ups and apply the ethics of activists and grassroots movements. The COVID-19 pandemic put this commitment to the test, and required us to invest in and engage with new and agile ways of working. This is an ethos we will continue to work by, to ensure we can adapt and scale rapidly in line with the needs of the cancer community.
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3.1 The Alike Philosophy: Values
We are a cancer-focused charity that believes cancer is the least interesting thing about our users. We apply our lived experience to all of our decision making, and we’re not afraid to take risks. As members of the community we serve, we’re at the front of inter-community dialogues such as language around treatment, survivorship, PTSD and mental illness, and end of life care as a cancer patient. We will always be upfront and engaged with these conversations.
We are a not-for-profit organisation, grounded within the charitable sector through our partnerships, ethos, and ways of working. We are pro-collaboration, and actively oppose and work to prevent duplication and repetition between charitable cancer support services. This is reflected by our close working relationships, numerous partnership agreements, and membership of the Children and Young People’s Cancer Coalition.
We are careful to clarify that we are not an organisation that produces or publishes medical information or advice, or provides clinical mental health support. The Alike app is a low-threshold psychological support tool that digitises already available and well-documented face to face peer support groups. Our Community Pledge is clear in that whilst we are keen to host community conversations around diagnosis and the long term impact of cancer, we encourage everyone to speak to a medical professional with regards to their own personal health, conditions, and side effects.
We firmly believe that technology can be a force for good when the right tools are put into the hands of people who really need them. Digital products provide accessible methods of service delivery that promote equality and inclusion.
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This is why we provide a peer support app, and why we are dedicated to exploring and incorporating new technologies in strategic and meaningful ways.
We are committed to transparency, open communication, and striving to improve the experience of life with and after cancer. We are pro-collaboration, challenging traditions within our sector and seeking out feedback from our community. We have a dedicated Valuing Lived Experience principal, ensuring that our community members are treated with the respect they deserve when they choose to share their stories and work with us.
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3.1 The Alike Philosophy: Ways of Working
providing and supporting opportunities for personal and professional development.
Our culture is one of open, honest communication, with a focus on learning, growing relationships, and challenging traditions. Our ways of working apply to both work internally performed by Team Alike, and the external engagement work with our community.
We are committed to following best practice in all our work. When we say best practice, we don’t just mean clinical studies and governance legislation - we mean best practices according to the people who are impacted by these actions and decisions. We always engage professionals to ensure that our business follows the relevant legal and financial regulations, and we seek feedback from our community to ensure our work remains relevant and meaningful to the people we serve.
We are led by the principles of youth leadership and lived experience, and this is demonstrated by our majority female board, and our team of proud LGBTQ+ people and disabled cancer survivors. We believe that Alike is and will be best served by gifted new talent and young industry leaders, paying particular attention to individuals from minority backgrounds such as women in STEM. We seek to facilitate development and leadership opportunities, both for Team Alike and the wider Alike community. Cancer can greatly hinder educational and professional attainment for young people, and this impact is particularly profound for people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Where we can, we uplift these individuals by
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ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022 4. OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES alike.
ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022
4.1 Alike’s Charitable Objectives
As written in our Constitution, Alike’s charitable objectives are: to relieve those in need, by reason of ill-health, by developing and making available a digital application and other digital technologies to connect people diagnosed with cancer [and other serious illnesses] and their families and friends.
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4.2 Alike’s Objectives 2021/2022
This year was when we began to enact our charitable mission. We brought our Constitution to life through the launch of our native iOS and Android apps in February and March 2021 respectively, allowing us to facilitate peer support to people over 18 and to take strides forward to combat the loneliness and isolation caused by cancer within this Financial Year.
Our main objectives for 21/22 were shaped by our new platform and the need for strategic user acquisition. As referenced in our 20/21 Annual Report, our KPIs were formed from user growth, income generation and partnerships. These KPIs shaped our objectives, which were to increase user base on the Alike platform, securing income in-line with our strategic priorities, and building meaningful partnerships within the cancer sector and beyond to aid long-term sustainability and credibility.
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4.3 Alike’s Activities 2021/2022
In 21/22, continuing to understand how we can improve the experience of the platform for our users was paramount. In April 2021, we decided to remove the upper age limit of users within the platform. Although the target demographic of Alike and our communications strategies are prioritised towards digital natives, the removal of the upper age limit in the design phase saw an increase in older age demographics using the platform as a result of our promotion activity. This helped validate our vision in being a platform for everybody over the age of 18 with a cancer diagnosis. However, it also informed further development of the age filter within the app to ensure that we were not simulating the experience of many young cancer patients in a hospital setting where they feel unable to connect with anyone their own age, and digitally recreating the isolation Alike was founded to combat. The rest of the year was focused on continuing to develop and maintain our code as our user base grew.
During this period, it was vital for us to build a portfolio of key strategic partners. Securing formal partnerships is central to our organisational activity and serves many purposes for Alike, from increasing user acquisition through signposting and referrals, to building credibility and trust within the sector, and most importantly through the cancer community. A year of relationship building began with Alike extending our existing relationship with the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust (QCT) where, off the back of our COVID-19 Emergency Grant in September 2020, our Founder, Brad was invited to present our work to the late Her Majesty The Queen via video call in July 2021. By the end of this financial year in February 2020, we were announced as a QCT partner through the Youth Ventures Fund.
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We also secured a formal partnership with Soho House, providing us with free pro-bono Soho Works space through the Soho House Foundation in September 2021. This office space provided us with a professional organisational address, a work-life balance for our team and volunteers, and a space to meet and engage with stakeholders and our community. As a small scale organisation, this partnership has also significantly supported us by saving significantly on core costs.
Our partnerships within the cancer sector grew when Teenage Cancer Trust were added into our partnership agreement with Alike and Young Lives Vs Cancer in December 2021. Not only has this partnership already made waves in the charity sector by demonstrating how effectively small charities can form mutually beneficial relationships to improve the lives of their users, it has also ensured Alike can actively champion our ethos to restrict the duplication of services within the sector.
As an organisation and through the existence of our new platform, we were able to bring our PR and communications strategies to life. In partnership with PR agency Sparkle, and through the dedication of our core team and volunteers, we began promoting the app and scale up our public facing activity around World Cancer Day in February 2022.
We focused on the importance of our community across broadcast media from the BBC to Metro, gaining significant national coverage. Our internal communications and social media activity also gained momentum as we began to amplify the lived experience of our community members and champions for Black History Month, World Mental Health Day, and Pride Month. We centralised ourselves in public conversations within the cancer sector when it comes to equality and contributed to a proposal for a new European Cancer Survivor Network which is now being funded by the European Commission.
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ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022 5. ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE 22 alike.
ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022
This year has been focused on building the Alike app user base through effective communications, PR and strategic partnerships. It has also been about growing our income and looking to the future to help us to support more cancer patients and survivors to find vital peer support.
This section of the report outlines the achievements and performance of the organisation with this crucial goal in mind.
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5.1 Achievements
Over the financial year of 21/22 we have increased our income by 67%. As a small team working remotely and the pressures seen within the charity sector moving out of the pandemic and global lockdowns, this is a significant achievement worth celebrating. However, this is not our only achievement. The major achievement for Alike at this time has been the effective launch and scaling up of the Alike app and of both native iOS and Android platforms. The success of the launch and user growth within our app has been the result of our significant PR and communications efforts, as well as our successful partnership acquisition with charities such as Teenage Cancer Trust and Young Lives Vs Cancer. We cannot achieve our mission of providing digital peer support to everyone impacted by cancer without building our community on the platform that makes this possible. As a small team, working to strict not-for-profit regulations and with limited income, launching a new bespoke and native platform pairing for the Alike app, and building our community of cancer patients and survivors over this year is an incredible achievement.
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5.2 Performance
Alike’s performance this year has exceeded expectations. A headline of our performance success has been our significant income growth of 67% on the previous financial year. This was due to our effective development in the relationship management of our current major donor base, as well as utilising match funding opportunities. Although on reflection, our network of donors remained small and within the next financial year it is a priority for us to expand this pool of donors and build more relationships to aid sustainability, as well as diversifying our income streams through the utilisation of grants and trust-based funding.
Over this period, we began to develop as a team. We have refined our understanding of our primary offering and our position in the sector. We are already beginning to see a clear vision for our brand and potential leads for partnership agreements with other organisations offering support for
cancer patients and survivors in the UK. This year we have also established appropriate governance, management, and administrative structures. This has allowed us to streamline our work and perform with full confidence in our compliance with regulations.
By the end of the year, through the launch of both iOS and Android platforms, we developed a high-level of internal expertise on our product, including wider app development theory and strategy for the future. This included an understanding of native vs react native app development, back end infrastructure, creating a realistic but effective roadmap for our feature development, as well as budgeting to continue to move the platform forward in the way that our community needs.
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In line with such success and confidence in our key offering and the functionality and design of our product, it is vital that we also reflect on areas in which our performance did not excel. Although we adopted strategic oversight, it did not operate in a way that allowed us to utilise the platform to gather insights and data, particularly related to its initial impact. This directly correlates to our limited focus on grants, where funders require significant demonstration of quantitative impact. Despite Alike’s expertise in amplifying the voices of our community through qualitative case studies and testimonies, it is a priority within the next financial year for us to invest more time and expertise into the use of the app for ethical data collection to measure our impact, both to support the development of the platform, as well as to demonstrate to funders the effectiveness of Alike to reduce loneliness and isolation in cancer patients and survivors. move the platform forward in the way that our community needs.
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ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022 6. YEAR IN REVIEW: 2021 2022 27 alike.
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Within this financial year, it was key for us to focus on increasing our fundraising activity to support further development of our MVP and financial sustainability for Alike. At the beginning of April 2021, we had around £11,500 remaining in funding, which was significantly boosted in the first part of 2021 through £40,000 of unrestricted funding from The Boltini Trust and one of our major individual donors, Charles Wilson. This laid the foundations for scale up funding from such principal donors, and successful funding applications from The People’s Postcode Lottery and National Lottery Awards for All. By March 2022, we had fundraised a total of £90,000.
Central to our development as an organisation in 21/22 was the clear refinement and purpose of our brand as a whole, which was accelerated by our internal and external communications, social media and PR activity. An extension of our brand and values was also solidified by our new partnerships, and we began to better understand the public and third sector perceptions of Alike and our app as we entered the sector.
As well as building and gaining confidence in our public facing image, brand and product, we took significant steps to build our internal procedures, systems and processes. As part of our partnership with the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, Alike undertook an Organisational Assessment Review in January 2022. This review covered areas including governance, leadership, risk management, safeguarding and strategy. This further supported how we continue to conduct developments in this area, such as consistent reviews of our comprehensive data protection policy in partnership with GSC Solicitors, and our safeguarding procedures and policies supported by expertise from our partners at Young Lives Vs Cancer. Not only does this activity allow us to support and protect our community, and operate effective internal systems and governance, it also ensures we continue to build credibility as an organisation still in its infancy.
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Despite our success, it was clear by the end of the year that we needed some additional internal support to help us meet our delivery targets and scale Alike and our platform. Our existing team was being impacted by the increase in workload and the demand our platform was creating within the sector. It was a priority for Alike for this to be rectified and to build internal capacity to prevent burnout. This opened up discussions with our principal donors to fund an Operations Manager. Not only will this role increase capacity, but we envisage this employee will support fundraising and income diversification activity, as well as day-to-day financial management and partnership acquisition, amongst other vital roles for Alike. As of October 2022, we now have an inhouse full time Operations Manager with significant experience in organisational management, partnership building and income generation.
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ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022 7. OPERATING MODEL AND RISKS 30 alike.
ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022
7.1 Operating Model
We function as a not-for-profit because we are philosophically and ethically opposed to profiting from trauma. We know, as cancer survivors and from our research, that cancer survivors are hesitant to trust for-profit entities. Alike as an organisation simply would not fulfil its mission in any other model than as a charity.
As an organisation dedicated to utilising technology to create positive change, we prioritise new and agile ways of working. We engage digital natives who implicitly understand the offering of a mobile app, and our team currently operates on a freelance and volunteer basis. Our team works remotely across Europe, which is reflective of the diverse methods of engagement for modern workers. This current form of engagement is the best financial decision for the organisation’s sustainability, while we seek funding to level up to contracted employment.
Through the launch and scale of our primary offering allowed us to become more confident in our brand differentiation and more specifically, how we talk about ourselves and how we talk and listen to our community. While building partnerships within the sector supported our vision for our unique approach to utilising digital technologies to improve the wellbeing of cancer patients and survivors, and understanding how we fit into a space not occupied by others.
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7.2 Risks
The most significant risk we have faced this year is the threat to our financial security due to the economic situation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fundraising remains challenging in such a landscape, particularly when it comes to sourcing grants in such a competitive area. We continued to utilise our charitable status to diversify our funding streams and to reduce over reliance on particular funders and income streams. Operating as a new charity even before the pandemic has a large degree of uncertainty, and this was exacerbated over the last 12 months. However, despite the uncertainty, we still believe that functioning as a not-for-profit providing a platform for cancer patients makes the best sense for us as an organisation based in the UK. Cancer patients can be rightfully sceptical when it comes to new offerings, and our status as a registered charity continues to provide us with credibility.
We managed our finances with a pragmatic mindset. Our overall financial position is reviewed on an almost weekly basis, and is reviewed in detail by the board. We also draw upon expert financial and organisational advice from senior business leaders who act as a ‘sounding board’ on our strategic thinking and financial decisions.
Another significant risk is the potential over-reliance on volunteer and ad-hoc support, which is not sustainable. Particularly as within 21/22, those who previously were not working, or working reduced hours, now have increased workloads and reduced capacity for freelance and voluntary engagement after returning to work. We endeavoured to continue to utlise volunteer and pro-bono support where appropriate to also reduce cost outputs during this financial year, but have also recognised the need for us to also capitalise on freelance support to provide sustainability for our ways of working.
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Previously, we have operated with an over-reliance on volunteer hours, particularly when it comes to app development and communications, which can pose risks of stagnation in the performance of Alike as an organisation and our app, and could lead to us failing to meet key KPIs and as a result, our mission to combat loneliness and isolation amongst people with cancer. We began to move away from this model in particular areas within this financial year to ensure reliable progress within Alike, which was solidified by the appointment of a full time Operations Manager in October 2022.
Additionally, as our key organisational offering, our app as a product also poses complex risks to Alike as an organisation. Within this financial year, we have mitigated risks such as bugs, crashes and a stagnation in the development of features by prioritising a focus on fundraising to ensure we can provide adequate funding to these key areas and to continue to develop our MVP.
Although we understand that in the longer-term, in-house support for app development will further reduce the risk of the app being unable to perform, and allow us to react to bugs and crashes with immediate effect to reduce the impact on user experience.
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8.
- STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE, MANAGEMENT AND DECISION MAKING
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8.1 Team Structure
As a result of our start-up status, Alike’s core team is made up of full time and freelance staff, as well as volunteers. The team is managed by Alike’s Founder and Director, Brad. In addition to Brad, there is Max, Naomi, Katherine, and Andrea.
Max Kramer is our Engineering Lead. He is incredibly experienced in software engineering, with over 10 years experience developing native mobile apps for startups, and has experience in the role of CTO for various companies. Max provided his time, expertise, and talent during the COVID-19 pandemic to develop Alike’s native iOS App and backend infrastructure. Earlier this year, Max became a paid freelance member of the team. Developing our Android platform is Thiago Saravia, a senior Android engineer, and his partner Marcela, an experienced Android engineer.
Similarly to Max, Naomi Rhodes has joined the team as Alike’s Finance Lead on a pro-bono basis driven by her affinity with Alike’s mission. She is a qualified CIMA accountant and currently a finance manager for Tesco PLC. Naomi has generously provided her time and expertise to lead on the curation of the Alike business model, long-term financial forecasts and supports the process of submitting Alike’s annual accounts.
The Alike brand has been solidified by two cancer survivors who passionately believe in our ethos. Katherine Mills Alike’s Communications Lead. She is an English Literature and Creative Writing graduate who lives with incurable cancer.
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The visual style of Alike has been thanks to Alike’s Creative Lead Andrea Ruano, a Spanish artist and graphic designer who has also worked with international cancer advocate group Youth Cancer Europe. Together, Andrea and Katherine have created Alike’s visual and tonal signature to be something that is credible, welcoming, lively and distinctive.
This financial period has involved a significant amount of volunteer engagement. Without the support and contributions of our incredible volunteers, it would not have been possible to have developed this rapidly, especially during a global pandemic. Whilst it is difficult to truly quantify the impact our team of volunteers, especially the software engineers, have had on our organisation we believe working with talent on a pro-bono basis or on a generously reduced rate has saved us approximately £120,000 at least in development costs alone.
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8.2 Board Structure
The Alike Board of Trustees currently consists of five members. Whilst trustee recruitment is conducted through an established process, there are no constitutional provisions in place for trustee selection. Trustee recruitment is conducted through face to face interviews with suitable candidates filling knowledge gaps currently on the board. Positions on the board are appointed by initial nomination, which has to be subsequently ‘seconded’ by another member of the board, with remaining trustees then voting for the specific candidate.
agency Kin + Carta, and Stephanie Radziwillowicz, Alike’s Secretary, who has a Masters in Clinical Psychology and whose thesis explored how vulnerable people use technology for support. We have a board member with lived experience of cancer: Rachel Blackford, who is now a research and evaluation officer at Oxford Brookes University. We are also fortunate to have Leanne Pero on our Board too. Leanne is a multiple award winning entrepreneur, breast cancer survivor, and founder of Black Women Rising.
The Chair of our Board is Dr James Parker who gained his PhD in oncological research and currently works for Sanofi. Accompanying him on the board is Rachel Priest, Alike’s Treasurer and Client Services Lead at app development
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Alike is evidence of the value of lived experience leadership. Drawing from lived experiences within the cancer community provides us with direction and validation. However, prioritising lived experience can also come with challenges. We are proud of the lived experience on our Board of Trustees, but last year we faced the death of one of our Trustees. Saima Thompson, was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in 2018. She served as Trustee of Alike from February 2020 to June 2020. She brought her entrepreneurial spirit, forward thinking ideas, and positivity to the Board. After two years of multiple treatments, she sadly passed away in June 2020. Following her death, Saima was made an honorary patron of Alike, and we will continue to celebrate her life and her contribution to the cancer community.
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8.3 Governance
Alike is established as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, and governed by our constitution.
Whilst Alike is still in its infancy, we are committed to effective governance and sound oversight. The Alike board of trustees exercise governance according to guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission of England and Wales, as well as charity sector best practice. We continue to learn from other organisations of various sizes and purposes. We are still finding our unique style of governance, each meeting we encourage board members and leadership to pose new ideas for better and more effective oversight. We are constantly exploring new ways of allowing Alike’s management to be agile, and not stifle progress due to bureaucracy, however we are cognisant of our statutory responsibility to ensure Alike is being run in the best way possible.
The board meets quarterly. Alike’s Annual General Meeting is held every April to mark the start of Alike’s Financial Year. Each meeting is recorded, with statements, decisions and votes minuted. A quorum is declared present, then members are invited to declare conflicts of interests at the start of each meeting, as well as confirm the minutes of the previous meeting, as per best practice. Each meeting involves a quarterly progress report from the Director and Finance Lead. Outside of board meetings, our Director has monthly checkins with the chair, and monthly finance updates are provided to the treasurer of the board.
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ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022
8.4 Management and Decision Making
experience of a cancer diagnosis. This means that our work intrinsically reflects the needs of the UK cancer community, including family, friends and healthcare professionals.
As Founder and Principal Director, Brad manages the overall organisational and strategic direction with support from the Finance, Engineering, Communications, and Creative Leads. As a smaller organisation our financial and strategic decisions revolve around delivering on the work we were set up to do. From a strategic perspective, if we do not deliver impact, we cannot meet our ambitious fundraising potential.
We utilise our platform and community rapport by consistently reaching out to users, inviting feedback, and offering engagement opportunities. The feedback we have received thus far, and that in the future, directly shapes our product roadmap. Going forward, we plan to expand on current methods of user feedback, making this process simple, accessible and intuitive through the app.
Due to the nature of our mission, and our primary product, community participation is essential to ensuring we deliver effective and meaningful impact. Alike has been built through the values of lived experience. We are for the community, by the community, therefore patient and public engagement is at the core of all of our decision-making. Over half of Alike’s leadership, including the Board of Trustees, have direct, lived
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ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022 10.FINANCIAL REVIEW 41 alike.
ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022
10.1 End of Year Cash Position
For the year ended 31 March 2022 Alike had total receipts of £90,334 and made payments of £82,087, contributing £8,247 to unrestricted cash funds. This gives a total of £19,751 when added to the cash held at the start of the year, putting us in a beneficial position for 22/23. We finished the year with available cash above that required under our reserves policy, and confidence over our future income streams.
10.2 Reserves Policy
Following discussions and reflection on Charity Commission guidance regarding charitable reserves, we deemed £19,000 (or around 4 months routine unrestricted expenditure) to be the correct reserves amount for Alike. Our consistent monthly overheads total around £4,750. We wanted to be safe and sensible, whilst also freeing up as much of our charitable funds as possible for app development and charitable activity.
Cash reserves as at 31 March 2022 were £19,751, which is in-line with the reserves desired under the policy. This amount is subject to review either annually or as Alike’s income and commitments grow. The last review of our Reserves Policy was April 2021. Currently, Alike’s source of income is through donations from major net worth individuals, and foundation grants. Our primary goal in our next financial year is to expand our fundraising efforts and continue diversifying our income streams.
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ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022 13.INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS REPORT 43 alike.
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF ALIKE CHARITABLE INCORPERATED ORGANISATION
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Alike Charitable Incorporated Organisation (‘the CIO’) for the year ended 31 March 2022 as set out on pages 46 and 47.
Responsibilities and basis of the report
As the charity trustees of Alike CIO 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 CIO’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 examiner’s statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination that give me cause to believe that in any material respect:
-
accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity 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.
Caroline Sharp
Signed:
FCA, DChA
55 Canberra Road
London, SE7 8PF
Date: 27.01.2023
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FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS 14.FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS alike. 45
RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNTS For the year 01-Apr-21 to 31-Mar-22
Alike
Charity Registration: 1181848 Company Number: CE016385
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SECTION A RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Total funds Last year
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Boltini Trust 20,000 - 20,000 -
Charles Wilson 20,000 - 20,000 29,000
Zurich Foundation 15,000 - 15,000 -
- -
People’s Postcode Lottery 12,500 12,500
- -
National Lottery (Awards for All) 9,600 9,600
Niamh Lawlor - - - 8,000
- - -
Queens Commonwealth Trust 5,000
Other 6,735 - 6,735 3,441
Gift Aid 6,499 - 6,499 8,500
Sub total (Gross income for AR) 68,234 22,100 90,334 53,941
A2 Asset and investment sales
Sub total - - - -
Total receipts 68,234 22,100 90,334 53,941
A3 Payments
-
Service development 19,036 19,036 28,016
-
Marketing and communications 9,467 9,467 11,828
Raising funds 685 - 685 -
Staff and contractor costs 7,680 22,100 29,780 10,381
-
Legal and professional 9,432 9,432 8,590
- -
Independent examination 2,343 2,343
- - -
Computer and IT costs 2,399
Software costs 5,016 - 5,016 1,145
-
Office costs 1,109 1,109 1,025
Client entertainment 2,752 - 2,752 65
-
Subscriptions 1,853 1,853 1,507
Travel 175 - 175 336
Staff training 121 - 121 250
Expense claims 100 - 100 -
Subsistence 98 - 98 7
Printing, postage and stationary 35 - 35 30
Sundry 85 - - 982
Sub total 59,987 22,100 82,087 66,561
A4 Asset and investment purchases
Sub total - - - -
Total payments 59,987 22,100 82,087 66,561
Net of receipts (payments) 8,247 - 8,247 12,620
A5 Transfers between funds - - - -
-
A6 Cash funds last year end 11,504 11,504 24,124
-
Cash funds this year end 19,751 19,751 11,504
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RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNTS For the year 01-Apr-21 to 31-Mar-22
Alike
Charity Registration: 1181848 Company Number: CE016385
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SECTION B STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES AT THE END OF THE PERIOD
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds
Categories Details to the nearest £ to the nearest £
B1 Cash funds Cash funds as at 31 March 2022 19,751 -
Total cash funds 19,751 -
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds
Details to the nearest £ to the nearest £
- -
B2 Other monetary assets
Details Fund to which asset belongs Cost (Optional)
B3 Investment assets - -
Details Fund to which asset belongs Cost (Optional)
- -
B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use
Details Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional)
B5 Liabilities -
CIO Notes required under the Charitable Incorporated Organisations (General) Regulations 2012:
1. No guarantees were given by the CIO where potential liability under the guarantee is outstanding at the date of the statement
2. There were no debts outstanding at the date of the statement which are owed by the CIO and secured by an express charge on ay assets of the CIO
Signaed by one or two trustees on behalf of all
Signature Print Name Date of approval
the trustees
James Parker - Chair 27.01.2023
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ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022 10.ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS 48 alike.
ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022
----- Start of picture text -----
Charity Name Alike
Registered Charity Number 1181848
Company Number CE016385
Charity’s Principle Address Soho Works, 180 The Strand, London. WC2R 1EA.
Trustee Names Dates of Term
Office
Dr. James Parker Chair 04.02.2019
Rachel Priest Treasurer 04.02.2019
Stephanie
Secretary 04.02.2019
Radziwillowicz
Rachel Blackford Trustee 04.02.2019
Leanne Pero Trustee 08.09.2020
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ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022 11. CLOSING STATEMENTS AND APPROVAL 50 alike.
ALIKE TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2022
The Alike Trustees declare that they have approved the 2021 / 2022 Annual Report and Accounts presented above.
SIGNED ON BEHALF OF THE TRUSTEES:
NAME: Dr. James Parker, Chair of Trustees.
DATE: 27.01.2023
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